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advice

i am in 10th grade, swiching from percussion to play the alto saxaphone. I got my sax a couple days ago and ive been playing non stop since then. Im now trying to learn the notes so i went to tune my sax. but, when i play the c#, it ends up being an e flat . and every note i play, it ends up being a whole step up (ex when i play a d, it ends up being a f)
am i doing something wrong? how do i fix this?

thanks!

Don't worry, you're not doing anything wrong at all! I'm a saxophone player too. Basically, an alto saxophone is in the key of E flat. That is just fancy terminology... it means that when you play G, it should show up on your tuner as B flat. And when you play A, it should show up on your tuner as C. For the sake of comparison, a flute is a C instrument. That means that when a flute player plays a G, it actually is a G. We saxophone players have to transpose stuff (maybe because we're so intelligent). But don't worry, it's not as bad as it sounds.

What shows up on your tuner is called concert pitch. Generally, you should tune to a concert B flat (which is G on alto). Anyway, when you're warming up in band or whatever, and your director wants you to play a concert E flat scale, that means that you play a C scale on alto sax. Or, for a concert F scale, you play a D scale on alto sax. I'm not really sure exactly why there's such a different with the concert pitch thing, but every wind instrument (except flute and some low brass) is like that.

So keep learning saxophone like you've been doing, but just keep in mind that when you play a G on your saxophone, it is actually a B flat on a piano.

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(Rating: 5) thank you so much! it makes sense now!!!
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