Hello, I'm Todd Porter founder the music coach. And in this lesson, I'm going to be showing you how to tune your saxophone. The most important thing to know when you're starting out is that your instrument can be tuned by adjusting how much of the mouthpiece is on the cork that's attached to the neck. And in a very general sense, the shorter you make this by pushing onto the cork, the sharper or higher pitched you're going to be and the further back you move the mouthpiece and the longer the tube is, the flatter it's going to be. Now each saxophone is slightly different. So there isn't ever going to be one measurement, I can tell you that's going to work best for your saxophone.

So you're gonna have to learn how to actually tune it and that's what this video is all about. The first thing I want you to do is to make sure that your instrument is warmed up. Because the saxophone is made of metal and metal changes its characteristics a lot when it heats up. You want to make sure that you've actually played it a little bit Tune a cold saxophone it will give you an audio be inaccurate as the instrument warms up. Usually as the instrument warms up, it's going to go sharper, so you want to make sure that it's well heated before you get started. You're going to need a chromatic tuner to be able to tune your saxophone.

There are two simple ways to get a chromatic tuner. The easiest way is to go into the App Store, have a mobile phone or a tablet and just download a chromatic tuner and there are usually many that are free. Sometimes if you pay $1 or two more, you can get a bunch of advanced features. If you happen to live near a music store or you already own a physical tuner like the one in this video, they work exactly the same way. The basics of it is that the tuners measuring the sound waves that are coming into it and telling you whether they're too sharp or D flat. Once you turn the tuner on, the first thing I want you to notice is the number 440.

So somewhere on the display, it's going to say 440 and that's the calibration of the tuner and this is a really important thing to make sure that that number says 440 and it doesn't say 439 or 441. The reasoning behind it is a little more advanced and you don't really need to know it when you're starting out, I just want you to make sure that that number says 440, and it doesn't use the calibration buttons to get there. Once it's set, it should always come on the same way every time to turn it on. Now that your instruments warmed up, and you're ready to start getting in tune, the next thing is to select it a good note for tuning. And because the tube is so long on saxophone, you want to make sure you're playing a note that's in the middle of the register. So for example, a G is a good note to tune on or an F, you want to try and avoid.

Avoid playing any of the palm keys or any of the really, really low notes because the instruments never going to be perfectly in tune top to bottom, you want to find a note that's in the middle to give you an accurate sense of making sure that you're just in the ballpark and you're gonna be as into as you can possibly be. So in this example, I'm gonna play a G. This is a tenor saxophone, so it is a B flat concert instrument and the only thing I really need No, but that is just when I play a G on here, it's not going to display as a G on the tuner. And as long as you know that you won't get confused when all I'm trying to do is make sure that the note I'm playing is actually in tune. So here's what's gonna sound like Ah, so as you can see on the tuner, my note is too flat, which means the needle is a little bit to the left, and I need to shorten how far how much cork I've gone on to make it play more in tune.

So to do that, I'm going to hold the neck here and just I'm going to do just a little bit it doesn't take very much to change the pitch, and I'm gonna try it again. Ah, now the notes playing really well in tune. Another thing you do once you have the lower register in tune is play the exact same note one octave higher. So I'm going to play the G with the octave key. Oh, that's nice and into one little last thing. tip is that when you play your note, try not to look right away at the tuner because you'll start making adjustments with your face the instant you get feedback from the tuner and what's more important is actually hear whether the instrument is playing into it or not.

You don't want to be making adjustments when on your face when what you really need to be doing is adjusting where the mouthpieces on the court. All right, head on over to your music coach comm for a free beginner saxophone lesson. Thanks for stopping by and I look forward to seeing you soon.