Learning the altissimo register of the saxophone

Emma Jones

Name: Emma Jones Main Subject: Classical Saxophone Research Supervisor: Pete Saunders Research Title: Learning the altissimo register of the saxophone. Research Questions: What are the different approaches to teaching the saxophones altissimo register? Can a combination of these approaches lead to a confident and comfortable use of this register? Summary: This paper looks at how the altissimo register is taught by a number of performing saxophonists and teachers and how advice from lots of different voices can lead to the moment of understanding with the altissimo register. Several method books exist to help access the register but there are few resources for the initial stages of its performance. A collection of short studies based on selected standard repertoire have been composed as a resource for students who are approaching works that demand the use of the altissimo register. A recording of the study and the excerpt of the original material accompanies a small pedagogical text to help the reader towards success. Biography: Emma Jones is a British classical saxophonist. She graduated from the Birmingham Conservatoire with a 1st class honours in 2015 studying under Naomi Sullivan and is in her final year at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. She aspires to perform regularly as an orchestral saxophonist and makes up half of the Element Duo who released their debut album in 2015.

Back to Contents

SHORT SUMMARY OF THE BOOKS

After studying the books, I decided to make a short summary of my thoughts on them as this would help to focus the attention on what could be concluded from the combination of suggestions from the respondents.

Rosemary Lang - set of preliminary studies that then develop to include altissimo, incorporating nursery rhymes. Slightly patronising, a little uninspiring and involves no specific instructions past the first page. However it dedicates two pages to each 'new' altissimo note so it is possible to track progress of specific notes.

Robert Lucky – by far the longest book of the selection at over 200 pages, it includes an extremely detailed step by step guide to producing the overtone series, quite unlike anything found in the other books – it attempts to quantify elements such as air. It provides many alternate fingerings for each saxophone, many exercises and examines 8 classical works with suggested fingerings and also a selection of jazz etudes.

Ted Nash – as a jazz and studio musician, this book focuses more on the exercises, chord patterns and some arranged standards which include top tones. The short preface is more of a gentle nudge at things to consider when playing the register but this book is intended more for fingerings and exercises than as an explanation of the technique.

Sigurd Rascher – The first method book for the production of the extended register. Although this book can feel quite ‘wordy’, there is a well explained process including the importance of tone imagination, created with an active mind. Several exercises, although they seem quite dry, focus on this and overtone exercises. The pages of fingerings are different to those I have learned in lessons but they do work well. The book finishes with a set of altissimo exercises and overtone scales.

Eugene Rousseau – all information in this book is related to all four saxophones where most of the others focus on the alto. Detailed exercises on overtones and overblowing followed by many pages of exercises using chromatics, scales, arpeggios etc. A small how-to articulate section comes at the end, which I think is incredibly useful and shows a good, easy process to follow. The first half of this book is quite hard to follow and so I do not think it should be used as the very first source of information as I think the register would still seem a complete mystery!

Donald Sinta – the primary focus of this book is on voicing skills as everything else is considered secondary. Voicing refers to an awareness and control of the muscles and soft flexible tissue in the oral cavity and vocal tract. Sinta believes that pitch and aural anticipation will trigger muscle memory resulting in correct pitch placement. The book emphasises that it is a long-term process over which you should not get frustrated.

Larry Teal – making up a small section in a general method book there are two pages of explanations and two pages of fingerings for playing the altissimo register. A good brief first read in preparation before starting the register. It stresses that the range should be determined solely on musical value, not employed as a stunt. It recommends Ted Nash’s and Rascher's books.

Tip

Tip