Reddit reviews O2964 - Top-Tones for the Saxophone: Four-Octave Range

Long tones. Overtones. Transcribing. Patience and perseverance.



For TONE, if you're on your own, I'd recommend using "A Complete Approach to Sound for the Modern Saxophonist". It takes the best of classic books like Rascher's "Top Tones", as well as adds its own exercises, but above all explains everything very clearly - that makes it easier to follow if you're practicing without guidance.

You can download demonstration sound clips of some of the exercises [HERE](http://www.benbrittonjazz.com/completeapproach/Complete%20Approach%20Sound%20Clips%20(Demonstrated%20on%20Tenor%20Saxophone\).zip "20MB zip file!!").

Ben Britton also wrote a follow up book for more advanced overtone exercises: A Complete Approach to Overtones: Vivid Tone and Extended Range.



BUT, "sound" is not just about "tone", it's also about articulation and time feel. You can have the most mind blowing harmonic approach and tone, if your time feel and articulation isn't solid, you will always sound like an amateur. A few things to work on to develop good time and articulation:

• make your metronome your new best friend
  
• slow scale practice with mixed articulation (fundamentals never stop being cool...)
  
• transcribing and focusing on imitating articulation and time feel. Coltrane and Rollins had radically different approaches for example. Transcribe both guys and find out why and how.
  
  One of the best exercises for developing a solid time feel is to play bass lines on the saxophone. After all, if you can't play quarter notes with a solid time feel, with that forward momentum a good bassist has, how can you expect smaller subdivisions to sound better? It's also a fantastic voice leading exercise, and makes refreshing or learning tunes efficient and entertaining. I'd explain more of the concept, but I got it from a Will Vinson video lesson so I'm not sure it would be cool. This and the other lesson on melodic improvisation are well worth the price IMO (less than the price of a box of reeds...).

Easy answer: practice overtone exercises such as the classic:
fingering low Bb and changing your throat position to play a Bb up an octave, and then F a 5th above that, and Bb a 4th above that, etc.

Personal experience: what I found while developing my control of the altissimo register was that I often tried to capture higher overtones by biting more in my embouchure and blowing harder, when I needed to be utilizing throat positioning instead to reach higher overtones as well as to develop better control of them.

Check out these books for a much more comprehensive understanding of the altissimo register:

Top-Tones for the Saxophone: https://www.amazon.com/O2964-Top-Tones-Saxophone-Four-Octave-Range/dp/082582642X

Saxophone High Tones: https://www.amazon.com/Saxophone-High-Tones-Eugene-Rousseau/dp/158106005X/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=T61FKP0VVR5H1CHJRB5W

Beginning Studies in the Altissimo Register: https://www.amazon.com/Saxophone-Beginning-studies-altissimo-register/dp/B00072ZF9C/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505855702&sr=1-1&keywords=rosemary+lang+altissimo

1. Practice long tones. Top-Tones for the Saxophone makes for a great practice companion.
   
   
2. Experiment with different reed/mouthpiece combinations. This can be really costly, though.

Sigurd Rascher wrote a book about this; Top-Tones for the Saxophone. My saxophone professor once jokingly told me to squeak and tune right before he recommended this book, it did the trick but a lot of study was involved. Most people I know used this to extend their range. Remember to practice slowly and patiently, and also that some tones will have a harder time speaking than others. This will depend on many factors including instrument, mouthpiece, reed, actual person playing, etc. What may work for others may not work for you and vice versa. The approach that worked best for me was to work my way up chromatically. I identify my "goal" note and reach higher than that so that my "goal" is no longer my limit, but instead a comfortable note. Comfortably I can reach an octave above the F#. Lastly, any fingering charts you may find are not for everyone, these were made by individuals who found success with those fingerings so if they don't work for you feel free to experiment once you are comfortable with the range.

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TL;DR - This book will help: https://www.amazon.com/O2964-Top-Tones-Saxophone-Four-Octave-Range/dp/082582642X/ref=sr_1_2?crid=304AVVQDC47HK&keywords=top+tones+for+saxophone+sigurd+rascher&qid=1571542279&sprefix=top+tones+for%2Caps%2C162&sr=8-2

Get this.

Live this.

https://www.amazon.com/O2964-Top-Tones-Saxophone-Four-Octave-Range/dp/082582642X

"Top Tones For The Saxophone" by Sigurd Rascher is your friend. http://www.amazon.com/Top-Tones-Saxophone-Four-Octave-Sigurd-Rascher/dp/082582642X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371440684&sr=8-1&keywords=top+tones+for+the+saxophone

Rascher's "Top tones for the saxophone" is widely regarding as some sort of standard on the subject.

And Ben Britton's "A Complete Approach to Sound for the Modern Saxophonist" is a more user friendly book inspired by Rascher's and others that covers a wider range of concepts and approaches. There are extensive overtone exercises written down in the book.

you are 100% wrong - learn it:

https://www.amazon.com/O2964-Top-Tones-Saxophone-Four-Octave-Range/dp/082582642X