I have been playing sax for 3½ months now and have just upgraded my mouthpiece to an Ottolink 5 ebonite, Rovner ligature and strength 2 reed (from a 1.5). I now seem to "squeak" more, especially on G and going down the low notes, it's really frustrating. I was doing fine and thought it was best to upgrade the mouthpiece setup as it felt "too easy". Have I got the wrong choice mouthpiece/ligature, etc? Or do I need more practice on this new setup? Can anyone help? I'm playing a new Trevor James Alto on hire at the moment.

Im not really an expert, but u probly just need to get used to the new set up.

I agree with Katet

I agree to, its practice.
I did a similar thing not realising that upping a reed and buying a propper mouthpiece would make things hard work.
I was exactly as you descibe yourself and it took about 3 weeks to really be comfortable enough to get consistancy out of the new set up.
I did cheat and go back to the old set up whenfrustration got the better of me though!!

the difference in the sound will be incredible though and well worth the change, try blowing gently.
My teacher suggested that many people dont realise you can blow gently and softly, try with just the mouthpiece and crook, then and the sax once you can get a steady cotrolled tone.

keep trying...keep the faith...

Thanks for the advice - I did cheat and go back to the old one last night and I could get the low notes again, but the sound just wasn't the same - I will keep persevering!

Talk about a saxophone squeak: Ever tried blowing through the mouthpiece without the crook and the body of the saxophone just the mouthpiece, we used to do that at school all the time (no not the teachers idea), and that made an awful squeak.

Yeah, all the younger ones in school love playing around with that!

How does it compare with those annoying piccolos, never did it when we had a piccolo in the band (we didn't dare we had a international champion of champions for tuba as our teacher).

It's annoying when used excessively!

I can just about stand piccolos if they are played well!

As the sax is new, we can assume that the seal is tight (but then not all new sax are set up properly), the problem may be the reed or your embouchure.

Reed: What make of reed do you use? Tried another strength? No. 2 sounds good but ensure that you dont place the reed too low.

Embouchure: Try and relax your embouchure especially when playing the lower register. You also may have too much mpc in your mouth. Try not to tuck in your top lip - place your top teeth lightly on the mpc.

Good luck! Keep up the playing!

God, I hate to imagine what you think of that piccolo solo I recorded! >.<

Why are people so anti-piccolo? Granted we play flat half the time but still!

You play flat...ok!

It's just soo high and I have heard so many piccolos being played badly. *puts finger in ears*

lol

Thats the same reason i hate the oboe *shudders* sorry....