With reference to Ray Smith’s book, ‘The Real Jazz Pedagogy Book‘, the fundamental issue in connection with intonation problems has to do with playing at the incorrect mouthpiece pitch; resulting in a lack of proper calibration to ensure accurate pitch. The diagram above illustrates the correct mouth piece pitches for the three common saxophones in a big band setting. In Ray’s experience, most students tend to play too high: from a semi tone to 2 tones too high on the mouthpiece in what he calls, The Saxophone Syndrome.