Pulling out or pushing in the mouthpiece is the way sax players tune their horns. Longer horns (pulled out) are lower pitched, and vice versa.

This changes with temperature. Wind instruments tend to play lower during cold weather and higher when it's warm.

In addition, no saxophone will play perfectly in tune with itself. But not knowing how 'off' yours is, I cannot make a comparison. This is typical of all woodwind instruments.

When I was in beginning band, the teacher told us to sit in front of a tuner (they were Stobe-o-Conn tuners at the time), tune the instrument to Bb concert (C on the tenor or soprano or G on the alto or baritone) and then play chromatic long tones in front of the tuner, noting which notes are flat, and which are sharp. As you are dong this, you need to correct the pitch. How? Increase pressure on the lower lip to bring flat notes up to pitch and decrease pressure to correct sharp notes.

When you have done this enough, you learn the intonation 'signature' of the saxophone so that when you play, you automatically know which way to adjust your lip if not in tune. That saves the analysis of "is the note flat or sharp" and lets you correct quicker. Eventually, adjusting the lip becomes as natural as fingering the note.

Each time I get a new saxophone, I go through the same process to learn the signature of the sax.

My oldest sax is a 1925 model, and it is the most out of tune with itself. The best one is my newest sax. I suppose through the years refinements have been made.

Peter, another option for learning sax might be a Yamaha WX5 wind MIDI controller and a Yamaha VL70m sound module. Granted it will be more expensive, (I would guess a little more than $1,000 or so USD) but since the VL is discontinued and nothing better has come out, resale value might be good.

If interested, I can direct you to some sources. Same for anyone else interested. PM me or post here, I'm always happy to help.

Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com

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