question on Overtones

[Anonymous]

Hi Johnny,
Once you can play in the altissimo range, is there any reason to keep practicing Overtones?

The reason i ask, is a friend of mine (pro sax player for over 30 yrs) plays altissimo notes as well as you etc…
and i asked him to blow some overtones, and i was suprised he struggled to play them – eventually he could them after several attempts – i got the feeling he didn’t bother with them, yet he could hit all the altissimo notes straight off and in tune. Interestingly he didn’t set any store with the really higher ones above the 4th octave as to him they tend to be more often out of tune and ruin a piece.

I ask mainly because i can play your altissimo notes that you cover in your course up to the C that starts in the 4th Octave (the rest of the fingering positions in your last exercise that only go up to C ie the start of the 5th octave. i cant do yet)

Do you have fingering positions for the 5th Octave from C up to C on the start of the 6th octave?

[john]

as for the 5th oct… what happens at that point is same fingerings for related harmonic notes.
so, a G fingering can get you a B or D as well etc.
I don’t go that high normally and when I do it’s just as I explained for a one or 2 note reach.
your 1st question is an interesting one because I rarely practice harmonics/overtones but while I was putting together the course I found I could still do them all pretty well. I think once you can hit the notes you want then you don’t need to be practicing overtones all the time….at least thats how it works for me.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that – i was just starting out today re-doing the 1st lesson on the overtones, and was wondering why i was struggling to eventually play the 1st overtone while i could still do the altissimo notes with no problem.

the harmonics on the G, answers another one of my questions, as i wondered why when i played the altissimo G, sometimes i hit a note an octave higher up instead of the G – so i have unawares been hitting notes in the 5th octave. cool.

as always in your debt!

[Author]

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