Talk:Alto saxophone

German pic

Can't we just use the alto sax pic in the german article? MToolen 01:38, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)

The link is here, actually. Anyway, I'm fixing the image that the writer intended to use, and I added some links and various other stuff to the article. It's still a stub, though... --Jemiller226 18:42, 24 Apr 2005 (UTC)

"Great alto saxophonists"

I'm sensing that the list of alto saxophonists merely reflects individual editors' favorites. (For that matter, why duplicate List of saxophonists in this article?) I've changed "Great alto saxophonists" to "Notable alto saxophonists", as the former is completely PoV. And frankly, I'm puzzled by the inclusion of Fela Kuti among the "great alto saxophonists" (and I'm a Fela fan). He was a great musician but I would not count him among great alto saxophonists, while at the same time wondering how one could measure this, anyway (a "Donna Lee" contest?). (For the same reason, I would not list David Bowie among great alto saxophonists or guitarists, nor Brian Eno among great keyboardists etc.). But then I guess that merely illustrates my point of changing "great" to "notable." Again, however, I think any listing here is redundant, we have a separate list for that. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 05:27, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

Read my mind. ¦ Reisio 14:46, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

Manufacturers

I didn't think that SML was currently producing saxophones, and it looks like I'm correct judging from this website. I've removed SML from the list. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 21:29, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

Is it possible to do something about the flat signs? or is it just my computer? wouldnt Bb be better than b? or is it some formatting im not familiar with.

Yes and yes. The best solution would be for you to make your system more Unicode friendly - it's 2007. ¦ Reisio 04:52, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

I feel like a mention of the big 4 saxophone makers(Selmer Paris, Keilworth, Yanagisawa, and Yamaha) would be appropriate for this section. Yes, they are already mentioned in the article, but they're also given the same emphasis as Buffet Crompton and Vito is. Buffet Crompton and Vito were never exactly saxophone powerhouses, and they definitely aren't now. Notable saxophone manufacturers from the past would also be nice. Names like Buescher, King, Martin, and Couf. Possibly add SML back to the historic section. They might have not made many horns, but from everything I can gather the ones they did make are very good. Mezmorizorz (talk) 22:40, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Two important points: 1- only if there's published manufacturing/sales data (contemporary and/or historical) to cite. 2- any such mention should be in the saxophone article, not in this one. - Special-T (talk) 18:40, 16 August 2012 (UTC)

Range

The alto can play higher than an F natural. I know for certain it can go upto F#, and almost certainly higher. (Maybe we could add the altissimo in brackets?) BabaDraconis 19:37, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

Unless I misunderstood your comment, it's already there in the article's fourth paragraph. ---Sluzzelin 20:11, 18 February 2007 (UTC)

Sorry, I wasn't entirely clear, reading it back. I meant that it might be a good idea to add the altissimo to the diagram of the instrument's range, perhaps in brackets or ossia sized notes. BabaDraconis 10:38, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

Additionally, not only do most saxophones have an F# key, but some even have a G key. A low A can also be sounded with a mute. Justi521 (talk) 07:02, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Please fix the flat signs to show b instead of those square shapes. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 144.139.101.167 (talk • contribs) 02:38, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

I think it's a matter of having up-to-date fonts (though I'm not sure which ones). It looks OK on the various computers I'm using. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 12:45, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

The squares mean that your settings aren't allowing the symbol to be shown. There's nothing anyone else can do about it. Justi521 (talk) 07:04, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

same its just fine for me honestly, i think its a problem with your computer? Rifecos (talk) 23:17, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

Price

I hardly think the section including prices of saxophones is relevent. It's not in any of the pages for the other types of saxophone. I suggest it be removed. ChaosMaster 00:37, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

It's notable, and therefore relevant. ¦ Reisio 21:06, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Why is it relevant? I think it is not due to its lack of sources and that it has a viewpoint that is not historical, not worldwide, and not neutral. It's not that it's not true; it's just not very encyclopedic. MToolen 03:40, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Why is it relevant?

...because it's notable...

I think it is not due to its lack of sources

If you want it cited, go find a source, or mark it with {{fact}} and someone else will spend all of 30 seconds doing so.

and that it has a viewpoint that is not historical,

Yes, we should get that info, too.

not worldwide,

No, that should be fairly accurate for the entire world, though obviously we're using USD, but this is the English Wikipedia, after all.

and not neutral.

Erm...numbers do not take sides.

It's not that it's not true; it's just not very encyclopedic.

Maybe you should read our "encyclopedia".

¦ Reisio 16:54, 5 May 2007 (UTC)

Transposition

The alto saxophone is a transposing instrument and reads the treble clef in the key of E♭ (meaning that a written C for the alto will sound as E♭; concert, a minor third higher).

A minor third higher, or a major sixth lower, as stated in the sidebar? 141.156.214.82 03:42, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

As far as I can tell, you are correct. A written C5 would be concert E♭4, a major sixth lower. I'll take care of it. MToolen 20:48, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

Sources

Is http://www.saxophones.co.uk/ a reliable source? It's VERY pro-sax and doesn't seem to provide non-partisian, citable information. Alvis 07:11, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

I did away with the link. ¦ Reisio 19:29, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Low A?

