New way to trill G#

[Vortex]

I discovered this by accident just now. We know that pressing the pinky buttons for either B or Bb also lowers the G# key releasing that vent, and of course the reciprocation of pressing a key and having a hole close is pushing that hole closed and having the key be pressed. To simplify all this yadda, you can easily trill from G to G# by rapidly tapping the low B key on the bell of the horn with your right hand - much easier than rapid pinky movement or reaching around the horn and tapping the G# button with your right hand. I find on my horns this makes the G# a slight bit flatter, but in a trill that's not so critical, would be a good alternate fingering for out of tune horns though. Comments?

[Mike W]

Yeah. I found it by accident too. It is easy to do on a straight line horn. Works very well on my S20 tenor. Not well on My F.E. Olds (ROC) tenor due to the offset stack. It is certainly a faster trill than with my pinky.

[paulwl]

People must have been doing this 100+ years ago, or else the right hand G# trill button on old Buescher & Conn horns would never have been thought up. It's near the F pearl and used by the right index finger.

[AMASAX]

if you are willing to modify the horn very slightly, you can also have small 'arm' soldered directly onto the G# pad cup itself, so that will extend downwards, and can be activated by moving the right hand first finger slightly up the horn to trill this arm.

Have seen this done on clarinets, too.

In lieu of this, if you have sufficient time in the music, you can move your first finger up a lot and directly trill the G# pad cup.
VERY fast trill this way...

[awholley]

Definitely an interesting idea.

After seeing Robert Black execute a tremolo from low Eb to low C at the speed of a trill, I'm convinced I ought to be able to trill just about anything with enough practice.

Alan

[CMelodyMan]

In response to your question, old saxes have a g# trill key which you can use.

[CMelodyMan]

In response to your question, old saxes have a g# trill key which you can use.

[bariman]

My old Holton (circa 1909) c melody sax has a G-G# trill and a D alternate key.

Bariman