Playing Altissimo G - help please.

[half diminished]

Happily transcribing Miles' solo off So What when I suddenly need to hit Altissimo G. I know its a difficult one but any suggestions otherwise I'm gonna have to drop an octave which will be a shame. I just cannot do it. 🙁

 

[thomsax]

On my saxes I can play: Front aux F# key or front F# key + Bb side key or front aux F# key + F key + side Bb key (octave key pressed on) ... . I also think a medium mouthpiece with a baffle and medium or mh reed helps up. Overtones exercises is important to get good altissimo tones.

Thomas

 

[Morgan Fry]

Keep working on your overtone exercises. If you can't attack the G while fingering low C, you can't hit it with any fingering. It takes some time and practice to get even the lower altissimo under your belt, but the rest of the horn will also sound better once you do.

 

[half diminished]

I'm finding overtones and therefore altissimo difficult. I have also just got a transcription of the Miles and Coltrane solos. The good news is I have all the right notes but in the case of Miles, I am an octave too high so looks like I won't be needing the high G after all - pity, it sound great up there (well up to F#)😀

 

[Morgan Fry]

I'm finding overtones and therefore altissimo difficult. I have also just got a transcription of the Miles and Coltrane solos. The good news is I have all the right notes but in the case of Miles, I am an octave too high so looks like I won't be needing the high G after all - pity, it sound great up there (well up to F#)😀

Keep at it, your tone will thank you. One thing that helped me a lot is practicing scales on the mouthpiece alone. You can play a 10th on just your mouthpiece. Play scales and scale paterns just using your vocal cavity to change the pitch (OK your chops move a little but you're not raising the pitch by biting, you're doing it by raising the back of your tongue).

Great melodic solos to work on, BTW, 2 of my all time favorites (Cannonball's ain't too shabby either!)