recently one of my friends from my highschool band class (who is now the current band director at the highschool we went to) decided to get us all back together to play some with the highschool band. he has acquired a bari sax but has never played one and he wanted to know if i would play it instead of the tenor which i played when we were in highschool. i messed around with it a little bit but am having difficulty with the octave change. im wondering about the key on the loop of the neck, what is it for, is it used in some kind of combination to get a smoother transition etc ? im also looking for a bari fingering chart if there is such a thing ? thanks, aaron

well, fingering for a bari is the same as any other sax, excepting the low-A, which is just hitting the low-C pinky trigger, and hitting the low-A key with your thumb. I don`t know exactly what you meen about the key on the loop though, because octave switching is pretty much the same as an alto

I don`t play it but i know from sum1 who played alto that there isn`t a major transition. I`m sure u could find a fingering chart sumwhere on the internet.

do you mean that index finger key above the top key for the B? that`s on all saxes, it`s for alternate fingering for higher notes, like high F, and more...

never use it....

Ok, i think i know what your talkin about. On my bari, and the schools beter one, the neck comes down and attaches to the sax. About an inch further along, there is a key. On mine, that "key" is actually a spit valve. every now and then a good bit o` spit gets caught in there and you must open it to get it out. I`m gonna assume the key is a spit valve.

When i said get it out, i of course meant it would kind of drip out. Just clarifying that.