Unpredicted squarking sounds

[Michael Bishop]

That’s awesome Reghite that Johnny’s Altissimo course is helping you out too–even in the normal range of the Sax, isn’t it amazing to see what his Altissimo lessons do for our playing? Where are you at in the Altissimo course right now? His lessons on Subtones in particular is what has helped me out so, SO much. Another thing I learned from his course is the following: forget looking online for those “secret” fingering charts. I have 3 Saxophones right now–2 student model Altos and One Tenor–and Johnny’s fingering charts work wonderfully on all 3 of them. It’s more about developing the right technique instead of rely on fingering charts (that’s what I think anyway, but I could be wrong).

[john]

I’ve been able to get those high notes on every sax I play. In Rasher’s book “Top Tones For the Saxophone” which was the first on this subject said his fingerings work on all saxophones, and he only gave one position for each altissimo note. People who can’t get the notes are the ones who by-pass the important exercises. His book is over 20 pages long with only one page devoted to showing the fingering positions. Some people buy the book, jump straight to the fingerings, can’t get them and decide they don’t work. I was one of those people! Until you go through the necessary exercises you can’t master this range. You should know Michael! You’re doing it as it’s laid out for you and you’ve proven it works. It worked for you and it worked for me!
Besides the high notes, those exercises will also improve other things in your playing like technique, tone, embouchure, intonation, breathing… these are all connected.

[Michael Bishop]

When the thought of forgetting about looking for those “secret” fingering positions hit me was when I was working on the Overtone Series in your course–hitting really high notes like Altissimo B,Bb,C, etc.. right on the mark too 🙂 But hitting Altissimo notes from a low Bb fingering?!? Seems crazy at first, but the more I worked on it then it all came to make sense. Right now, I’m getting notes into the 5th Octave (yes, I said 5th Octave) and it has virtually nothing to do with those “magic” fingering positions. We can hit many of them with multiple fingering positions simply by making the adjustments in embouchure, breathing, etc..
What’s so, SO much fun right now that I’m focused pretty much on Improvisation is being able to incorporate the Altissimo range into my solos because it’s letting me really express myself in my playing….and that’s the GOOD stuff 🙂 I started working on my solos for the Green Onions now that I’m back home with a Tenor and more of this type of playing is to come for me for sure. I “stole” 1-2 small riffs from King Curtis and putting it into my solo for the Am version because I wanted something I could call “my own” but also have a couple of lines that are recognizable from another song too.
Just wanna say thanks SO much Johnny for all your fantastic lessons and lookin’ forward to what’s yet to come 🙂

[Reg Hite]

Johnny is right in what he says that practicing the Altissimo notes also improves your embouchure, breathing and overall tone, that I have noticed. Unfortunately with a house full of people I am not always able to practice Altissimo as much as I should. I am able to play from Alt.G to Bb and reaching those notes is all very well, but playing in that range is the difficult part and this requires lots of practice. I have a few etudes that I play which have one or two notes that go to alt G and A but usually when I practice my Blues scales I always go into the Alt range, it’s great fun and sounds really cool. Once again Johnny, to you and Baboon, may 2015 be great year for you guys and we look forward to more lessons from you.
Regards Reg.

[john]

Happy new year to you guys too! My playing schedule has been busy this last little bit and even into some of January but soon after I will spend some time working on some songs and lessons that most of you will hopefully really benefit from. Meanwhile, stay inspired and blow your horn! (I’ll be doing the same as well)

[Michael Bishop]

Johnny’s got more than enough to keep us busy here for sure 🙂 Besides working on my Improvisation and 2 different versions of the Green Onions, I started learning “What Does It Take” and “I was Made to Love Her” on Tenor and I am so, SO glad Johnny released these 2 songs in particular.