Should the existence of low A altos be mentioned here somewhere? High F# is mentioned, but aren't low A's significant enough despite the fact that they are much less common? Xasz (talk) 03:37, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

Which of those notes does your sax have? Willi Gers07 (talk) 20:09, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

I'd guess-timate the ratio of high-F# horns to low-A horns to be at least 1000:1, so, maybe a short mention of their existence. Published figures/facts about low A's would be worth a sentence. - Special-T (talk) 01:00, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Range issue

"(meaning that a written C for the alto will sound as E♭; concert, a major sixth lower, or a minor third above)."

This has to be a problem. If the sax plays a sixth LOWER then written, then it will not sound a minor third above. A minor third above may be the same pitch, but it will be an octave too high for what's written. I believe this is a misleading and confusing statement. I'm going to pull it, and it can be reinserted if I'm misinterpreting it. TheHYPO (talk) 05:55, 17 October 2008 (UTC)

Just remove the incorrect "or a minor third above"; the rest of it is useful explanation. Happy‑melon 12:43, 17 October 2008 (UTC)

If I'm reading this right..."The range of the alto saxophone is from concert D♭3 (the D♭ below middle C - see Scientific pitch notation)"...is wrong. It should be Db4 and is above middle C. And it should go up to Ab6, not Ab5. We are talking concert pitch, aren't we? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.182.237.68 (talk) 09:44, 5 April 2010 (UTC)

The concert pitch of the bottom note of the alto's range is the Db below middle C. Sounds like you're reading correctly, but are mistaken about the pitch. - Special-T (talk)

Am I being confused because sax music is not written in the range it sounds, whereas other instruments are? i.e. Flute music is written high. Tuba music is written low. All sax music is written in the center of the treble clef, whether soprano or bari. It still seems to me that altos don't get down below middle C, which is the one below the treble staff. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.182.237.68 (talk) 01:22, 18 April 2010 (UTC)

Saxhorn

I have moved the following comment from the article to the talk page. -- Gyrofrog (talk) 21:23, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

This is wrong. It was a saxhorn, a now-obsolete brass instrument made by the same designer. Saxophone players were asked to premiere and dismissed by the composer. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.161.207.89 (talk • contribs) 19:39, 22 March 2010

The saxophone IS common in classical music

The saxophone is used quite a lot in various classical settings. They are used in wind symphonies, quartets, solo with piano, solo with orchestra, member of the orchestra(occasionally), solo with wind symphony, etc.

It was listed before as only being used commonly in wind symphonies. This is simply not true, as the sax is used in almost all outlets of classical music. I replaced "symphonic" with "classical" to make it far more accurate. Zenkai251 (talk) 04:03, 8 January 2012 (UTC)

Most Common Saxophone

It says in the article that the Alto Saxophone is the most common type of Saxophone. Is that true? I'll be glad if it is since it's my favourite kind of Saxophone, but all the same, is it verified that that is the case. In the Tenor Saxophone article, all it says is that it and the Alto are the most common, without saying that the Tenor is the second most common. ― C.Syde (talk | contribs) 10:20, 18 March 2017 (UTC)

i mean i think it might be? our wind ensemble has 4 altos, 2 tenors and one bari so i dont know haha it might just be our band placements Rifecos (talk) 23:19, 19 December 2023 (UTC)

Edit conflict

I'm noting here that @Why? I Ask and I are in a conflict about the range property of the infobox on this article. In order to prevent continued edit-warring or violation of WP:3RR, I would like us to discuss issues here and try to reach consensus. For my part, my reasoning is: 1. the use of Lilypond markup via the Score Extension throughout the Mediawiki projects, including Wikipedia, is widespread, justified and encouraged, see WP:MTHEORY; 2. maintaining snippets of notation in the article wiki text, as musical notation markup, is more maintainable, and will always benefit from future improvements to the rendering (in this case, upcoming changes to render as SVG); 3. any editor can maintain the notation in-situ without needing separate music notation software or having to separately upload an image to Commons; 4. all music markup snippets, throughout Wikipedia, will be rendered in the same consistent fashion, rather than the rendering depending on the use of notation tool (or image format (PNG, JPEG, SVG), text font, with or without background transparency, etc.)—Jon (talk) 01:18, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

Yes, Lilypond is great, just not for ranges in the infobox when a better alternative exists. An .svg that can easily be copied, downloaded, and scaled serves the reader better. Whenever I click on the range you added, it instead prompts me to download a .midi file instead of bringing up the photo. That means the reader needs another application to view it in higher resolution, and such applications may even be hard to access on mobile. You say that there will be improvements to rendering to allow Lilypond markup to be shown as an .svg on Wikipedia, but you said that currently isn't available. I personally have never seen it implemented, so I can't comment on how that works and offer my thoughts there.

I also don't think there's a need for all ranges in each infobox across articles to be exactly consistent ( even if there was, just ask and I can make a range chart exactly the same), and I don't see issues of maintainability either, as the saxophone range is a consistent aspect of the instrument. I also fail to see how uploading a file is any harder than learning a fairly novel markup language. Why? I Ask (talk) 02:21, 29 November 2022 (UTC)

Classical Saxophone Genre

Classical Saxophone is characterized by the use of the instrument, particularly the alto saxophone in a classical music setting. This includes but is not limited to symphonic orchestras, chamber ensembles and soolo performances that include classical music elements Havalynnx (talk) 18:11, 28 January 2023 (UTC)

pic of Ornette with a low-A alto

That alto that Ornette Coleman is playing in the picture has a low A. I don't have a ref for that, but there's that extra tone hole on the bell section. If it is, it should be mentioned in the caption. Special-T (talk) 00:22, 20 December 2023 (UTC)