Sax vs. Guitar: Which Instrument can hit the higher note?

[AlsoRan]

Which instrument can go the highest? How do they compare in that where does the 21st, 1st string fall in a Saxophones range?

[GodinFan]

Which saxophone?

A guitar tuned to standard tuning with a 22 fret neck can sound the concert D above the treble clef. The soprano sax betters this by a tone, when playing within the standard range.

All of the saxophones can produce viable notes beyond their standard range, but this varies with the skill of the player.

[JonR]

Depends which sax you mean...

Tenor sax (the most common one in rock and jazz) can't go as high as guitar. Top note is about E (12th fret).
Alto goes nearly as high as guitar (about A, 17th fret).
Soprano sax goes higher - up to around 23-24th fret (ie octave above tenor).
There's also a sopranino, even higher (octave higher than alto).

None of them can go as low as guitar.
Tenor gets down to Ab (4th fret bottom E)
Baritone sax (plays an octave lower than alto) and bass sax (octave lower than tenor) can get lower than guitar, b ut obviously their top notes are also lower.

However, some skilled sax players can produce notes above the natural range of the instrument - harmonics, squeaks, etc. The above limits are the normal ones which any sax player could achieve - when arranging for sax, one wouldn't write anything higher or lower than that.

BTW, if you're writing for sax, remember they're transposing instruments. If you want soprano saxophone to play that D on 22nd fret, you need to write an E 3 ledger lines up (and add 2 sharps to your key sig, or take away 2 flats). Give the same note to a tenor sax, he'd produce a D an octave lower - ie, near the top of his range, but equivalent to your 10th fret.

[randalljazz]

'course there's octave harmonics...

[AlsoRan]

Intriguing..

[disco~juice]

Which instrument can go the highest? How do they compare in that where does the 21st, 1st string fall in a Saxophones range?

Theremin.

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Theremin.

My younger daughter plays flute so I've been to my share of flute recitals, which often include a flute choir and on some numbers the choir will deploy two or three piccolos. Three piccolos in a small recital hall? My ears are ringing after that.

let's not turn this into an arms race!

[teok]

This one goes highest

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

This one goes highest

Caption: "D-did you say jazz cats?"

[AlsoRan]

This one goes highest

Now if you can just find with a mouse playing an archtop...

[ecj]

I'm going to assume we're talking about tenor, since that's the standard jazz horn. My brother is a sax player, so I'm pretty familiar.

His lowest note is an Ab (our fourth fret of the low-E).

His highest note in the natural range of the instrument is an E (our twelfth fret of the high-E).

He can play up to a high G in altissimo another octave and a half up, which is a technique using overtones to get above the natural range of the instrument. Way above the range of the guitar. I think that would be 27th fret if they made a guitar like that.

I can play artificial harmonics, so I still win.

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

Play slide!

[JonR]

I can play artificial harmonics, so I still win.

Exactly!
Harmonics is cheating, but saxes and guitars can both do it.

[Lionelsax]

In terms of high register, none instrument is limited, except a piano but if you prepare it, it can sound higher than you can imagine, the limit is our hearing range, dogs can tell you if it's higher enough.

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

[Greentone]

Bridge pickup, Telecaster, first string...plays all the way up to the bridge pickup. E6?

[docbop]

Sax player start getting into overblowing the horn and don't know their term harmonic they can get up there. What about the old C-Melody sax (kind of like a bent soprano sax) that's a pretty small sax? Then isn't flute and piccolo the same family a piccolo has very high range.

[Lionelsax]

Sax player start getting into overblowing the horn and don't know their term harmonic they can get up there. What about the old C-Melody sax (kind of like a bent soprano sax) that's a pretty small sax? Then isn't flute and piccolo the same family a piccolo has very high range.

No, the C melody sax is a kind of cheap tenor saxophone, it had been made for people who want to play in a church without transposing but some jazmmen had played it.
They stopped making them in 1929 and I guess you know why.
But in the 19th century, there were different saxophes, in C and F for classical and Bb and Eb for military music.

[docbop]

No, the C melody sax is a kind of cheap tenor saxophone, it had been made for people who want to play in a church without transposing but some jazmmen had played it.
They stopped making them in 1929 and I guess you know why.
But in the 19th century, there were different saxophes, in C and F for classical and Bb and Eb for military music.

Thanks for straightening that out for me, been a long time since I saw one.

[mangotango]

Actually, above the commonly-played 4 saxophones, there are sopranino and soprillo saxophones. (as I found out a little while back when I took my daughter to a sax store in London to upgrade her tenor.

Sopranissimo saxophone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sopranino saxophone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I didn't realise the soprillo that I saw WASN'T a toy, unrtil I clocked the price.

And below the main 4, there are the bass sax, contrabass sax, and subcontrabass sax - the lastmentioned of which can be used to topple small buildings at 20 paces.

[David L]

C-melody sax was THE sax to play in early dance and jazz bands, when there was only one sax. It lost favor as groups started using saxes in sections. It wasn't really needed, since it's range overlaps tenors so much. They weren't necessarily cheaper at the time, but were left by the wayside as manufacturers improved tenors and altos. As for playing them in church, that's certainly one use, but not the only one.

[Greentone]

My father played C-melody saxophone in high school, then university band around WWII. They had not completely fallen out of favor, at that point. They were more in use in classical settings, I guess--at least, whenever classical style music called for a sax.

[Lionelsax]

C-melody sax was THE sax to play in early dance and jazz bands, when there was only one sax. It lost favor as groups started using saxes in sections. It wasn't really needed, since it's range overlaps tenors so much. They weren't necessarily cheaper at the time, but were left by the wayside as manufacturers improved tenors and altos. As for playing them in church, that's certainly one use, but not the only one.

These are original saxophones for classical music.
Soprano in C
Alto in F
Tenor in C
Baritone in F

The C melody sax was only made for amateurs and wasn't a tenor, but a kind of long alto saxophone.
In jazz bands they played the instrument they had.

This is a tenor saxophone in C, but they call it "C melody sax" for the American internauts.
You notice he's using a C melody mouthpiece, that explains that the C melody sax is typically American.
Saxophones keyed in C and F, stopped being manifactured in the 19th and the mouthpieces which came with, there aren't a lot of models.

[Greentone]

I was six when my father gave his C sax away. I was envious. He told me not to be...it was obsolete.

[Lionelsax]

I was six when my father gave his C sax away. I was envious. He told me not to be...it was obsolete.

Don't be sad, you can buy one on ebay, there are a lot of C melody saxes, oneday I tried one and I didn't enjoy it.