lower than low a?

[saxophonist]

I've been playing bari for a couple weeks, and have been hitting the low a with a good success rate. But I was wondering...is this the lowest that it will go?

[melvyng]

A friend of mine has played in a big band in Germany with Howard Johnson on baritone sax. He says that Howard can lip it down to low G.
Amazing. :shock:

Mel

[dingfelder]

howard johnson makes good eggs and bacon :)

[Morry]

Way to go HoJo! :-)

[wthalliii]

This thread: http://saxontheweb.myforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=8245 talks about a low A extension tube for a low Bb bari, and someone claims to have put one on a low A bari to get Ab.

[max]

Start saving your pennies - sounds like you might want a bass... :wink:

[JfW]

howard johnson makes good eggs and bacon :)

He was a pretty good hitter in his day as well.

[saxophonist]

thanks for the input, guys

[ATcaveman]

I haven't tried it, but one of the bari players at our school can drop his jaw and "knee it down" (tilt the sax so his knee covers up the bell). On our YBS-62, he's gotten down to an F#!! :shock:

[dolphyo]

hey melvyng, i have seen howard johnson many times in jazz and commercial gigs and the man is a phenominal musical freak. and i mean this in a positive good spirited way. he plays the baritone sax plus his main axe seems to be the tuba in several flavors;CC,BBb,F,ETC..... I'VE SEEN HIM also on trumpet,flugelhorn,euphonium,bass clarinet;AMAZING ON THAT,contra bass clarinet, penny whistle, and any other brass and reed he so chooses. a freak i tell ya! so if he can lip the baritone sax to a low G its because he can hear it and his tuba chops!!!!!!!!!

[Randall]

I think our dear Paul Coats is the guy who made that little PVC pipe bari extension gizmo mentioned above....and by all accounts it works great.

I want one for my tenor for all those scoring idiots that put low A's on tenor music. :roll:

You doing orders Paul!?
I'm serious!

[Phat Pat]

if you just want to have some fun with going lower, and are not concerend with tone too much, play low a, then move the bell toward some object until its almost covering the bell, the pitch will drop considerably, but it wont have a good tone to it (after all something is almost covering the only escape for air)

[geo@loyola.edu]

As a follow-up to Randall's post, yes, the PVC pipe works exactly as Paul Coats describes.

Yesterday I went to the hardware store and spent $7.43 on two six-inch sections of 4-inch diameter PVC pipe (the shortest length they'd sell me was a foot, so I took two); 17 feet of adhesive, quarter-inch weather stripping; and a can of metallic gold spray enamel.

I finally did this because I wanted to use a 12M to play the "Guys and Dolls" reed 5 book, which has one low A.

It works perfectly.

[SaxPlayer1004]

i heard of this guy Christian Baader from who plays in a swiss jazz band and has a bass sax custom down to low Gb with working key system. took a keilworth and lopped off the bell, took a metal tube and welded it on, and made a key system. if you have any skilled inovative repairmen out there who want to try it on a bari go for it. tell me if you get it though.
Tom

[tapdancesavy]

Not only could you go down to a bass, but you can play a contrabass saxophone, or a subcontra bass. There are only about 5 subcontrabass saxophones in the world, but if you want to hear one look up Jay Easton. He's a saxophone player at the UW who specializes in extremely low, and high saxophones. I personally prefer the low. The only problem with the extremely low saxophones, besides that they can be over 6 feet high, is the price. Oh well, we all can dream...

[longknowsboy]

Don't laugh...this works.

Take off one of your shoes, and stick it in, toe first, into your low-A bari (not really far in, just a little bit).

Take out your tuner.

Play a low A.

It will read as a C on the tuner, which means you are playing a low G.

[wthalliii]

Don't laugh...this works.

Take off one of your shoes, and stick it in, toe first, into your low-A bari (not really far in, just a little bit).

Take out your tuner.

Play a low A.

It will read as a C on the tuner, which means you are playing a low G.

Wrong. If the tuner reads C, you're playing a low A, not a low G. If you play a G (any G) on an Eb instrument, it's a Bb concert. So, if you are truly able to play a low G by inserting a shoe, or by whatever method, it will read Bb on the tuner.

[EZ]

I am wondering about this comment. Now, I can see putting my alto or tenor bell into my knee to drop it, but my Yani Low A bell is so high on the horn, you'd have to be a contortionist to pull off putting the bell to your knee - not to mention the completely impractical playing position.

