Problem with the pitch on my middle D

[Anonymous]

Hi Johnny,
Just filled in a pitch tendency chart for my alto Sax.
After a good warm up, tuned up the sax, and then went through every key from Low Bb to High F# with a tuner, and recorded how sharp or flat each one was.
I did this mainly cause my middle D always sounds a bit off when i flow through the chromatic scales!
The pitch tendency chart showed the middle D to be twice as sharp as the rest of the keys on the sax.
My question to you, is now i know that my middle D is too sharp whats the best way to bring the pitch down when playing it?
Is it use less air or less lip pressure?
or are there any other tricks without losing tone?

[john]

slightly less lip pressure will flatten it but keep the air support up at the same time. check that your mouthpiece isn’t too far in or out on the neck cork too.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Johnny – will give that a try.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Johny the lowering of lip pressure really works.
Also Tried it out on the mouthpiece disconnected from the Sax.
Sounds like a siren!
I still warm up everyday with your chromatic scale exercise.
I’ve temporarly replaced your long tones exercise,
instead of doing every note on the sax.
I spend half an hour doing the following long tones
day 1 – work on 5 chromatic notes (low Bb to D)
day 2 – work on next 5 chromatic notes (low D to F#)
Do this every day till i’ve covered all 33 notes.

[Author]

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