Jeff, thank’s for the trill chart upload. I won’t say that I never have used a trill in a song, but I can’t recall the last time and it is on the end of my list of embellishments to use. For some reason I’m not to keen on it (like James and vibrato…), or should I say I’m not to keen on the way it sounds when I do it (though I have liked Johnny’s use of it (tastefully done!)).
I agree with James that a knuckle key for a trill would not be my first choice, but for those very fast note turn arounds I found them useful and effective. The hardest fast finger movement for me was the turn-around starting on the A#, because the index and middle finger have to be closing and opening a key simultaneously twice then the middle and third finger can close in progression on the down turn of the notes. The turn starting on the D isn’t so bad, but my little finger strength and timing still couldn’t quite do the run as cleanly as the knuckle trick.
Wayne- My setup is- YAS-52 (intermediate level 1980’s?) Alto Sax (precursor to the YAS-475 model), a Meyer MP (modified), and a Vandoran #2 ZZ Reed.
The sax has that great Yamaha fluidity to the key mechanisms, and it is inspiring to play from that standpoint, but it does not have the right neck and it’s intonation is not near as good as it should be. The musician has to work to hard to bring the low notes up, and the high notes down. But hopefully when I find a pro-level replacement all that hard struggle with intonation will make playing a better horn much easier. I live in south-central Michigan, so I’m only 3 hrs from Chicago. Maybe our paths will cross someday, or maybe we can do a multi-track upload?