trouble with high 'A'

[rockinsage]

I am having trouble with high 'A' on my old Yani tenor, the 'A' one line above the staff, not altissimo. It seems to want to drop down an octave even though the octave key is depressed. I did a forum search and noticed some others have had this problem on high 'G' and 'G#'. I haven't played the horn in a few years, and recently had it professionally set up, and the horn plays better than ever except on this one note. Now that I think about it, I think it always did this even before I stopped playing it for a while.

I've tried several mouthpiece/reed combinations, and it seems to get better with some, but it never totally goes away. The only way I can compensate for this is to lip up extremely hard on this one note.

I took a look with a leak light, and can find no leaks whatsoever.

Any ideas???? :(

[kcp]

Just a guess... it could be something related to the octave mechanism. Like an unhooked or dead spring, or some malfunction of that kind. Verify when fingering high G if the octave vent on the side opens. When releasing G to finger A a lever should close the octae vent... it could be that too.

[rockinsage]

Thanks Kim,

Yep, checked that out extensively. Everything seems mechanically ok with the octave mechanicsms, including switching from one to the other between 'G' and 'A'. I'll take another look tonight though...

[jaankaden]

normally, this seems to be most prevalent on G, the "confused" sound effect. short of having your horn checked by a tech, i'd say you could check air support. one way to do so is to play second-space A (A1) and as you're doing so, depress the octave key. do not change your embouchure in any way. do not tighten (bite) for higher notes, use air support. it should immediately go up to above-the-staff A (A2). this is one way to check that you're supporting your air enough.

now, to check that you're not biting or overblowing your A2, release the octave lever while you're blowing it. it should go back down to A1. a little hesitation is fine, but if it remains stuck at A2 even after the octave key is released, then you could be overblowing or biting.

try the first method with G, it's a better test of air support with G than A. the second method, the going down bit, can be a bit tricky. stay with A on that one. let me know how it goes.

[Riff]

The first thing I would check is whether or not the side octave vent is clogged. This problem you mention is not all that uncommon and is frequently caused by debris of some kind inside the side octave vent. Sometimes moisture, dust, food particles from your mouth and other nasty things hide inside this vent. Run a pipe cleaner through it to see if anything comes out.

If this doesn't work, and since you say you've always had this problem, there could be a lacquer bubble inside the vent, left there from the day the horn was made. It doesn't have to be very big to cause this problem. A technician can run a drill through the vent to clear that away.

[Bill08690]

Sounds more like the octave pip in the neck might be clogged. Check to see that the octave key elevates on the neck when the octave key is pushed and you finger A. You can check the pip hole by holding the large end of the neck pipe on the palm of your hand and blowing into the small end of the neck pipe. With the octave key open there should be a stream of air heard through the pip hole.

Hope this helps.

[saxmasta89]

does the b above the a work?

[rockinsage]

jaankaden, Riff, Bill -- thanks, I will take a look at all of those things asap.

saxmasta -- yep, the 'b' is fine (as well as all other notes excep the 'a').