www.saxband.co.uk

Welcome to the Home of the Manx Saxophone Ensemble

How to play your Eb saxophone alongside other instruments

 

Working with Eb instruments (Alto or Baritone sax)

 

When you play a ‘C’ on your Alto or Bari, your sax produces a concert-pitch Eb (it sounds higher than the key you pressed - by a minor third).  To compensate and play a concert-pitch ‘C’ note, you’ll need to play a minor third lower on your sax - in this case an ‘A’.

 

The principle above works for every note.  When playing with a piano or other concert pitch instrument, you’ll need to play a minor-third lower across the range.

 

The same applies to the musical key you use.  If the pianist plays the tune in the key of ’C’, you’ll need to play the same tune in the key of ‘A’ (which is consistently a minor-third lower) in order to play together.

 

Note : the key of A has three sharps whereas the key of C has none.  This introduces another important rule.  Against a concert pitch instrument, an Eb saxophonist will always have to play in a key with three more sharps in it.

 

Take a look at the table below, which shows which key you have to play in to stay in tune with a concert pitch instrument.  The table also shows you which key an Bb instrument will have to use to join in on the same piece of music.  The coloured cells represent keys that are common in bands.