Why am I always sharp on middle D on the saxophone?

Question:Basically, when I take a tuner and play on my D, its sharp by quite a bit. When I play on my G, everything is in tune. I have been told by one of the private instructors at band camp ( before they all left) to "blow down" to get the last finger playing the note to vibrate and to drop my lower lip. I "blow down" and I sort of feel the vibration and when I drop my lower lip I can get it less sharp slightly but the tone is very bad. Is this the wrong way to fix this? Or do I just need to practice tone quality? When I play all my other notes they are all in tune or slightly sharp/flat.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Basically, when I take a tuner and play on my D, its sharp by quite a bit. When I play on my G, everything is in tune. I have been told by one of the private instructors at band camp ( before they all left) to "blow down" to get the last finger playing the note to vibrate and to drop my lower lip. I "blow down" and I sort of feel the vibration and when I drop my lower lip I can get it less sharp slightly but the tone is very bad. Is this the wrong way to fix this? Or do I just need to practice tone quality? When I play all my other notes they are all in tune or slightly sharp/flat.

Middle D is one of the hardest notes to get in tune and even sounding to the rest of the horn.

Work on long tones. Start on middle B and find the BEST sound you can make on the B and then transfer that sound and tonal quality to the rest of the horn slowly. For example hold B for 8 beats, slur to Bb for 8 beats. Play Bb for 8 beats, slur to an A for 8 beats. Continue this all the way down to Low Bb then start again at middle B and go up. Go back and forth between each set of notes working on tuning (with a tune obviously), and match the sound to that first awesome B you get.

Now that being said, because all 6 fingers are down for the middle D, this causes tuning problems and it causes the sound to be "stuffy" if you don't change your inner embouchure. Try this: With your tuner play your middle D as you would "normally" play it. Hold it with good breath support. Now reattack the note with a tongue ... keep your lip pressure and placement exactly the same and open your throat A LOT ... by opening your throat you are physically LOWERING the pitch. *remember your throat position (i.e. openness or closeness) has nothing to do with the amount of pressure from your lips on the reed.

It will take some time to figure out how it feels and where to place your inner embouchure and have that consistent, but it's well worth putting the work in.

If you want any more throat exercises to get those muscles working, let me know - I spent an insane amount of hours on stuff like this.

The problem is going to be in your embouchure and the shape of the inside of your mouth. Breath support is going to be a big part of getting your notes in tune as well. Work with that and see if it helps. have you checked to see if your pads are all clean? This could be a contributor. best wishes.

Musicislife described everything well, and how to fix it. The issue is with the saxophone itself. It is just a natural issue with any saxophone (regardless of make/model or even type of saxophone) that the D in the staff is sharp. It is just a way of life for saxophonists.