“the middle D (on saxophone) frequently comes out High, very high, most often during a slur”

Playing tenor sax “About 9 years, but as a novice… and I’ve had that same issue since I began.”

(practices 5 or 6  days/week)

-Pam, California

My response:

The likely reason for that happening is your fingers not being perfectly synchronized. I imagine that if you play from the E right above the middle D to the D or from F, which is also close by, you do not have this problem. From E to D you only move one finger.

However, from C to D for example, you move many fingers at once. If some are early or late (also depends on which fingers), you may get a very high pitch.

A lot of what we play and sound like depends on our fingers on saxophone.

If you would like to work more on your fingers and technique to fix things like this, check out Saxophone Tribe.