HEY REGHITE: Thanks and back at you! Wanna talk about playing those high-screaming notes in a house full of people? I got 4 kids, 4 cats and 4 dogs…and my wife of course and I still managed to pull off Johnny’s Altissimo course……… I don’t think another Woman could put up with me LOL But they’re all quite used to it by now. For the 3 months I was out-of-town, she told me she actually missed it 🙂 The only time she “complains” about it is when she’s on the phone 🙂

You better believe playing in the Altissimo range improves your tone, embouchure, etc.. Let’s face it: There’s so much stuff to play on the Saxophone that sounds terrific in its normal range. One song that comes to my mind is Patsy Cline’s song of “Crazy”…a great song for both the Alto and Tenor. In playing this one, the Altissimo range doesn’t fit in to this song. But when we listen to how Patsy Cline sings, there’s so many benefits of playing in the Altissimo range that help us with a song like “Crazy” to capture the essence of Patsy Cline’s singing in our own playing. It’s a song where things like Vibrato, Subtones, varying the volume in different phrases that we play, etc.. really come into play…….and Johnny’s lessons in his Altissimo course help us dramatically improve these things in our own playing.

[Reg Hite]

Hi Johnnny
A big thank you for posting the video on “tuning your sax”. This is something I did not pay much attention to since I took up the sax. I would usually only tune up when I was going to play with another musician on a guitar or a key board but never when playing backing tracks. I have an album of backing tracks specifically for the tenor sax which I bought year ago and the first track has an “A 440” tone recoded on it. I always wondered what this tone was for but the moment I watched your video, it immediately clicked that this was the tuning track for the sax. I am now using this tuning track straight after I assemble my horn just before I start playing my backing tracks. It has made a world of a difference to my playing and now I can hear that I am constantly in tune with the music.

Best regards
Reg

[Anonymous]

For the past 6 months i’ve tuned my sax
every day – i can honestly tell you there
are still quite a few keys on my sax
that are out of tune with my tuner!!
With my hearing some notes sound
in tune (like middle D) when in fact
it is very sharp on the tuner i have
to open my throat a lot more to get
it in tune.
If one note out of 12 in a scale is slightly
out of tune, i think ones brain doesn’t
register – like playing a glissando ?
I also find for an altissimo G i have
to open my throat more to hit it every
time.
One of the problems i have is that i’m
not sure what some notes sound like
when they are in tune!
A good example of this is try playing
altissimo C, or some note you’ve never
heard – how do you know you’re playing
the right note and more importantly the
right note in tune? Can you rely on
a tuner or a keyboard?

[john]

Well, don’t tune your sax starting with an altissimo note! There are a couple of things regarding tuning, the general overall tuning which can be accomplished with the technique I just posted in the lesson video here:
https://howtoplaysaxophone.org/how-to-tune-a-saxophone
That gets you in tune to the rest of the world because you’re tuning to an A440 which is what a properly tuned piano or calibrated tuner is tuned to. Once you’re spot on with that we as sax players must still work on individual notes because as you probably already know, certain notes on certain horns will require a slight embouchure adjustment. This is much more minor than the overall tuning and even if your sax has a certian note or 2 that are not perfectly in tune, it won’t be so noticeable during your playing. If it’s noticeable to you then figure out if it’s flat or sharp and act accordingly on that note.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Johnny,
I’ve always tuned my alto sax to A440 every day for the past 6 months with a tuner or piano player!
To make sure i’ve been in tune is to play a straight line on the tuner, equivalent to
eliminating that wavering effect you demonstrate?
My main issue is that some notes on a tuner are indicated slightly sharp but when i play
a scale these notes aren’t very noticeable like you say.
It’s like when you demo a glissando, if you drop a few notes, it still sounds like a
glisando. The listener sometimes fills in gaps that the player misses out, this is like
when you look at a colour, like the overtones in a note, a colour is made up of
lots of colours, and if you drop a few colours in the colour your brain may fill in the missing
bits of that colour.. I often wonder if people who are tone deaf has their brain filled in the gaps
making them think they are in tune, noticeable in singers who just cant get their voices in
tune?

[Author]

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