Hi,
I play alto sax, returning after about 60 years. This question never bothered me before because I didn't think about it. But now I've been reading on SOTW about my sax is tuned to A=440.
My sax does not produce a frequency of 440 when playing A. It produces 440 when fingering F#. I am checking it on an oscilloscope, and against the tuning fork found on musiclessons.com.
In Larry Teal's book, Page 62 chart, he indicates the tuning note for an alto sax is F#, is this supposed to mean finger F# and tune to 440 cycles? But on the next page he talks about positioning the mouthpiece on the neck so A=440. I don't think I could ever get my mouthpiece located to produce 440 cycles with A fingering.
Could somebody please explain what the A=440 tuning on an alto sax means, and should I tune my mouthpiece location to equal 440 cycle while fingering F#? Is all this difference due to it being an Eb instrument while a piano with it's A=440 is a C instrument?
BTW, my mouthpiece alone produces about 880 cycles, which is an A5. Is that correct?
I don't want to get into advanced music theory, just want to know what all this means.
Thanks for any help.
George
I play alto sax, returning after about 60 years. This question never bothered me before because I didn't think about it. But now I've been reading on SOTW about my sax is tuned to A=440.
My sax does not produce a frequency of 440 when playing A. It produces 440 when fingering F#. I am checking it on an oscilloscope, and against the tuning fork found on musiclessons.com.
In Larry Teal's book, Page 62 chart, he indicates the tuning note for an alto sax is F#, is this supposed to mean finger F# and tune to 440 cycles? But on the next page he talks about positioning the mouthpiece on the neck so A=440. I don't think I could ever get my mouthpiece located to produce 440 cycles with A fingering.
Could somebody please explain what the A=440 tuning on an alto sax means, and should I tune my mouthpiece location to equal 440 cycle while fingering F#? Is all this difference due to it being an Eb instrument while a piano with it's A=440 is a C instrument?
BTW, my mouthpiece alone produces about 880 cycles, which is an A5. Is that correct?
I don't want to get into advanced music theory, just want to know what all this means.
Thanks for any help.
George