Saxophone beginners Tenor altissimo advice

[skeller047]

Jamie Anderson just posted a video on voicing and altissimo. I watched it last night (early AM for you Brits…) - it’s pretty good. Bombastic of course, but solid info.

View: https://youtu.be/iR0Z2ULigPk

 

[LostCircuits]

Depending on the horn this may be the easiest fingering for G, it is actually one of the easier altissimo notes, specifically compared to G#. But of course, everything is relative and you can try and try and try and nothing seems to work until one day it does and you'll be scratching your head about where your problem was.

And as for tutorials on altissimo, the best one (for me) has been Dave Pollack's"

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH8FodHo_Fk

 

[JSL]

But on tenor, I can't even get the G to sound. I hear that A is often easier than G, but I can't get A either (though I am doubting the claim, since G was easier for me on the alto).

I find altissimo A to be the easiest altissimo note by far on tenor, aside from F# which is equally easy. G is definitely a bit more difficult because it takes 'careful' voicing. For that note, I find I have to back off a bit on the airstream; it's easy to overblow and miss the note. Just takes some practice to get it right.

 

[LostCircuits]

I find altissimo A to be the easiest altissimo note by far on tenor, aside from F# which is equally easy. G is definitely a bit more difficult because it takes 'careful' voicing. For that note, I find I have to back off a bit on the airstream; it's easy to overblow and miss the note. Just takes some practice to get it right.

A and A# (Bb) were the ones I was struggling with for the longest time until I accidentally hit A and then it became instantly one of the easiest altissimo notes. F#, F, E are also super easy, I hardly use the palm keys on tenor for those notes. And everything higher up, the higher you go the easier they get.

 

[Bokagee]

I'll try to relate how I play altissimo on tenor (and alto, and soprano) but it's not easy to accurately describe. For me, starting out was just getting things to pop out any way I could figure out how on my own, but with some instructional guidance from books. I found that nobody could really describe it for me in a way that worked, but I'll try. I have worked on, and continue to work on daily, playing from F#3-G4 as an extension to the horn's range -- not as an effect, but in trying to play up there the same as everywhere else on the horn. I can approach doing that, but not really, because it's a different animal for at least a couple of reasons -- first, the fingerings can be relatively clumsy, and second, it's all harmonics, not the fundamental tone.

Someone mentioned Rascher's Top Tones for the Saxophone. That's an excellent reference. Rousseau's Saxophone High Tones is good too/ There are two big takeaways from that book, for me. The things to work on are 1) Closed Tube Harmonics and 2) Overblowing 6ths. There's a lot more than those two things, but those are almost prerequisite to getting started playing altissimo.

Closed Tube Harmonics: play a low Bb. Now play a low Bb with the octave key, sounding Bb2, an octave up. With the same fingering, play F, Ab, Bb, D, F, Ab and Bb in an arpeggio above that. (some would say it should go Bb2 to Bb3, skipping the F2 and Ab2 in between them, but I can get them all, most of the time) There's the rub: how do you get those to come out? It's by modifying your air stream with your oral cavity, soft palette and throat. Think of your horn as a resonant chamber that starts with the reed, making it a closed cone. Think also of your oral cavity, soft palette and throat as forming a resonant chamber BEFORE the reed. Raise the soft palette; change the tongue position; open your throat to different degrees. You might have to 'bite', that's not optimal, but at first you might find it helpful, and just have to work that back out of your chops later. Likewise, sticking your jaw in or out a couple microns might help at first, but again suboptimal, you'll have to work that back out again later. I'm just talking about how to get started here. You should be able to blow closed tube harmonics like this from low Bb to C#. C# is the hardest to get at first.

The important thing is that you have a resonant chamber both in front of the reed and beyond the reed. Modifying aspects of the one in front of the reed is what enables the harmonics to pop out by forcing the reed to vibrate differently - you can feel it. I'll bet I worked on that for at least a couple years before it started working -- I'm a slow learner about some things like that. In my little mind it's a similar challenge to getting a good sound on flute. My flute sound is still not all that, not even close.

Overblowing 6ths: Starting with high D (D3), you can overblow a 6th above that -- a B4 -- with the same techniques as closed tube harmonics, only with slight variations. All the different harmonics require slight variations of your entire oral cavity. Your embouchure, in the end, shouldn't have to change very much to get them to pop out. You should be able to overblow 6ths from high D to high F. I can get them to come out on C#, but that's more difficult.

When they start popping out, they'll be out of tune. Modify your oral cavity to get them in tune, that's very very important. These two things will not only enable you to start to approach playing altissimo, but like playing long tones, will enable you to 'voice' your sound overall with your oral cavity and improve pitch center and focus. It's hard at first, but worth it.

If you can blow closed tube harmonics and overblow 6ths, then references like altissimo fingering charts will start to work for you. Good luck!

 

[SuperAction80]

Voicing, voicing, voicing. Anything you know on alto doesn't apply to tenor, at least in regards to this. Experiment with throat and tongue position. Try to "bugle" a high G out of a low C fingering. You can go to low B or low Bb if it helps in stability.

Yes, I know the overtone series. No, that's not the point of this exercise. Rascher's point, extremely oversimplified, is that you can get a lot of notes out of low Bb if you sing them into existence. The fingerings help with timbre and tuning, but aren't necessarily a here all end all to get that tone out. Of course, if you're in your palm keys range and are trying to go to a high G by voicing a low Bb into tune, it would be a bit jarring. Think about the venting of the horn of where you were versus where you went. Tone wise, they would be night and day, even if you nail the tuning. The point of the exercise isn't to use the low fingerings as an absolute, but rather as a way to identify what your throat, tongue, and airflow should be doing in that range. Once you know what the note should feel like, then go hunting around for the fingering that works best.