F and F# Reference Chart:
The Second Altissimo Note – G
We now move on to the next note of the saxophone’s altissimo range, G. I believe that once you can hit a G consistently, you are most of the way there because this is where the most difficult break can be for altissimo.
Again, the best fingering for G depends on which F# you’re coming from. Notice below, coming from this F# position there is only one major move required to hit the G, and that’s going from the left hand first finger B note to the second finger C. The bottom two right hand fingers stay the same but you can release the pinky from the Eb key.
Basic position 1:
Basic position 2:
As you can see, the top key on the right hand is the same in both positions so simply letting the other keys go will be an easy and smooth move.
As for the finger positions, the truth is, you can find lots of alternate fingerings that are either redundant or simply won’t work for you. You won’t need more than the one or two that I’ll give you here.
I’d like to point out that the first three fingerings below are not alternate fingering positions for G. The 2nd and 3rd ones have additional keys to sharpen the intonation for the basic position of G.
