A couple of years ago I happened to come across a good book that I hadn’t seen before, for learning the altissimo range. Beginning Studies in the Altissimo Register by Rosemary Lang, is a book that I wish my teachers would have used with me when I learnt altissimo (it was available at the time). It would have made life so much easier!
When I started learning the altissimo range, I was given the staples of the day: Top-Tones for the Saxophone by Sigurd M. Rascher and Ted Nash’s Studies in High Harmonics. Both of these used in combination were OK, but tended to leave the student struggling for a fairly long period of time on a single page, without seemingly making progress through the books (which I personally found frustrating).
With Lang’s book, each set of 2 pages is dedicated to a particular note. This way a student can actually gauge their progression through the altissimo range better.
I find that Lang’s book is a good compliment to those of Rascher & Nash, and works well when used in combination with them.
I personally like using the Lang book to work on specific notes that might be giving me problems. For example, if I want to work on my G3 or Ab3, I use the exercises specifically dedicated to those notes.
The only drawback of the book is that its fingerings, like those of Ted Nash’s book, are only for alto and tenor saxophone. However unlike 20 years ago when I learnt altissimo, we now live in the Internet age, and fingering charts for altissimo notes are all over the web.
Baritone and soprano altissimo fingering charts are not hard to come by, and there are also countless options for alto & tenor, including horn-specific ones, available through saxophone discussion boards as well. All you need to find them, is your search engine of choice.
I have found that for the most part, the big differences between the fingerings of a given horn are on the dreaded G and G#. This is why I prefer horns with a high F#, it makes *G* easy to produce (except on alto where I don’t really care, G is an easy note — there really are no bad ones though F# tends to split). I play-tested a tenor that had a high G key, and as I suspected, it made G# that much easier to produce. Whatever note the horn is keyed to, the trouble doesn’t start until you try to go TWO notes higher. ONE note higher can always be finessed out, even without firm control of altissimo.
I do believe the altissimo differences between horns lies mostly in the neck (and the coil, on bari and bass). It seems to me that the more bends there are in the top of the horn, and the tighter they are, the more the partials tend to flatten — both in pitch, and in strength of resonance. This makes intuitive sense, since a bend offers a range of air column lengths (the path around the inside is shorter than the path around the outside), and sharper bends do so much more severely. I would be curious to find out if there are notable differences in altissimo between an American-wrap bass and a French-wrap bass, since their bends come at different points in the overall tube length. I doubt I will ever have the opportunity to make this comparison first-hand, but maybe it will stick in the mind of someone who has access to both.
Helen,
Thank you for your suggestion. I would suggest we could do it like this: I could order (and pay for) a copy of the new edition (from Hickies) and get it sent direct to your address, and you could send me your copy of the original edition (assuming you are in Canada and Hickies sell to Canada).
We could arrange the details by emailing off-list? (we would need to exchange postal addresses etc).
Hope this would work.
Regards,
Clive.
Sounds good Clive. I’ll send you an email. Yes, I’m in Canada by the way (BTW).
Hello Gail. Welcome to my site.
Thank you for that update on this really valuable resource book. Until I read the review of the new edition on the Hickey’s Music site, I had no idea the old book was out of print. My local brick & mortar store where I buy my books was still selling them as recently as a couple of years ago! (I must admit I was a bit curious about the old type face… Now I know why.)
Thanks again Gail.
Regards,
Helen
Hello Helen,
I was interested in your post, as I would like if possible to obtain a copy of the original edition of the Lang altissimo book.
Is it still available from the bricks and mortar shop you mention?
Thank you,
regards,
Clive
Hello Clive. Welcome to my site.
I bought my copy from Northwest Music on Main St. in Vancouver. I think they only had 1 or 2 copies left when I bought my book, and those copies are long gone. I know, because a friend of mine went there looking for a copy of the book a couple of years ago, and they were sold out then already.
Why are you interested in the original edition Clive? Is there a special reason that you’re looking for it, as opposed to getting a new one?
Hello Helen,
Thank you very much for your reply. I was interested in the original because I have known about the book for many years (I wrote a review of saxophone altissimo books for Saxophone Journal some time ago – the Lang book was added into the references by the editor, but I did not have it available when I carried out the review)but have never been able to obtain a copy, despite often looking at s/h book sites such as Abebooks.
It would be great to be able to get a copy of the original (even second-hand) if I could, if some kind soul might be prepared to part with a copy!
Regards,
Clive,
Reading, England.
That makes sense Clive.
I don’t know anyone who has the original edition other than myself. Hopefully someone following the comments on my blog, or reading them in the future, will post here.
I just had an idea… I’m not attached to my original copy, and it is in pristine condition. If you would like it, you may have it. All I would need in return, is a new copy of the book. I’ll just have see where I can get a copy. Let me see where I can order it from. I’m sure we can work something out Clive. How does that sound?
Regards, Helen
A new edition of the Rosemary Lang, “Altissimo” studies is now available. If can be purchased through Hickey’s Music (Ithaca, NY).