Saxophone tuner

Saxophone tuning notes, written and sounding

Alto (E♭). The tuner asks for the written notes, in this order; the Hz are what the microphone hears.

Tenor, soprano and baritone

At A4 = 440 Hz; the reference switch above moves them all.

How to tune a saxophone with this tuner

Pick alto, tenor, soprano or baritone above. Tap start and play the first written note long, at your normal volume and without vibrato. The needle shows how far you are from it in cents, left flat and right sharp; a tick comes at five cents or closer, and the tuner moves on to the next note. The notes are the ones groups tune to: on an alto, written G sounds concert B♭ and written F♯ sounds concert A; on a tenor, written C and written B do the same. The tuner names the note as it stands in your part. With the microphone off, tap a note to hear it at concert pitch.

Set the overall pitch with the mouthpiece on the neck cork. Sharp: pull it out, with a slight twist. If it won't move, a little cork grease and a gentle twist; never force it. Flat: push it further on. On an alto a millimetre is worth roughly 2 cents, so 10 cents sharp is about 5 mm; on a tenor a millimetre does less, on a soprano about one and a half times as much. Keep the neck fully seated and its screw tight; the neck is not a tuning slide. After each move play the note fresh, with your normal embouchure: lipping a note into tune only moves the problem to the next one. Once it reads in tune, mark the mouthpiece's place on the cork with a pencil, and tomorrow starts close.

Which note to tune a saxophone on

Concert bands tune to concert B♭: written G on alto and baritone, written C on tenor and soprano. Orchestras, and some jazz groups, tune to concert A: written F♯ on alto and baritone, written B on tenor and soprano. Some bands give a concert F, the soprano's written G. Ask which note and which A your group uses: most American bands play at A = 440 Hz, many European orchestras at 442, and the switch under the needle has both. Warm up first, a couple of minutes of long tones. The air inside the horn sets the pitch, about 3 cents sharper for every degree Celsius, so a saxophone out of a cold car reads flat and climbs as you play; check again after a long rest.

Low note in tune, high note sharp: the octave check

A saxophone is a cone, and a cone overblows an octave: the octave key turns written G4 into G5 on the same fingering. That is why the alto and baritone here ask for both G's and the tenor for both C's. If both read off in the same direction, move the mouthpiece. If the low one is in tune and the high one sharp, the mouthpiece is right and the embouchure is pinching in the upper octave: loosen the jaw, open the throat, give more air. If the low one goes flat, the jaw is too slack down there. Bring the octave together with the lips and the air first; only then nudge the mouthpiece.

Why a saxophone reads sharp or flat

• Sharp: mouthpiece too far on the cork, biting, a reed too hard for you, a horn warmed by stage lights. The palm and side keys, written high D to F♯, run sharp on most saxophones; relax the embouchure there.
• Flat: a cold horn, the mouthpiece too far out, a soft or worn reed, a slack jaw, too little air.
• One note off, the rest fine: that is the horn's own tendency or a leaking pad, not the mouthpiece. Play it long with the tuner and learn where it sits; a leak shows as a stuffy note that won't speak, and goes to a repair shop.

Alto, tenor, soprano, baritone: how far each one transposes

Every saxophone reads the same written range, B♭3 to F6, or F♯6 with a high F♯ key, with the same fingerings. What changes is how far below the page it sounds.

The sopranino in E♭ sounds a minor third above its part, the C melody saxophone an octave below it, and the bass saxophone in B♭ two octaves and a whole tone below. They have no switch here; the any-note tuner reads them in concert pitch.

Saxophone tuner or chromatic tuner

A chromatic tuner names concert pitch, so it shows a different note from the one you play. On an alto or baritone it shows the note a major sixth below your written note: written C as E♭, written F♯ as A. On a tenor or soprano it shows the note a whole tone below: written C as B♭. A saxophone tuner, like this one, does that step for you. A clip-on on the bell also works on a sax, since the brass carries the vibration to the clamp. To move chord symbols between concert pitch and an E♭ or B♭ part, the transposer has both presets; from an alto part to a tenor part, move them up 5 semitones. No app is needed: this one runs in the phone's browser, and any chromatic tuner app works too once you know it shows concert pitch.

How often to tune a saxophone

Every time you play, after the warm-up, and again when the room or the horn changes temperature. One mouthpiece position sets the average; no position puts every note in tune, because each note's pitch also depends on the air and the embouchure. Long tones against a steady needle are how that part is learned.

The notes you tuned go into Brumm as a short melody over a beat.