[raymond chan]

Hi guys.
I am not able to reach low A as required by the sheet music. It seems the person who wrote the music could go lower than low b-flat. Thks.
The webpage:

 

[Nathan Bellott]

that's going to be impossible unless you are able to do the old "knee in bell trick" and hold it for 6 beats. I'd consider taking that section up an octave, it's a bit low for alto as it is.

the trick I mentioned is fingering a low Bb and moving your left knee to cover the bell combined with lipping the pitch down.. not really an ideal situation for you though.

 

[Canadiain]

5 choices:
1. Transpose it up into the regular playing range
2. Buy a Selmer MkVI alto with the low A option
3. Do the knee in the bell trick mentioned above,
4. Make a cardboard bell tube extension and play the A as a low Bb or stuff a soft toy down the bell. This really only works if there are no low Bbs you need to hit. I did this once on tenor to play one single Low A on a transposition of the Bari part of "You're a mean one Mr Grinch", using a rolled up file folder, which had the added bonus that the airflow from hitting the A blew it out of the horn so I was good to just carry on without missing a beat after that.
5. Play it on Bari instead.

#1 probably the simplest option.

Heres a version in D / Concert F. You can add your own augmentations and embellishments to tart it up like the Y-T version.
https://www.christmasmusicsongs.com/PDFsilentnight/silent-night-alto-saxophone.pdf

 

[Dr G]

Bottom line: That music was not correctly written for alto sax.

 

[milandro]

well there is a solution, buy an alto with a low A

There are apparently 2 Selmer and Couesnon , another possibility is to have someone next to you to half cover the Bell ( unless you can do the knee in the bell but I have donbe that on a tenor but an alto would require very long lengs)

 

[hakukani]

Play the whole thing up an octave.

 

[saxoclese]

Or you could go an octave higher on just the notes C# E D C# A at the end of the phrase. Taking the entire song up an octave gives you several high A's and C#'s which can be a bit of a challenge intonation wise unless you are an experienced player.

 

[lydian]

If you're playing unaccompanied, just download the tenor pdf and play that on your alto. Doesn't matter that it's in a different key if you're playing solo. If you do want to play with a piano, any pianist should be able to play Silent Night in any key.

 

[mmichel]

Baptiste Herbin shows you how (at 3:03 in the video below):

 

[ZootTheSim]

The knee trick does work, though it's awkward. IIR someone invented a contraption you could add to a horn to partially cover the bell when a special key was pressed. Not sure if it worked well, or ever went into mass-production.

 

[soybean]

I would be very interested to find more about this Zoot. Especially if there are photos.

 

[raymond chan]

Thanks guys. I’ll try the knee trick again. Hope I don’t twist my back.

 

[lydian]

So of all the reasonable solutions offered here, you're going with sticking your leg in the bell as you honk out what's supposed to be the softest note of the tune. What is really the goal here? If you want to learn this tune, just learn it in a reasonable key. If the next tune you find on youtube is written for bass trombone, are you going to go buy a bunch of PVC pipe and learn bass clef? Singers sing tunes in keys that are in their range so that they don't sound terrible. It's ok for instrumentalists to do the same.

I'm all for you learning this trick for the sake of having a new tool in your arsenal. But it's not a practical approach to learning or performing tunes.

 

[Alain Gen]

Indeed (of course) the written part is not what's played by the saxophonist -you have to download the part for alto saxophone and you will see it's not what's written (*).

Strangely, the written note for the alto sax would be a minor third (3 semi-tones) higher than what we can read. For example, instead of a E (as is written) the alto sax part begins with a G (so, the low A is indeed a low C). The written part appearing in the youtube video is not in concert key; it would be for an (imaginary!) transposing instrument in the key of F# (*** ?). If you can read bass clef, you can use the written part of the video but read it in bass clef -and ignore the three sharps in the signature.

(*) I've not done it but I'm quite sure. Being an alto saxophonist I tend to "hear in Eb". Moreover, the break between the two registers (the change of sonority from C# to D) is at A# to B for the written part appearing in the video.

 

[ZootTheSim]

I would be very interested to find more about this Zoot. Especially if there are photos.

Can't find the thread again, soybean, so maybe I imagined it, or it was on one of those "features you'd like to see" threads. But I seem to recall that someone actually built a kind of hinged partial bell cover contraption with a cable attached to an actuator.

 

[Grumps]

IIR someone invented a contraption you could add to a horn to partially cover the bell when a special key was pressed. Not sure if it worked well, or ever went into mass-production.

Folks do this on bari with a foot long piece of (I think) 6" pvc pipe. You just stick it in the bell and when you finger low Bb, you get low A. You could make one for alto with a thinner tube, but you'd lose your Bb when using it.

 

[lydian]

Indeed (of course) the written part is not what's played by the saxophonist -you have to download the part for alto saxophone and you will see it's not what's written (*).

Strangely, the written note for the alto sax would be a minor third (3 semi-tones) higher than what we can read. For example, instead of a E (as is written) the alto sax part begins with a G (so, the low A is indeed a low C). The written part appearing in the youtube video is not in concert key; it would be for an (imaginary!) transposing instrument in the key of F# (*** ?). If you can read bass clef, you can use the written part of the video but read it in bass clef -and ignore the three sharps in the signature.

(*) I've not done it but I'm quite sure. Being an alto saxophonist I tend to "hear in Eb". Moreover, the break between the two registers (the change of sonority from C# to D) is at A# to B for the written part appearing in the video.

Earlier in the thread it was determined that the recording is played on a tenor. The person who uploaded the video posted a pdf transposed for tenor and another transposed for alto, which of course falls outside the alto's range. He has 4 options - play as written using extra limbs, play some or all up an octave, play a different instrument or play in a different key. He has chosen the first option.

I'm looking forward to seeing the final video this Christmas. Maybe he could work in some choreography with the low A leg moves, like the Rockettes.

 

[lydian]

Folks do this on bari with a foot long piece of (I think) 6" pvc pipe. You just stick it in the bell and when you finger low Bb, you get low A. You could make one for alto with a thinner tube, but you'd lose your Bb when using it.

I made one out of an old soft drink bottle. Much lighter than PVC and easier to cut. I'm thinking a 1 liter soft drink/water bottle would do the trick on alto. I super glued weather stripping to the edge for an air-tight, non-scratch fit.

 

[Dr G]

Earlier in the thread it was determined that the recording is played on a tenor. The person who uploaded the video posted a pdf transposed for tenor and another transposed for alto, which of course falls outside the alto's range. He has 4 options - play as written using extra limbs, play some or all up an octave, play a different instrument or play in a different key. He has chosen the first option.

Whoa, I missed that.

The obvious answer becomes "Play it on a tenor!"

Tenor - It's all that matters. (IMNSHO)

 

[Alain Gen]

Earlier in the thread it was determined that the recording is played on a tenor. The person who uploaded the video posted a pdf transposed for tenor and another transposed for alto, which of course falls outside the alto's range. He has 4 options - play as written using extra limbs, play some or all up an octave, play a different instrument or play in a different key. He has chosen the first option.

I'm looking forward to seeing the final video this Christmas. Maybe he could work in some choreography with the low A leg moves, like the Rockettes.

"Earlier in the thread it was determined that the recording is played on a tenor." You are mentioning your own post #8? Sorry I'm not convinced. I gave reasons why I think that the written part is a minor third below what it should be. If you have an alto sax, play the first note along the video (written E) and you will realize that it is a G (concert Bb).