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Home Alt Forums Problems With Your Sax? Fluttering and unexpected octave change

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  • #9311
    jake
    Participant

      Hey Johnny. I am comparing my Tenor saxes, My Hawk (which is only a couple months old) and my Vito tenor, an older 70’s model. I have been making an effort to consistently play long tones as part of my practice. When I play my Hawk I noticed some differences. When I play my low A#, A, and G, a couple of things happen. First I notice some fluttering that goes on while holding the note. Secondly, the note changes octaves without me hitting the octave key. I am conscious of this and try reshaping and changing my mouth. Sometimes it is a little better but still has a tendency to do those things. While I play the older Vito, the notes seem smoother and this doesn’t happen. There are some times on the Vito that I have some fluttering but I feel that’s related to my loosening of my mouth. While I play other notes on the Hawk sax, the octave changes and fluttering doesn’t happen. I read a previous post about looking for a second octave key, I don’t see one on the sax. Any suggestions? Thanks a bunch!

      #11183
      john
      Keymaster

        yes it sounds like your Hawk needs some work. If you’re having luck playing those same notes on the Vito you can assume something is up with the hawk. could be minor like a leaky pad or 2.

        The 2nd oct key is a bout 3 inches below where the neck goes onto the body and you can see it go up and down when you press the G fingering.

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