Here is a guaranteed plan that you can do to master the altissimo range. Those that don’t spend the necessary time on this and go looking for short cuts may be the ones searching constantly for a bigger and more fingering charts. This is also the most important technical thing you will need to master in order to control the altissimo notes. This is what we do when playing overtones. You can actually play it like a bugle, meaning you can play a series of notes using just one fingering position. This is because the saxophone works within a scientific law we call overtones or natural harmonics. Once you master this altissimo range you’ll soon discover that many notes can be successfully played with the same fingering and notes can also be played using several different finger positions. Some horns will require an additional side key or 2 to improve the intonation as you will see below. I, just as Rascher claims, have played the same fingering positions on at least 10 of some of the most common and popular saxophones (alto and tenor) and had no problems whatsoever in hitting these notes with full control. Personally, I think too much is made about every type and make of sax and saxophonist needing a bunch of different fingering positions to successfully hit these high notes.

People call these “alternate” or “fake” fingerings because they are made up and were not part of Adolph Sax’s invention. It lays out a set of fingerings from F# going up another octave and a half to C. The book is over 20 pages long with only half a page devoted to a fingering chart. A long time ago, 1941 to be exact, Sigurd Rascher, one of the most respected legit saxophonist of his day, wrote a book called “ Top Tones for the Saxophone“.

Altissimo finger chart alto sax pdf