DISCLAIMER: The quality of equipment (instrument, reed, mouthpiece, ligature) has a very big impact on intonation. If the equipment is not in working order, the information and techniques on this webpage will not be as effective.
Embouchure Check!Your embouchure formation can either help or hurt your pitch accuracy. Here is a brief reminder about how you should form your embouchure:
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Mouthpiece and Neck Alone
A great way to check for embouchure correctness (and, in-turn, intonation) is to play with the mouthpiece only OR the mouthpiece and neck only. When you play with mouthpiece alone, you should hear a 'concert G.' When you play with mouthpiece and neck together, you should hear a 'concert E.' Only adjust your embouchure, vowel shape and airspeed to change pitch during this process. |
How To Tune the Tenor Saxophone
Once you have reviewed and practiced your embouchure formation, tune your tenor saxophone using the procedure listed below:
1) Play your tenor saxophone for a few minutes to warm up your embouchure muscles and the instrument.
How To Adjust Pitch While Playing The Tenor Saxophone
Even after tuning our instrument, there will still be notes that are naturally out-of-tune for various reasons. This makes it necessary for us to adjust, or manipulate, the pitch while playing. Here are some simple ways to adjust pitch:
Embouchure Tension
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Alternate Fingerings/Resonance Fingerings
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Other Factors Effecting Pitch
Breath Support and Posture
Reeds
Dynamics
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Pads and Keys
Temperature
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Pitch Tendencies
Every instrument has notes that are naturally out of tune. Here is a list of common naturally out-of-tune notes for the tenor saxophone. These notes are the written notes for the instrument, not the sounding concert pitches:
Alternate Fingerings
Listed below are alternate fingerings for many of the naturally out-of-tune notes on the tenor saxophone. This is not a complete list, however, these fingerings will be helpful. You will find that many of the alternate fingerings will work for all of the saxophones (soprano, alto, tenor, baritone).
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Primary Fingering |
Alternate Fingering |
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Saxophone Intonation Videos
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