Either my Yani bell is higher relative to other makes of Low A bari, or the suggestion was put forth by someone who's never done it or doesn't know what they are talking about.

[tensopbass]

simple. find an obliging person and use their butt!If you try that with a bass, you need someone of about 200 lbs!
nicko

[tensopbass]

Now will somebody tell me how to do it with a curved soprano!!

[Russty1]

You can use somthing to cover the bell a little bit but not all the way to get to Ab and then lip down to G or maybe even Gb(F#)

[AbrahamFackle]

I made an extention for my baritone with a 64-oz mountain dew cup. I used it to honk a low G at the end of "tenor madness" at a show. It sounds just fine. There's no change in tone from the normal low a at all.

[Scott Tringali]

I made an extention for my baritone with a 64-oz mountain dew cup.

Oh, man I have to try this! Thanks for the tip.

[AbrahamFackle]

Instructions for Low G extension for baritone sax:

Tools:
1 64 oz. plastic fountain drink cup
1 44 oz. cardboard fountain drink cup
(that's 108 oz of soda.. hope you're thirsty)
duct tape and scissors

instructoions: tape the open ends of both cups together. remove the bottoms of the cups. wrap the cardboard cup in duct tape as a "cork" to hold the extension securely in place.

this also makes a low G on tenor, but it sounds funny.

[bariman]

Here's a picture of the bass saxplayer1004 was talking about.

http://lachesis.caltech.edu/jayeaston/galleries/sax_family/bass_page/bass_sax_p_frankenbass.html

It's from Jay's sight, his bass sax page.

Bariman

[triplebsaxman]

when your playing the low A put a Book over the bell and it will act like a mute. When you do this the pitch will fall down to a Ab. On Alto to get a Low A you simply put it on your knee but on a Bari that is kind of hard

[VeryBari]

My older brother introduced the 'foot' technique to my high school jazz band in order to play low A on the Bb bari we had to work with. The director gave him some major flak the first time he saw it, but then we ran through Caravan without having to play the bass line up an octave. That clinched it. With practice, the intonation can be very consistent. I've been playing the 'footnotes' ever since. It works ok taking a low A down to Ab or even G, but you do run the risk of falling over injuring yourself

[rebellion117]

I have a mute that I made for my low A bari out of a steel can about 4 inches across and an inch or so deep. I took two (clean) socks and wrapped them around the can so that it fits in my bell. When I stick it in sideways , allowing air to get out, I can play a low G. It's really soft and doesn't sound that good (and I don't have my low A anymore), but it's in tune. It's a heck of a struggle to play, but on a good day I can get it out.

By the way, in case anyone was wondering, the can works really well as a mute. With the open end of the can facing out, it takes out the high overtones, smoothing and slightly darkening the sound. With the open end of the can facing inward, it makes the horn buzz like crazy, while still keeping a dark tone. Sideways, it can go all the way down to low Bb, but not as much of the overtones are taken out.

[VeryBari]

I needed to play the main theme from Star Wars in my last community band concert... you know the part: 16 measures of nothing but low A on the root (with the tuba) of that fat chord. I knew the foot was not going to work for that much sustained playing, particularly not for playing in tune. I went to my local hardware and scored an 8-inch length of 4-inch [B]thin wall[B] PVC for all of 89 cents. (I tried the regular thick wall schedule 40 sewer pipe before this, but it was too big to even fit into the bell of my Noblet baritone.) Two wraps of electrical tape around the outside for grip, and it stays put. Low A comes out better than I ever had it before, even on bari's with the note built in!!
The tuba and I were tuning the pitch before dress rehearsal, and the contrabass clarinet player said it sounded like the Boblo Boat coming in to dock backstage. I think he's just jealous, myself...

the Force is strong with this one

[SOTSDO]

In the musical Wonderful Town, there is one two note passage that was written for the baritone that would sound low Ab. I've never seen a horn with the capability, but as other have posted there are such beasts in the world. I would imagine that such instruments are not used as the basis for orchestration texts, however.

These sort of things are usually copyist errors, and not the intent of the composer.

However, in Gypsy, there is a low A written for tenor sax in Book 3 or 4, a note that few tenors have ever been built to play. That it is not an error is indicated by the octave written on the same stem, with parentheses around some.