Thanks Johnny–relaxing the throat wasn’t something that took me a long time now in the Altissimo course to discover; it only makes sense that, to open the Oral Cavity we would have to relax the throat muscles and really focus on getting air from the diaphragm, along with adjustments in the embouchure. We can “choke” the notes if we don’t do these things and can’t seem to get enough air supply into the Sax to hit those high notes.

I’m starting to “hear” the notes in the Altissimo range…maybe that comes from working hard on ear training and I wonder if that means I’m “knocking” on the doors of the Altissimo range? It made me think of what you said in the previous lessons “If you can hear it, then you can play it” and that’s where I’m at right now—I can hear the notes in the Altissimo range, especially when working on the Overtones and thinking about the notes at different Octaves before hitting them. If I don’t think about them first, then they don’t come out…..but when I do think about them first they come out really nice! 🙂 I don’t rush these lessons, I really take my time and work hard on them; it’s taken me since May to get to the Overtone lessons alone and I don’t stop by any means working on what I’ve already learned; practicing chromatic scales is something I do every single day.

So, rather than focusing on alternative fingering charts (I haven’t moved ahead, at all, to look at the fingering charts coming that you teach….no sense in that because I got to work up to it first) then does that basically mean that these people are making the mistake of thinking they’re not hitting those Altissimo notes because they don’t have the right fingering…when in truth they have other problems in their playing? Like choking the notes, not know how to do Overtones correctly, no ear training, don’t know how to control the full range of the Sax, etc.?
For me, your Altissimo course showed me I had, myself, had issues in the normal range of the Sax that I didn’t even realize I had…but happily I can say that the exercises you teach I’ve been working on have helped, so so much 🙂 WAY, WAY more fluid fingers, a stronger tone is the 2 things that stand out to me as massive improvements and the proof is on video too; but still have a long, long way to go. I had to work really, really, really hard on hitting the lower notes in the “Subtones” exercise and I practice them every single day. Initially, we can think that playing the notes loud is hardest….but it’s not! They’re FAR easier that playing those low notes softly.
Good things coming my way in improving on my playing…..I think so anyway LOL