Bari is sharp in the upper register

[Triguymy]

Here is an interesting question - I have a socket neck king zephyr that plays sharp in the upper register - I am using a c*clone mpc - any suggestions?
Thanks triguymy@yahoo.com

[CrazyMusician]

Often problems like this can be related to the tension in your throat, the placement of the toungue or the placement of your vocal chords. Before putting any money into changing your set-up make sure that everything about you personally is set up to work right :D

[hgrail]

Not sure how long you have been playing. #1 see if you can correct the problem without changing any equipment.

If that doesn't help try some different mouthpieces with varying chamber sizes. Some older horns require a larger chamber than most modern mouthpieces have.

I'm not sure what notes you're having problems with - knowing that would help too.

[Triguymy]

I am sharp in the entire left hand area - the lower stack seems fine in the upper octave.

[MojoBari]

First, make sure your embouchure support is correct by doing the mouthpiece pitch alone check. If you are not familiar with this, search for Paul Coats' articles on saxgourmet.com. Re-tune using the correct embouchure support. Make sure you are not changing your embouchure much across the range of the sax.

After that, a smaller chamber MP would help. This change would first make the entire sax sharp if you put the smaller chamber MP to the same spot on the neck cork. So you need to pull it out some to tune the mid-range of the sax. This act will flatten the short length notes (plam keys etc) more than the long length notes. It is a percentage-of-the-length relationship.

You can experiment by putting some temporary putty in your C*. Use poster-hanging putty, dental wax, Play-Doh, Siilly putty, etc. Take a marble-sized wad and press it in the chamber opposite the base of the window "U". The farther you can keep it away from the tip of the mouthpiece, the less it will change the basic tone of the mouthpiece. (If you want a brighter sound, you can make a baffle out of it across from the reed. You just need to have an idea of what is used in other mouthpiece designs and copy what works.)

[Sadie]

I have the same problem. I was really worried that my horn might just be sharp on those notes, but my teacher got them perfectly in tune, so it's just me. That made me feel a million times better (despite the fact that I'm the cause of the problem) because at least that's fixable. He told me to work on overtones a lot more and relax my embouchure a little because I tend to tighten it up a lot when I go into the higher register. Maybe try altering your embouchure position while playing a little and see what works. It's really hard to get those notes consistently in tune, especially on bari.

-Sadie

[Brendan Muse]

I found during marching season that, under the right circumstances, if you push your mouthpiece on too far to get the low G in tune, the high G is crazily sharp. Try pulling out until they're both in tune.

Otherwise, there might be a tiny leak somewhere, or your octave pip isn't quite right.

[AhCheung]

I second the opinion that your embouchure is too tight if you are already sharp from middle G up => relax, Max.

[Zoot Horn]

It's probably not your horn. Vintage horns do have intonation problems, but maybe just with a couple of notes. If the whole upper register is out of tune, you probably ought not blame the horn.

[Bar-Ron]

Same opinion, relax on the upper notes , don't try to squeeze them out. Keep your throat open and keep enough mouthpiece in your mouth.

Some people don't use enough mouthpiece and thus can't affect the tone or pitch well as they are toying with little but the tip of the reed.

Sounds a bit like embouchure and placement issues if an entire section of the sax is out, or the mouthpiece chamber doesn't suit the horn well.

I have found with Martins they enjoy a larger chamber mpcs.
Maybe that is true of yours, but I would first work with your Throat and voicing first.