Klarinet Archive - Posting 000556.txt from 2003/02

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Quick query on the soprano sax
Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 17:51:48 -0500

Bill Semple wrote,

>Recently, my dixieland band asked me to play
>the soprano sax on a few tunes, using an instrument
>built in the 1920's
[snip]
>I've managed to get some decent sound out of this thing
>(it's a Conn), but when I hit low G, it lets out a honk like
>a goose and jumps an octave. If I am extra careful, and
>distend my embouchure just so, I can get that lower G.

I generally agree with what people have suggested on this thread, but the
fact that the problem is on low G (I assume you're talking about three
fingers down in the left hand and no fingers down in the right hand) makes
me think David Glenn nailed the problem: It's probably the G# key.
Caveat: My saxes are mostly Conns from the 1920s, but my soprano is a 1924
King Saxello, which is an oddball (semi-curved; and this one happens to be
a prototype, made a year before "official" production started on that
model); also I'm an amateur, so I should probably just shut up, but....

If you're getting the notes below G, then I don't think your embouchure is
responsible, although sometimes manipulating the embouchure can compensate
for a mechanical problem with a sax. That "honks like a goose" noise
before breaking to the octave is very typical of a small leak. The G# key,
which is tricky to adjust on saxophones, often causes exactly the cracked
octave you describe. (The wrong type of mouthpiece would probably cause
trouble over a much wider range of notes.) Also, if the G# key opens on
the back of that sax (as it does on my King Saxello), it tends to get wet
if someone lays the horn down in the lap during long rests. Maybe the
pad's rotting; or, if the trouble starts after you've been playing for
awhile, you may be draining water into that tone hole. Anything going
wonky with the G# key will mess up the G first, and then the notes below
the G will start to go, a problem that's easily mistaken for a
clarinetist's tendency to tighten up too much on sax.

Conventional wisdom is that the soprano is the hardest sax to play, but I
don't think that's true for someone who starts on clarinet. For me,
soprano is the *easiest* sax to play, because the embouchure (aside from
the position of the instrument) is so similar to clarinet embouchure. The
general rule: the bigger the sax, the looser the mouth.

Is it a curved or a straight soprano? Does it have a "fingernail file"
texture on the G# left hand lever? If so, it's a Conn "Big Bore" (the
tenor from that period is nicknamed the Chu Berry model) from the mid to
late 1920s and ought to be a real honey, if it's in good condition and
adjusted right. The model just before that, the New Wonder, is a terrific
sax, too.

Lelia Loban
lelialoban@-----.net
Please note new address!

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