I just happened upon this as I was perusing the web and drinking my morning coffee just now. Chris Potter playing Giant Steps. The hard part…… he can’t go below high C. How many of you are brave enough to take on this challenge?……….I’m inspired to practice! Awesome!
About SteveSteve Neff has been playing and teaching saxophone and jazz improvisation around the New England area for the last 30 years. He is the author of many effective jazz improvisation methods as well as founding the popular jazz video lesson site Neffmusic.com.
How can he do that? I really dont understand how to improve altissimo. I always study overtones and altissimo for more thand 3 years but still can not produce clear and listenable overtones.
Ergin, Do you have a teacher that can do it or have you been trying on your own? Steve
My own.
When I was in the early days of learning altissimo I found (in some cases) the fingered note to be easier than the overtone initially. My altissimo register would improve with the fingered notes, then hit a wall and I could go back to trying to improve the overtones (some still aren’t perfect, I’ve found G to not like to sit well or in tune).
This is a cool exercise, might have to try it out. I usually just read a tune out of the omnibook up an octave in my warmup somewhere but this would make a nice change.