How to Play Your First Saxophone Altissimo Note: Part Three

What Should My First Altissimo Note Be?

Once you are comfortable producing your mouthpiece A, playing in the palm keys, manipulating your mouthpiece pitch one half step in each direction, and producing overtones off of the lowest notes of the saxophone, you are ready to try playing altissimo! One of the most common first altissimo notes is the G right above the saxophone’s normal range. If you have never played an altissimo G, the “Crunch G” fingering is a great place to start

Crunch G

This fingering is called Crunch G because of the way you have to “crunch up” your right hand to be able to play it (though it sounds worse than it actually is!). The Crunch G fingering is the octave key, 1, 4, C5, and Ta as shown below.

The Crunch G fingering is a great first altissimo note to learn, especially if you are playing the first movement of Paul Creston’s Sonata op. 19!

To approach the Crunch G, try playing in the palm keys chromatically up to an F♯. Then, without changing your embouchure or oral cavity, try to play the Crunch G fingering. You may get a dull airy sound at first. This is known as the “undertone,” and is produced when your air is too fast and/or your tongue position is too low. Try playing a palm key F# again, and then transition to the Crunch G slowly. You may need to raise the middle to back part of your tongue slightly in order to make the Crunch G respond.

If your Crunch G is squeaking higher than the note you want, that means that your tongue position is probably too high. It can also mean that your airstream is too slow. Note that in the altissimo, we generally want to play with a slightly slower or warmer airstream. If we blow the air too fast, the altissimo notes are more likely to crack. However, air that is too slow can produce overtones much higher than you want. Getting into the higher altissimo like altissimo E, F, F#, and double G requires much slower air than lower altissimo notes like Crunch G.

Work a little bit each day toward producing the Crunch G. Playing altissimo is something that will take dedicated consistent work!

What Not To Do

If you are having trouble producing the Crunch G at all after a few days, don’t be discouraged! Sometimes finding the correct tongue position and oral cavity can take some time. One exercise that can be helpful when identifying the proper oral cavity for a Crunch G is to purposefully play the undertone and an overtone much higher than you want.

For this exercise, finger the Crunch G and practice getting the undertone consistently on purpose. This may seem counterintuitive, but once you are comfortable recreating the feeling for the undertone, you have a jumping off point for what not to do to produce the Crunch G. The same thing can be said for the overtone higher than the Crunch G. Sometimes, working backwards from “what not to do” can be helpful if you feel like you have no idea what you should be doing to produce the right note. After you have found these two airstreams and tongue positions, try to find a balanced tongue position and airstream in between the two for your Crunch G.

Once you can play your Crunch G consistently, make sure to play it against a concert B♭ drone to hear your intonation tendencies. Usually, saxophonists will bite or tense up when playing higher. Double check that your large embouchure muscles (the ones you smile with!) are engaged, and allow your jaw pressure to relax. If the intonation and tone quality are good, try to add legato articulations to the Crunch G. At first you may get squeaks when articulating. This is normal, and it is usually caused because you have moved your tongue more than it needs to in order to articulate. Practice legato articulations in the palm keys and then go back to the Crunch G from there.

Click here for more exercises to extend your altissimo range!

Atlanta based saxophonist Jack Thorpe currently serves as an Artist Affiliate of saxophone at Georgia State University and the adjunct instructor of saxophone at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. As a concerto soloist, he has performed with the Georgia State University Symphonic Wind Ensemble, the Stephen F. Austin State University Symphonic Orchestra, and the University of Illinois Symphony Orchestra. Through his work as the alto player in the Versa Quartet, Thorpe won first place in the 2020 North American Saxophone Alliance’s Quartet Competition and performed William Bolcom's Concerto Grosso for saxophone quartet and wind band with the University of Illinois Wind Symphony. In 2017, he co-founded the Snow Pond Saxophone Quartet, a chamber ensemble formed to represent the Frederick L. Hemke Saxophone Institute at the Snow Pond Center for the Arts to international audiences. The quartet performed throughout Japan in 2017 alongside soloist Masato Kumoi and toured the southeastern United States in 2019.

In March of 2022, he was named the winner of the University of Illinois's Presser Graduate Award. With funding from this award, he is currently commissioning six composers who belong to traditionally under-represented communities in classical music to write solo and electroacoustic works for saxophone. Thorpe’s interests in collaborating with composers to create new works has also influenced his work as a chamber musician. Recently, Thorpe's saxophone duo, Vex, has premiered new works by Emily Koh, Yaz Lancaster, and Anthony R. Green.

Thorpe holds a D.M.A in saxophone performance and literature form the University of Illinois, an M.M. in saxophone performance from Stephen F. Austin State University, and a B.M. in saxophone performance from Georgia State University where he was the recipient of the Presser Undergraduate Scholar Award. His teachers include Debra Richtmeyer, Jan Berry Baker, and Nathan Nabb with additional study under Frederick L. Hemke.