Ah, yes, this page is all about the ever elusive and much
sought after high notes. In my years as a player and a teacher,
this is one of the most common lines of questioning I get. How
do you play those super high notes? What fingerings are you
using? Do I have to hold my embouchure in a special way?
Do I have to just blow real hard? Why can't I get these notes to
pop out like you do. There is only one answer for all of the questions and that is, practice... practice... practice.
As a young player while attending San
Francisco State University in 1974-75, I had the privilege of studying
with a great tenor sax player named Danny Patiris. I had been
playing about three years at that point. In other words, I still
had no clue as to how to play and what was going on with
improvisation. For two years all we worked on was long tones and
major scales. Pretty dry stuff you're thinking? Well, as
it turns out, we worked on the tools that would lay the foundation for
twenty five more years of playing and improvising. These are the
tools of your trade. You need a good sound and technique, but a
good technique is nothing without a great tone. Danny knew this.
The first, and most important thing you
should do is, of course, practice your long tones religiously!
You can refer to my page on long tones here.
By practicing long tones you will learn how to open up and play through
your horn. They will teach you that feeling of marrying the two
tubes together, your body and the Saxophone. You will have much
better control of your horn and what you can do with it. They will
teach you exactly where and with how much force to put that air
stream. Have you ever encountered the low Bb in a piece of music
with pp under it? Or, vice versa, the f above the
staff marked fff ? Long tone study will give you
more ability to perform these difficult dynamics. Two of the
best references on this subject are
Top Tones for the Saxophone
by Sigurd Rascher and Studies in High Harmonics by Ted
Nash. The fingerings in the Rascher book aren't much good, but
the exercises are the best. Click here for a
very interesting photo of Sigurd
Rascher.
Overtones
Basically, overtones or harmonics are
what you are dealing with when playing in the altissimo register.
While holding the fingering for low Bb, try to adjust your throat, air
stream and air speed to play the Bb that is an octave higher. Do this
on low B, C and C#. Next try to go up to the fifth after the first
octave. On Bb this would be an F. do that on low B, C and C#. After
you're comfortable with that, try to include the second octave as
well. When you get good at this you should be able to play the first
octave up, then the fifth, then the note that is the second octave up.
In Bb that would be Bb > Bb an octave higher > F an octave and a half
higher, then the Bb two octaves up. This may take a while so practice
this daily and it will start to happen for you.
If you would like to learn more about the harmonic overtone series, go
here.
Thank you, John.
One thing I should mention at this point
is the use of the front fingerings for the high "f" and high
"e" above the staff. Refer to my fingering chart here.
You should start practicing your scales and arpeggios using these
fingerings as often as possible. You should have equal facility
with both fingerings for both of these notes. These notes are
not quite the same as the other fingerings. You must have an
open throat and good support to have success with these notes.
They will "set up" your throat for the altissimo register.
I have stressed long tone study for a
reason. Before you can expect any success with the altissimo
register, you must have total control of the air stream and you must
have a well developed embouchure. Long tone study is simply the
best and fastest way of achieving these goals. Just because you
have the fingerings, this does not mean that all you have to do is
just blow harder. Among other criteria, you must be able
to hear the note you are attempting before you play it. Hear it
so well, you can sing it! One of the best ways to do this is to
approach the note by using it as the top note in an arpeggio. In
other words for altissimo "A", you might play A - C# - E
(front e) - A. "A" is probably the first one that will
happen for you, so try it first. "G" and
"G#" are two of the more elusive altissimo notes, so you can
count on them to be difficult!
