Great advice on the embouchure. In addition to checking your pads on the bottom of the instrument, don't forget that a leaky pad anywhere on the sax affects the low notes more than the higher notes. You can place a small flashlight inside your sax and let it slide up and down the tube to check all of your pads. It's best to do this in a dark room. Here's the trickiest leak I ever had: My low notes would work fine for the first hour of playing, but then the low notes would stop working. I realized that as water accumulated in the high F palm key pad, that pad would start leaking because the pad was too worn out to work properly when the water accumulated there (I could see the water dripping from the edge of that pad). After I put a new pad in, the low notes worked great. You really must have no leaks anywhere on your sax, for the low notes to work. Also check the other palm key pads to make sure they are still soft and working properly. If they are stiff and worn out, then those pads will also be leaking soon. These pads usually wear out the quickest because most of the water accumulates there first as it travels down the tube. Here is a tip if you want to make your pads last a long time. I bought some pencil erasers (the kind that you stick on the end of the pencil). When you are finished playing your sax (or when you get home from a gig), wipe out your mouthpiece, neck and sax, then stick an eraser under the high F key so that the pad remains open and it can dry better. Also do this with the G# key... place the eraser over the G pad cup so that the G key goes down a little and also the same eraser goes under the G# key mechanism. This lets your G# pad dry out nicely and you have less of the sticky G# pad problem. I also stick erasers under the low C# key mechanism and the low D# key mechanism. There are two sizes of these erasers. The smaller size works great on my tenor, alto, and soprano sax. I repair my own saxes. I bought my tenor back in 1995 and I finally replaced the pads on it two years ago. That high F pad wore out about 8 years ago, but I wasn't using the erasers all those years like I am now.

Thank you so much you have no idea how thankful I am for this video

I fucken love this guy's intro 😂😂😂

Hi totally new to the sax lots of honking going on when I get going The wife has bought ear plugs now This vid was very helpful thanks Bernie

Every time I play a low D it goes to the high D. My E and F are fine but I don’t know whats wrong with it.

Sometimes it can be your reed. Just now, I was really frustrated why I couldn’t get out my low notes smoothly. Then I changed my reed and it helped tremendously. It’s not always you! Though, I would still take tips from this video even if changing your reed helps.

Low D is my enemy.

Thanks so much for these videos, Nigel! I'm a professional saxophonist, and even though most of your videos are geared toward beginners, I really find them helpful. Keep up the good work!

Thank you so much....I have been playing for about 3 years now and I have never been able to make the low notes soft and warm.....now I can thanks to you...if I could subscribe to you more than once I definitely would!

I'm auditioning for the band at uni, and part of the audition is a two octave Ab scale. I started tenor a little over a year ago and haven't been able to get a low Bb out on it without my tenor squeaking or going an octave up this whole time, and this video has helped me so much!! you're honestly a life saver

really loved the explanation, im new to the world of the saxophone and i just got a Soprano Saxophone. Im doing my best with the long notes and at the moment im writing this, i cant get to make any low note at all. Hopefully, following your advices and tips will be a great help to achieve this objective of mine. Thanks and best regards from Argentina

First time watching one of these, and these were some very insightful tips! Thank you from an alto player :)

Another great set of tips, thank you Nigel.

Nice teachings nice information very informative have learned quite a bit just by logging on and subscribing to this channel keep up the good work thank you

Thank you - nice clear instruction for me to practice

Guilty as charged on some of those. Good solid practice steps on remediation. love sax school,

Really enjoy your channel. Wobbly notes at the bottom have been a real issue for me (esp Bb). Yes, there is light coming out of the pad unless I really press down hard on the key. I think my problems might be solved! Thanks!

This was obviously for the beginner. I was hoping you addressed reed adjustment for this, since I'm an experienced player. I just have some reeds that produce a honky Bb. But I understand why you didn't. Still a very good video.

Thank you for this!

Great video, thanks

Very helpful. Thanks.

Thanks brilliantly trying to get restart back

Guys guys, its all in the long tones. Its really annoying to have a professor or a tutor repeat this over and over but its true! At least 20 minutes a day with the note you want to fix, better yet all the notes and you are good to go. Its just a gradual process. I promise that from day 1 to 30 you will definitely notice a major improvement on that low B or B flat. Cheers!

Thank you

Thanks a lot, this really helped!

great tips

THANK YOU!!!!!

Sweet where is your lessons for biginners, you could say I'm in kindergarten, but tenor I my desire, 🙋🙌

nice tutorial,it did help me

this help sooo much

THIS WAS HELPFUL😊😊😊😊

great for beginners

Thanks I couldn’t get the low e out and now I can

I was doing all of the wrong things you mentioned at the start haha trying to loosen my jaw and puffing my cheeks to get those low notes. do you have a method to keep keeping embouchure the same but not too tight as to accidentally jump to the octave above on the low notes?

I think all what Nigel has conveyed here applies for hitting the low notes. Just one more small item to pay attention to...your mind. You have to think deep in order to play low, you think high when you are playing the higher notes..right? so do the same for reaching down to the lower notes. As Nigel has stated, nothing really changes from playing from high to low, unless of course your horn needs attention.

Great insights about the low notes. I can't even hit the low B and B flat yet. First I'll check to make sure I'm not leaking, then go from there. thanks.

Very informative video McGill. Jus wanted to ask a different question. I play a hard rubber otto link tone edge straight signature mouthpiece for my tenor. Whats your view on that mouthpiece? I see u are playing a hard rubber in this video. Any recommendations on hard rubber mouthpieces for tenor?

