Home Alt › Forums › Altissimo Course › Hitting An Overtone Wall
Anonymous.I too, have hit that brick wall. I try for 5 or 10 minutes, get aggravated and quit. Been trying for two weeks. Looked at the course videos again and again, just cannot figure out the tongue, throat, lip combination. Tried all the vowels as suggested here. I guess I’ll come back to it in a couple of months! Didn’t want to pay money to get this aggravated!
work just on the low Bb. you need to play this low note with the “wrong” embouchure. something needs to be different with the way you approach it until you break thru and actually play an overtone.
also, can you play a middle Bb while doing the low Bb fingering?
That’s what I have been doing. Just the low Bb. I can consistently play the low Bb and then the first overtone and switch between the two with just embouchure adjustment. I cannot hit the third nor forth but maybe 1 time out of 10. Trying my very best to remember what I do. It’s just not “jelling” in my brain!
ok that’s pretty good.
you’re getting a couple overtones I thought you weren’t able to get any.
it’s more trial and error then.
what is your mouthpiece and reed setup?
I amd using my “practice horn”, not my Selmer MK VI. It is a newly overhauled Buescher Tru-Tone C-Melody sax with a 1960s Brillhardt Level-Air mouthpiece withe a #3 Van Doren Reed. The horn plays perfectly, all notes up and down without ANY problems. I figured it I could master this on that horn it would be a breeze on the Tenor MK VI.
Well, I have basically GIVEN UP on playing altissimo. Just can not figure it out. I will just pick up the Alto when I need to play higher notes!
Never got past the Overtones section of the JF course…. 🙁 I’m sure this is not the first time or the last time I waste money!
JD
You can survive without altissimo.
Yep, I have for 50 years. I guess it’s true about what they say about teaching and old dog new tricks!
what most sax students don’t understand about being able to control and play the altissimo range is that it’s not just about being able to play the altissimo range…
the journey of months that it takes to master those specific exercises and techniques is that by the time you discover that you can hit all those higher notes something else has happened along the way… you sound much better. you play in tune, and you’re in more control of your entire horn.
one of my pro sax player buddies was telling me about when he was younger and studying with his teacher, he would always bug him to teach him the altissimo range but the teacher said no, just do the exercises I’m giving you (long tones, overtones etc)
further into his studies his teacher showed him some altissimo fingerings and he instantly was playing up there. he WAS studying altissimo without even knowing it.
so anyway, we certainly don’t need to play up there but don’t underestimate the value of those altissimo exercises, they make us better all-round sax players.
at this point, i really don’t see a need to hit above A on the altissimo range, and rarely that, i like mostly ballads , stan getz, Ben Webster kind of things, rock and roll from the 50s, is good too,
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