Alto Saxophone, that one lousy note!!!?

Question:I'm relearning the alto sax after nearly 20 plus years of not playing. I am having awful problems playing low range C, I can hit it only half the time, the other half of the time I get low C but with a lot of unwanted vibrato.

In order to get a pure C, I have to remember to aim my breath through the mouthpiece just right and if I don't aim the air stream just right, that's when I get the unwanted vibrato.

When I first started to learn the sax way back when, I took four years of lessons and I wonder if I'm doing something wrong. I bought a new fingering chart and checked it against another fingering chart on the Web so I think my fingering is correct, but again there may be another method that's not listed.

That's what I found for mid range C#, both fingering charts just have a blank, while I remember when I took lessons playing mid C# differently.

All the other notes lower than C I can hit without vibrato, but I have to really work to get pianoissimo.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I'm relearning the alto sax after nearly 20 plus years of not playing. I am having awful problems playing low range C, I can hit it only half the time, the other half of the time I get low C but with a lot of unwanted vibrato.

In order to get a pure C, I have to remember to aim my breath through the mouthpiece just right and if I don't aim the air stream just right, that's when I get the unwanted vibrato.

When I first started to learn the sax way back when, I took four years of lessons and I wonder if I'm doing something wrong. I bought a new fingering chart and checked it against another fingering chart on the Web so I think my fingering is correct, but again there may be another method that's not listed.

That's what I found for mid range C#, both fingering charts just have a blank, while I remember when I took lessons playing mid C# differently.

All the other notes lower than C I can hit without vibrato, but I have to really work to get pianoissimo.

If you are getting the "vibrato" what you are actually getting is the tendency towards the higher overtone (one octave up). It is because your are too tight in your throat and embouchure. It takes relaxing more and finding a better positioning of the throat and embouchure. This is why I recommend for anyone, old and young, to take private lessons. This way you can have a professional be able to teach these things that we can't describe well on here, or in any kind of forum.
As for C#, the basic fingering has always been no keys pressed. There are alternates that can be used for fast passages/trills/intonation, but these are not to be used just for any standard time of C#.

I am a fellow sax player and my thoughts are that the problem is located in your jaw. When blowing through a reeded mouth piece, you know the importantance of tightening and loosening your lips. My guess would be that the position your lips need to be in on the mouthpiece to produce a low "C" is not yet strong enough from the lack of use. I would think with more practice it would get easier over time to belt out those notes as freely as you used to, with or without vibrato. My band instructor made us do a few mouth stretches before we sat down to play to warm up our smoochers. I also found that adding cinnamon oil to the tip of your reed will not only be pleasant to taste, but will also keep your mouth and reed warm and moist for better sound control.

There's an old term for that vibration on the low C- "Motorboating". Aside frome embouchure faults it can be caused by the following (alone or in combination). leaking pads, reed incorrectly placed on the mouthpiece, mouthpiece not on the neck properly (also puts you out of tune).

I don't know of any alternate mid range C# fingerings, and I've checked manuals going back to the 1900's.