Bb soprano saxophone

D#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 C#4 and D4 , but raised in frequency. At higher frequencies, however, the situation is more complicated because of the cut-off frequency. The 1 kHz cutoff means that there are only three strong peaks, so only three notes that one can 'bugle' with this fingering. The first peak can be reduced in magnitude and shifted in frequency using a register hole (operated by the octave key). See D#5.

For general comments about the first register, see A#3. Compare with the impedance spectrum for a tenor sax on written D#4: same fingering but sounding one octave lower.

Sound

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

Sound Clip

You can hear D#4 played.