Are flute and alto saxophone fingerings similar?

Answer 1

The primary difference between the Bb Soprano Saxophone and the Bb soprano Clarinet (to choose equivalent members of their families) comes from the fact that the clarinet has a cylindrical bore and overblows a 12th (octave plus a fifth) while the Saxophone overblows by an octave.

This means that the saxophone's second octave fingers like the first octave, while the clarinet needs extra keys to get the first four notes of the second octave!

There are other differences (for instance, the clarinet has a very large number of little-finger keys used for alternate fingerings, making it possible to play passages more smoothly which otherwise would be viciously hard to play at all.) But this is the fundamental difference between them.

( added on ) i don't know much about clarinets but I'm going to use this as an example. to play the same tone of another instrument you have different notes. For example. concert G would be A natural for saxaphones but a C for a horn

Answer 2

All forms of clarinets have the same fingerings, but when you get into the bass clarinets one key is added at the bottom, and the alto clarinet has an extra key at the bottom too which helps the alto and Bass Clarinet reach down to the low Eb. But there are different versions of bass clarinets there is low Eb and low C. The low C's will have three extra key rite under the thumb rest which let you go down to D, C#, and C.

Answer 3

NO not at all

Well it wont let me delete the guys answer which is a shame because he is absolutely wrong... The fingerings are exactly the same. the only difference is that the some of the newer bari saxes have an extra "octave like" key that pressed with the low Bb fingering plays low A.

Answer 4

Yes- actually they are similiar. I am playing soprano sax and Flute, and the thing that throws me every once in a while is the octave key (left thumb on sax) throws me off of playing the normal thumb key on flute.

If you're going to play both; have fun! :):)

Answer 5

Pretty much. I played the recorder then learned the sax, and most of the basic fingerings are the same, except F sharp.

Answer 6

they are pretty different around B and C but the rest are almost the same as the notes over the break on the clarinet if that makes sense? :S

Answer 7

NO, of course they don't. Alto Sax fingerings are similar to the other keys of saxes (baritone;soprano;tenor;etc.) and the recorder

Answer 8

they are similar, but not completely the same.