When it gets colder you tend to push in your mouthpiece a little to keep your saxophone from going flat.  It makes good intonation a lot easier anyway.  You don’t constantly adjust it, but having it at an optimal position for the saxophone and temperature overall keep you from straining to get it right.

Last night I was playing and it’s getting cold outside (around freezing at the low point these days) but it was getting pretty toasty inside.  A conflict!  I actually went a bit sharp and needed to pull the mouthpiece out a substantial amount.

That tends to happen when you play for dancers and they get into it.

Sometimes it gets to the point when it’s warm enough that it’s hard to keep the sax mouthpiece on tight because it’s pulled out too far.

So if you’re playing in a warmer area or it’s getting closer to summer, you might need to have the mouthpiece pulled out a little more in general.  And for that to work correctly, the cork on the neck needs to be expanded enough to keep the piece on properly.

To expand the cork, you need a source of heat (could be a match or lighter, but be careful) and to apply the heat evenly around the cork.

If you’re having the opposite problem, and need to push the mouthpiece farther on, you can use cork grease.

When you get a new mouthpiece, it doesn’t always fit the same way as your old one did, so adjustments can help.

You’ll see temporary adjustments sometimes with sax players rolling paper around the cork.  Works for a bit, but in general you want the mouthpiece you like to fit your sax.