What Key Is The Alto Sax In?

Most people, picking up an alto sax for the very first time, would probably, naturally, assume that it was tuned to the key of C.

What that would mean is that playing the standard note C, which is what most musical scores regard as ‘Do’ (a deer, a female deer), would produce a note familiar as that standard C.

They would of course be very, very wrong.

If this proves anything about the human condition, it’s that the alto sax is an instrument of mystic sorcery and it should only ever be played by wizards, because its playing involves arcane knowledge where things are never what they seem to be.

In very slightly more serious terms, the alto sax is what is known as a transposing instrument. What that means is that while we must remember this, a kiss is still a kiss, a C is not a C. Instruments that are played along the lines set down in music scores are called “concert instruments.”

There’s a direct correlation between the notes you play, including the fingering you adopt, the strings you pluck, the keys you strike…and the note that’s produced. You read C, you finger for C, you produce a C.

While it might sound like an idyllic musical world, this is not the world in which alto sax players live, breathe, finger, and blow. Because the straightforward, honest-to-goodness truth about an alto sax is that it’s tuned to the key of E♭ - E-Flat.

That means when you adopt the fingering for a natural C on an alto sax and blow the note, you don’t produce a natural C, but an E-Flat. Read C, play C, produce E-Flat.

It’s a strange, perverse world, the world of the alto saxophonist.

The useful thing – in fact, possibly the only thing that keeps players of transposing instruments from going cross-eyed with calculation during any performance – is that you don’t have to think about a fingered C producing an E-Flat.

The score will usually be written for the instrument in question, so if you’re reading an alto sax score, and it tells you to play a C, you adopt the fingering for a C and play it as if it were a C.

The fact that the sound that comes out is actually an E-Flat couldn’t – and probably shouldn’t ­– matter less if you’re performing from a score. Play what’s on the sheet and you’ll end up with a joyful noise.

What’s more, play what’s on the score and you’ll end up with the right noise for your instrument in the piece in question.

Weirdly, while it might seem like this is all some grand conspiracy to make the lives of alto sax players suck, really, it’s designed to make everyone’s lives easier.

It becomes the responsibility of the composer to write their score or their sheet music in a common musical notation but with transposed intent.

So you read a C, play a C, just as everyone else does, and can relinquish responsibility for the E-Flat that comes out when you play.

Of course, frequently – especially with the alto sax - you’re not playing from a score, which can lead to confusion between the fingering positions and the notes actually produced.

If you want to produce an actual C on an alto sax, you have to finger for the A beneath the C – which would be a perfect third lower than your intended C.

So, wait. It’s all some grand conspiracy to make the lives of unscored alto sax players suck?

Well…sort of. It’s not intentional, but without a score to work off, yes, you’re going to have to learn the transpositions of the alto sax notes to the concert pitch notes.

Time for a handy comparison table?

While at first, this can feel like learning a whole other language, and having to calculate transpositions in your head, in real time, there are two helpful things when it comes to alto sax transpositions.

Firstly, the progression is logical, and the same as the progression of concert C-pitched notes. The notes are different, sure, but the increments of their progression are the same, so the more you play, the more natural the transposition will become. Because it maintains its internal logic, it helps you overcome the difference in the actual notes.

And secondly, practice will make playing alto sax instinctive. If you regularly play alto sax without a score, you’ll start thinking in alto sax notation and play the notes on the right-hand side of the table.

If you regularly alternate between playing with a score and playing without one, chances are you’ll start thinking in concert-C notation, the notes on the left-hand side of the table, while understanding that the sound you’ll make will correspond to the notes on the right.

There’s one more case to look at. What if you regularly alternate between alto (or baritone – they use the same transposition) and tenor (or soprano – they share a transposition too) sax? Is that when your brain explodes?

Nope – it’s just time for a slightly different comparison table. While alto saxes are in the key of E-Flat, tenors operate in the key of B-Flat.  That generates a different series of transpositions

Because alto saxophones are in the key of E-Flat, tenor saxophones are in the key of B-Flat, and many other instruments in bands or orchestras stick with the Concert C-notation for ease and uniformity, it can sometimes feel like you’re playing in three different languages if you play alto in those three scenarios.

But really, it’s like riding a bike or driving a car – you learn a lot of individual processes, and at first, they’re hard, but with practice, your brain forms neural pathways that make them easier, so you can mix and match the languages of transposition as you need to.

Sure, if playing alto with and without a score is like learning to drive, playing alto and tenor with and without a score is equivalent to learning to drive stick as well as automatic. But once you have the notation transpositions under your belt, you’ll be good to go.