Saxophone Forum


by straightj23
(103 posts)
18 years ago

Altissimo A!! Help me!!!

I am a junior in high school doing a solo for contest. The last note is an altissimo A. It is optional, but I think it would be pretty cool if I can get it out. You get there from high F. Can someone help me with this? How do you do it?

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  1. by saxjunkie89
    (393 posts)

    18 years ago

    Re: Altissimo A!! Help me!!!

    there's a few ways I know... (OK=octave key) OK and G key OK and A and G keys if the high F isn't chromatically achieved, or close to chromatically (i.e. Eb or D to F), you can use the front F key and the A key for the high F, and then switch from Front F and A to A and G to make life easier on you. or you could check www.wfg.woodwind.org/sax for other suggestions

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    1. by saxjunkie89
      (393 posts)

      18 years ago

      Re: Altissimo A!! Help me!!!

      oh, what's the solo, and what sax are you doing it on?

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      1. by selmer 4evr
        (309 posts)

        18 years ago

        Re: Altissimo A!! Help me!!!

        If this is an alto the altissimo A is OK (octave key) with a full D fingeing minus the B finger Altissimo B is OK plus a full D fingering minus B and A finger Altissimo C is OK plus full D fingering minus A and E finger All the above are played with the Eb open. There is more much more The toughest is the G on alto

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      2. by straightj23
        (103 posts)

        18 years ago

        Re: Altissimo A!! Help me!!!

        sax: alto solo: Second Prelude by Gershwin The note is the single last note in the entire solo. It comes after a series of 8th notes as follows: low Bb, F, Bb, middle D, F, Bb, high D, high F, then the altissimo A (no ritardando). This solo is 88 beats per minute. The high D, high F, and altissimo A are meant to be tounged.

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        1. by Radjammin
          (255 posts)

          18 years ago

          Re: Altissimo A!! Help me!!!

          Ya I would do it D side, Front F, and then Finger D and raise your B. It should sound fairly easy. As someone already said G is much harder to sound then A. Overall A is one of the easier notes to sound. I would use a tuner and it should sound really good.

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        2. by spifster
          (67 posts)

          18 years ago

          Re: Altissimo A!! Help me!!!

          ah second prelude is great we played that my freshman year... i use OK with a-d keys, but ive found that is harder on my classical setup for some reason. for me i could always get the g, but until a few months ago my a just would not come out. good luck

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        3. by CountSpatula
          (602 posts)

          18 years ago

          Re: Altissimo A!! Help me!!!

          I usually use OK + A and G, and it helps my private lesson teacher when he uses right hand (F, E, D + D# keys) with it.

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        4. by The Insomniac Saxman
          (141 posts)

          18 years ago

          Re: Altissimo A!! Help me!!!

          Have you tried a harder reed?

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        5. by Randal
          (12 posts)

          18 years ago

          Re: Altissimo A!! Help me!!!

          Opening the throat is usually the ticket. Practice altissimo as loudly as possible at first to get them to pop. It's really annoying, but really fun too. Treat altissimo notes the way you would play overtones. Again, practice them loudly until your oral cavity has trained enough to control note and pitch at any volume level. Here's a good altissimo fingering chart that I made. : ) It has some of the best long and short fingerings I know..both alto and tenor.

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