Altisimo F Woes

[Curtis Collver]

I am 56 years old and have been playing the sax since grammer school.
I always struggle with Altisimo F Does anyone know a trick I am not aware of?
It drives me crazy.

[john]

There are 4 F’s that are possible to play on a sax: Low, middle, high, and altissimo. Many people refer to the high F as the altissimo so I just want to be sure of which one you mean.

Johnny

[Tim56]

ALTISSIMO Johnny; can you printout a chart with the various fingerings for altissimo? Thanks. Tim

[Michael Bishop]

AWESOME RECOMMENDATION Tim56 and bluzsax 🙂 This would really, really, really help us student sax players out SO MUCH Johnny 🙂 Maybe put a link somewhere on the “Saxophone Lessons” page somewhere? For me, I can hit the high F with my No.4 MP, but I didn’t know what the fingering was for high F#, as you had mentioned your awesome ebook doesn’t show it. I was going to upload to the blog shortly “Greenslevees” and “What a Wonderful World” into 1 edit and I really, really wanted to play the last few measures of Over the Rainbow an Octave higher, which is why I had asked about playing just the high F instead (I know musically we need to play F# if the scale calls for it) but I need a wider MP to hit the Altissmo F#. I can hit a high F with my No.4, but when I tried a Altissmo F# I could tell right away that my Sax wasn’t getting enough air into it. To be truthfull, I don’t think you really needed to put it Altissmo F# in the book. As you had mentioned on the 3rd video for the fingering of the Sax. On that video it says that if we didn’t have the side key for play a high F# then “don’t worrry about it for now.” For the student sax player, speaking just from my personal experience as I’m learning, the Altissmo F# doesn’t even come into play until-at the very, very, very least-we’ve completed your ebook.

[jake]

You are talking about the 3rd f# michael. The altissimo is even higher yet and I don’t think you are at a point to play that one yet. If you are, I am extremely jealous!!!!!!! LOL. Like Johnny stated, the altissimo range is after the high F# and there is no side key for this upper range. I can hit the 3rd f# but once I start with the alternate fingerings I have an extremely difficult time hitting the altissimo G? Any reccommendations?

[john]

Ya that’s right, the altissimo starts after the high F#, on the G. Originally, I believe the saxophone’s highest note was the 3rd octave F. This F can be played 2 ways; all 3 palm keys on the left hand with the top palm key on the right hand. This is usually the most natural way because if you’re playing the E you just need to add the 3rd palm key and you got the F.
The 2nd way is called the fork fingering… this is with the index and middle finger of the left hand.
But then someone figured out how to play a high F# – to play the high F# you need to go off of the 2nd F fingering I just described, and that is the fork position. Once you can hit the F with this left hand fork position, with your right hand add the low F key along with the top palm key.
Some of you might have a horn that has a high F# key…most newer models have this and will make it a little easier… this key will be located in the front area of the right hand palm keys.

[john]

One of the 1st things I really wanted to do after playing the sax for the first year or 2 was to play those screamin high notes because so many of my favorite players and solos incorporated them and it blew me away.
I spent many many days and weeks trying to get anything above the high F#. As you try to do this, you will probably get an altissimo note but you may not know which one, and it’s hard to control…this is because we’re dealing with the natural harmonics of the saxophone… one fingering can give you more than one different note.
This whole thing with altissimo is a kind of involved process and I’m thinking of putting together a comprehensive string of lessons or course on the best way of going about this. Meanwhile, everyone should work on playing those high notes smoothly, loud and clean, cause if you can’t do that, forget about getting higher!

[Michael Bishop]

Okay, so Altissmo starts with a G and NOT on a high F#; thanks for clarifying that for me Jake and Johnny! No, certainly not ready for an Altissmo F#, yikes that’s high!
The way I hit a high F is as Johnny describes with all 3 palm keys in my left hand and the top palm key on my right hand. Thank you Johnny for pointing out how to hit a high F#, THAT is what I needed to know–I don’t have the side key like newer saxophones have to play it. I REALLY want to play the last few measures “Over the Rainbow” an Octave higher–it just sounds really good on the Alto and playing this simple song like that is a great/simple/effective way to improve on anyone’s tone, regardless of our skill level. I’m ordering an No.6 Mouthpiece from Amazon next Wednesday, it’s just that time for me. If you could put something together/to buy from you like your talking about; that would be so, so helpful. That’s a GREAT idea. So many of us are wanting to know about these Altissmo notes/charts, best way to go about it like you mention, etc.. There isn’t much out there in the way of learning resources. I didn’t even know on the Saxophone that we could go beyond a high F# until I started asking lots of questions because of wanting to play a high F# of Over the Rainbow.

[jake]

I would be very interested in a course and practice lessons for altissimo. Like Michael stated there’s not much out there. Looking forward to it

[Author]

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