Excellent tips. Thanks. Do they work also for C-melody straight neck saxes?

I ask you something important 😊 I will start to take some lessons and I need to know what saxophone should I buy(my friends said alto but ..I ony afford this once-in my country are extremly expensive 😔) so your advice is very precious for me ☺ thank you so very much

I was thinking on getting the THEO WANNE FIRE 🔥 MOUTHPIECE. THEO WANNE WEBSITE HAS SIZE 6, 7, 8. BUT YOU SAID YOU LIKE SIZE 8 CAUSE OF THE SOUND BUT what would be a good REED????

My low C,B and Bb are way too flat. When the temperatures are down, even more ( I practice in an unheated shed) Is it my embouchure or is there something wrong with my saxophone?

one of my tenor saxophone the low c and low Bb flat and low b and d notes don't come out like they should but they come out perfect on my other tenor saxophone so this tells me there's a leak in the saxophone

All this did was break my sax more....now I cant play D and below

I have trouble getting my left little finger in the right place for low Bb. It seems my fingers really don't want to spread apart. My hands are not particularly small but the fingers just don't spread easily and I have to turn the sax diagonally and brace it against my body to get Bb. Do you have any tips please?

Hi, I’m just wondering, how do you play the low notes extremely quickly? I have a quarter note 220 swing and I’m playing half-ghosted C sharp to b to b flat on an alto. Are there any things to look out for? Having a lot of trouble getting them to pp and to sound right even on a forte. Thanks!S e

I just started on sax and sometimes my ovctive key doesn't work

when i play low b of b flat, it vibrates, like automatic vibrato

Sorry I am a bit late to the party :) I am alto player, played altro for 25 years mark 6. My alto sax Is perfectly in tune and low notes are great. Now got myself a tenor yanagisawa and low c is sharp. I wonder if the sax is out of tune or I should open more my throat on tenor for the low notes. Ty I hope I explained myself. Anyone has the same issue as me ?

I was watching your fingers on how you where able to play low B, Bb C#. I notice you keep your pinky bent and I will try it that way, I was keeping my pinky straight and have trouble but I will try with the left pinky bent from the start. I only been playing a couple months short of a year and I am finally starting to read music and play songs. I also am working on the chromatic scale Low Bb. I have a Jean Paul tenor saxophone. Pete

One time i could not play low e and i broke my saxophone out of anger but i learnt not to bite so hard and now i dont bit as hard as i used to

I can do the low C and the low Bb. But I have many difficulties to do the low B. It sounds like ( bo bo bo bo) and some times I can get is very nice. It funny when it happens. For sure is my embochure.I ddon't think is my saxophone. I'm playing around 4 months. Whats do you think Professor?

Good ! Can you tell me what is you're saxophone,

Hi there Nigel, just one question for you: why does my soprano sax squeak as I play the lower register? Is it a problem with my embouchure? My practice today was absolutely terrible!! Any help and advice you can give me would be very gratefully received please! Thank you very much. I'm playing with a Hemker strength 3 reed.

Hey my saxophone teacher gave me a tip to start loud and get softer

Question :i am having always difficulty playing the low 3 notes quietly, not a problem playing them loudly . i am doing something wrong? I keep hearing that you need a lot of air flow. so does that mean that it needs to be loud when it comes to playing those notes in particular ? and since I can play them loud does it mean that the saxophone has no problem or it may still have some ? thank you for answering because nobody really talks about this.

hi, which brand saxophone are you using in this video?

I'm just getting started on tenor sax (coming from years of playing brass instruments). A lot of times, when I attempt to play notes in the middle and low range, it skips up the octave, even though I'm not holding the octave key. Is this a problem with me? What can I do to fix this?

how do you play vibrato on these low notes on Saxophone?!

My problem is that I can't play my lower notes good when they are the first note that I play. If I play something else first its much easier.

I’m a bari sax player and I have no problem on the low d and c. The notes that are really pissing me off are the low C#, Low B and Bb, and especially the low a. I’ve tried everything from loosening my embochure (not sure how it’s spelt) to buying new reeds and nothing has worked. Is it possible that it could be my instrument

Any help for an Alto with a spitting sound? Beginner here

I learned the low notes first, up through the middle to high. The main problem was really the jaw position when going from the low/med/high registers, in combination with the throat openness. Some books/instructors say not to move the jaw forward/back, some say to do so when switching octaves, so it's confusing.

what sax do you use?

I tried everything I could and everything in this video, but I can't get a note under D to come out. (By the way, I'm a beginner, and I need this kind of help. If you could respond back on how to fix it, I would be very grateful.)

Why would you want to fix this? Honking is good! Just ask Leo P :,)

Whenever I play E it goes high, on Alto. My other notes lower than G are fine, it's just E, my Reed is fine and I'm pressing hard enough on the pads, can anyone help me please? Thanks, much appreciated.

I'm learning tounging on my saxophone and the the low notes are hard Even when I'm not tounging

Mine likes to do a skipping sound all the time :/

The low c on my tenor is hard

Low D is very difficult to play 😢

Struggling with my low C and basically everything below that.

Hey brother nice but u dint answer, love about that low note so can u .

I find if I move my mouthpiece to the top of my mouth, I can play B flat.

I can’t play a g or e but everything else is fine 😭😭😭

Brother do you ever answer😒