At first, I was happy just to get alitissimo notes to play reliably and with a decent tone, and I feel I can do that (to a certain point anyway). My use of them so far was as kind of the long high note screams when appropriate, but hadn't really made them start to feel like just another note in my reportoire, mainly because the fingerings felt awkward.
Lately I have been playing a lot of alto, and am doing a song which requires me to go E3-F#3-A3-F#3-A3 in quick succession. Going from palm F# to altissimo A was impossibly clunky. But I remembered seeing lower altissimo fingerings for the palm notes (I suppose they were used more before palm keys were around?) and found some suitable fingers that make that transition a lot smoother. What works for me is fingering E3 like its a G2, but holding down the front F key. F#3 is similar, but I use the fingering for a Bb3. And its works great. The notes a re a bit more unstable, but I have gotten used to it. And now I feel like the lower altissimo (up to Bb at the moment) are starting to feel as useful as any other notes. But this only works for me on alto, my attempts to do it the same way didn't work on tenor or bari.
So I am thinking about how to expand my comfort zone higher on the alto, and also catching up on my other horns. Its all fine and good finding a fingering that works on a particular horn, but finding a series of fingerings that work well together seems like a much bigger problem. And it seems I will have to go through this process separately on each of my horns.
Are there ways to make it easier on myself? Are there series of fingerings that work well together for particular reasons? Given that I now have the chops to make these notes sound, what should my expectations about playing in this range comfortably be with respect to fingerings? Is it a fools errand to strive to think of these notes as just another note in my range, not harder to use than any other?
Also, mechanically speaking, why so much variation in fingerings that work form horn to horn?
Thx!
Lately I have been playing a lot of alto, and am doing a song which requires me to go E3-F#3-A3-F#3-A3 in quick succession. Going from palm F# to altissimo A was impossibly clunky. But I remembered seeing lower altissimo fingerings for the palm notes (I suppose they were used more before palm keys were around?) and found some suitable fingers that make that transition a lot smoother. What works for me is fingering E3 like its a G2, but holding down the front F key. F#3 is similar, but I use the fingering for a Bb3. And its works great. The notes a re a bit more unstable, but I have gotten used to it. And now I feel like the lower altissimo (up to Bb at the moment) are starting to feel as useful as any other notes. But this only works for me on alto, my attempts to do it the same way didn't work on tenor or bari.
So I am thinking about how to expand my comfort zone higher on the alto, and also catching up on my other horns. Its all fine and good finding a fingering that works on a particular horn, but finding a series of fingerings that work well together seems like a much bigger problem. And it seems I will have to go through this process separately on each of my horns.
Are there ways to make it easier on myself? Are there series of fingerings that work well together for particular reasons? Given that I now have the chops to make these notes sound, what should my expectations about playing in this range comfortably be with respect to fingerings? Is it a fools errand to strive to think of these notes as just another note in my range, not harder to use than any other?
Also, mechanically speaking, why so much variation in fingerings that work form horn to horn?
Thx!
