Bb soprano saxophone

C#4

Impedance

Fingering a key depressed a key not depressed a hole covered a hole uncovered a part of the mechanism that is not normally touched Details in fingering legend. Acoustic schematic a closed tone hole an open tone hole Non-specialist introduction to acoustic impedance Non-specialist introduction to saxophone acoustics Notes are the written pitch. Frequencies are the sounding frequency, for Bb saxophone. Unless otherwise stated, the impedance spectrum is for a Bb saxophone.

At frequencies below about 1 kHz, this curve looks rather like that for A#3, B3 or C4, but raised in frequency because the tube is effectively shorter because of the three open tone holes (see tone holes). At higher frequencies, however, the waves propagate past the open tone holes with greater ease, and the situation is more complicated. See the discussion in cut-off frequency. For general comments about the first register, see A#3.

Compare with the impedance spectrum for a tenor sax on written C#4: same fingering but sounding one octave lower.

Sound

Sound spectrum of a Bb soprano saxophone played using fingering for C#4.
For more explanation, see Introduction to saxophone acoustics.

In the sound spectra for the low notes, we can notice a sudden increase in the negative slope of the spectral envelope that occurs close to the cut-off frequency of about 1.2 KHz.

Sound Clip

You can hear C#4 played.