[JazzItUp]

Hello SOTW family, I just recently received a Soprano Saxophone as a birthday gift, and I am extatic about it!
However, this instrument is not easy! The notes are basically the same, but the embouchere is way diffrent than the Alto Saxophone which is my main wind instrument.
I want to know why the Soprano is so out of tune?? I am going to get a Saxophone teacher but not until a few months away, I can't wait that long you know, here is a clip of me which I am sure alot of you saw (

) and I had to tune out my keyboard so the Soprano would be in tune.

Is it my embouchere? Thanks people!

 

[Seasax]

probably embouchure,
just do long tones on soprano aswell as alto, or even more than alto for a bit, but in the end make sure you don't start to loose out on alto

 

[whaler]

I think that your problem is that you need to blow that thing a little harder. Blow from your diaphram.

 

[SaxyAcoustician]

It takes at least a year to get comfortable on a new saxophone voice, particularly when you go higher as you are from alto to soprano.

Having said that, try different reeds and strengths. That's the first thing you should do.

 

[Pure Magic]

Jazzitup, you could always play the pull your mouth piece in and out adjusting it with a korg tuner game. I have a CA-30 and it works great. Took me about 3 playing sessions of 40 minutes to get my soprano how I wanted it. My mouthpiece is almost off the cork on my soprano neck but its in tune!

On another note, wish I sounded as good as you when I was your age. I see you posting great post on here Jazzitup! I like how you’re all over youtube also. You keep this up and we will be buying and watching your videos, trying to figure out your sax licks in the future. By the way I am PureMagic79 on youtube. Keep it up my new friend!

Rob

 

[Dave Dolson]

Some sopranos are just out of tune, but I'll go with the others here that proper mouthpiece selection and placement plus building your soprano embouchure are probably the issues. You didn't say what model horn that was in the video clip nor what set-up you are using. DAVE

 

[Jaice Singer DuMars]

With soprano, everything is much closer together and in more precise dimensions than any of the larger horns. For example, move a tone hole on a bari 1/100th of an inch, and you won't notice much of a difference. The same shift on a soprano tonehole would be obvious. This has 2 different ramifications: one is that embouchure changes are prone to the same radical shifts and variances (small change = big effect), the other is that manufacturing to such fine tolerances is NOT an easy feat, especially if the person testing the final product is not very clued into the nuances. Remember that QA on a sax is ultimately only as good as the person playing it. During the reign of the Mark VI, Selmer had their pick of top players from Marcel Mule to Stan Getz. Modern horns are not usually privvy to this kind of manufacturing input. I know in China, competent factory testers are at a huge premium.

 

[JazzItUp]

Jazzitup, you could always play the pull your mouth piece in and out adjusting it with a korg tuner game. I have a CA-30 and it works great. Took me about 3 playing sessions of 40 minutes to get my soprano how I wanted it. My mouthpiece is almost off the cork on my soprano neck but its in tune!

On another note, wish I sounded as good as you when I was your age. I see you posting great post on here Jazzitup! I like how you';re all over youtube also. You keep this up and we will be buying and watching your videos, trying to figure out your sax licks in the future. By the way I am PureMagic79 on youtube. Keep it up my new friend!

Rob

Hahahaha thanks Pure Magic! Imagine everyone on SOTW buying all my cds! D) Let's see what the future has in store!

Anyway thanks for your advice and I'll check you out on youtube in a sec.

Nice to meet you!!