Does anyone have any creative ideas for making the low Bb in an alto sax sound like a low A? I want to try to make mine sound like that just to have some fun. Thanks!
your best friend while using this forum is the search engine, almost anything one wants to know has been already talked about before.
Opening new threads only ever achieves the goal to dilute information, using older ones ( you can follow up) sends alerts to people who've already contributed on a specific topic and therefore are interested.
I usually ask for somebody in the audience to have ready a napkin. I approach and as the napkin is ready to cover around half of the bell... well.. there it is.
You could also google for "Tartini tones", a technique which apparently allow the illusion of lower tones without any gadgets. Singing exactly a fifth above the fingered note, or something like that. There's surprisingly little information on SOTW about that. But it's also hard to search for without the magic words. I'm nowhere near experienced enough to try those, so no personal experience whatsoever.
The tartini effect is something completely different and is not concerning an instrument that cannot produce two notes at the same time. What you describe ( singing a 5th together with the Low B) is never been done by anyone that I know of! Please point me in that direction if anyone has ever done that!).
Even if you were able to play any type multiphonics on low Bb your would't produce a low A as a result.
In order to produce a low A on any saxophone not equipped to reach then you need to either extend the pipe at the bell ( but that makes reaching a low B impossible) or partly block the bell.
As for using the search engine.
I've jist demonstrated that it is not only possible but it should be good prcactice to do that.
I had previously looked up this topic when I encountered a low a in some sheet music. Only "useful" info I could find was to insert heel or knee into the bell. But how the heck can it be done while playing, really? I know my skills are meager but putting any part of you body into the bell while playing seems quite a trick. I could get something at least resembling a low A by inserting unshod heel or knee, but only as a single note, certainly not smoothly in the middle of a passage.
The better advice I got later was just to play the passage an octave higher . . .
or you can, as many refer to in the suggested read ( by me, above) of the threads about incidental Low A in low Bb baritones, have someone with a piece of carton covering the hole for you when you nod...
The knee thing is achievable on tenor while standing but you need a bit of acrobatics. The add-on pipe is also useful but you can;t play Bb and A in the same piece.
Lots of people use both techniques in the baritone world.
In my post I probably should have said "useful for me" and "the better advise for me . . . ."
It's very, very hard for me to get someone to put a piece of cardboard on my sax, as I pretty much exclusively play at home alone (outside of lessons). But I'll put that option away for hopeful later eventual use.
And my point was that I am not good enough at acrobatics to do the knee thing, not that I doubt that others are. Plus, add on pipes dont seem a practical option for me either, not at this point anyway.
As far as the Bari world goes, I've played Bari sax just once, to see what it was like. Only had the one chance to play it for about 5 minutes. I don't doubt there are as many Bari players doing the techniques as you mention. I am just not one of them, nor have I found it particularly easy to use the techniques on tenor or alto. But that's just my experience. I find it easier to change to octave where it doesnt sound too weird.
I guess I should have been clearer that I was specifically referring to my [admittedly limited] experience, which is all that I really know about. But I imagine there may be others out there in a similar place as myself.
Well, if the knee option is not convenient for whatever reason, what I do and may advise, is to do not play it. Seriously. What can be done is to play middle A instead of Low A or just try to play a very low pitched low Bb as soft as you can...
cardboard tube in the bell. it has to be the perfect length and you have to put it in right before you play the note or your horn will play out of tune. Either that or get one of these.
Oh and to the OP, I often find it easier to search via google rather than use the search engine on this site which drives me mad, never seems to bring up what I want. If you search what you want then add site:forum.saxontheweb.net then it will just search this forum. This blog post I found has some other tips for narrowing down your search https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/1264/12-quick-tips-to-search-google-like-an-expert.aspx
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