Patrick Bartley's STRANGE Altissimo Guide (with Fingering Charts!)

Hey Patrick, how are you? I want know something about your playing.
Sometimes do you think in concert or always in alto language (Eb)?

Hugs from the south of Brazil.

Love this. Several years ago by dumb luck I found the high B using the side D key and intuitively just kept going up chromatically.

This is so generous of you to share Patrick! Thanks so much!

Man, I first have to say I've been an absolute fan since I first found you. You are carrying the tradition in a way that inspires in every way! So I actually feel silly to mention this, but I found it years ago when trying to cop the "Christie Lee" solo from Billy Joel. Try either 2|2 Eb or 3|3 Eb for that high E. Both are stable depending on the horn. Or overblow that B (palm D) fingering another 4th. But man, take that for whatever it's worth. You have re-inspired me; PLEASE continue to do what you do.

G#- octave 1345 side c

Jesus!

Bro I’m so happy rn. I finally hit a high G. Thanks Patrick!

I have a 95-year-old Martin handcrafted alto saxophone, do you have information on this instrument?

Thanks to you, I got to know the new world of Altisimo.

Hey, man, this is a very good lesson for alternative altissimo fingerings because it's a difficult subject and some of my students find it difficult to produce these sounds with the conventional fingerings. Thanks.

oh my god I was just riding the japanese train and I swear it just squeaked out one of your altissimo notes

If Pat was in school band in high school… I can only imagine the faces turned when a freshman was playing altissimo, and upper altissimo at that

Excellent

Did I, as a Trumpet player just watch this entire thing? Yes, yes, I did

F key and high figh sharp key for saxes with a second side f sharp key for a first altissimo g

Where do you get those hats?? I want one

Marc Russo inspired me to get serious about altissimo 😤 This video is just what I needed.

This helped me so much - thank you, Pat!

For your first G# fingering, you can also add the actual G# key for stabilization. It's NOT ergonomic by any means, but if you need to land on it or hit it real quick, that could help a lot!!

Dude, such a great episode. It's funny because when I started playing altissimo in the late 1980's I would just spitball the fingerings. Then I was lucky enough to share the stage with Sanborn and he showed me his fingerings. His comment was "always remember to sound like an opera singer up there". I'll never forget that advice. Be well, Patrick, and thank you.

Very nice great stuff! and you have so much swing in your speech ,that really reveals the same passion as when you play (sorry for my english)

Patrick make a video about japan!

doesn't the bis key stay down without pressing it for your g?

The palm keys are exactly how I learned my high altissimo fingerings! Sirvalorsax mentioned in a video I watched years ago that he preferred voicing the horn as close to the harmonic series as possible to simplify his finger technique, and it seemed pretty intuitive to me coming from clarinet. My only gripe is that my yanagisawa doesn’t like them as much as I do 🙄

After I began dating a vocalist, I realized how closely vowel shaping maps onto wind instrument voicing. Try finding vowel sounds that compare to the different sensations you experience across the range of the horn, that’s how I teach my students and it seems to work great!

Hahahaha good solo man I'm playing these solo so good, but now sound better a little bit when you're in your room hahah the live... that second b high... is perfect.

Great Video Patrick! I plays John's horns too now!

Not sure if this is a widely used term, but when I was testing multiphonics fingerings for John Gross, he referred to a concept of 'short' and 'long' fingerings. For multiphonics, it refers to how many pitches you could get by manipulating the venting of the air stream. The further down the horn body you could get the airstream with a fingering, the 'longer' it was.
As it pertains to altissimo I think Tivon Pennicott is talking about what Gross would call long fingerings as I have found that venting has a profound impact on altissimo tone.
A short fingering is a fingering that gets the desired pitch while using less of the resonating length of the saxophone body. This would be caused by venting the air stream higher up the body of the saxophone. Typically these fingerings are simpler than the long fingerings and are really good for fast passages, but do not pop and can be pretty difficult to control.
A long fingering is then a fingering that tries to utilize a greater portion of the saxophone by maintaining pitch but preventing venting and getting the air column to travel further down the horn.
So Patrick's altissimo A. The 23 fingering is a short fingering, the 23|456 eb is a long fingering.
It's not always the case that the short fingering is simpler, I would say palm F is a short fingering and front F is a long fingering.

Thank you very much ! Does anyone know how to blow these weird "buzzing" overtones Micheal Brecker used to do in the altissimo ? Is it possible with an alto or it's only for tenor ? I can't say if they are multiphonics or specifics combinaisons of keys and a way of blowing them.

Ps: After works, i figured out it might be "half harmonics", such a cracking sound because it's between two notes. For example, if you play high C hearing a G, your sound should crack not "knowing" where he should go. Pretty hard to master, if it's done that way of course.

Wait, people don't normally overblow the palm keys? That's what I always use from B till G.

Amazing vid man! Funnily enough I learnt the same B-D fingerings that you use, but I mostly learnt them cuz they felt the most intuitive for me while I was learning. Weirdly enough, I use a similar thing for when I play E up to the second altissimo G I actually find it pretty easy to pitch those by playing a harmonic up again on the palm keys, when you really push the notes out it's easy to mispitch but they're the most stable fingerings I have for that register.

I use the same position with the same reason: Gerald Albright 😂😂😂 I live in Brazil and at the time I saw this finger charts on cannonball music web site. Is very impressive your fluent on the altissimo and your memory in the solo transcription. Congratulations, man.

Great video tons of great tips and just enough chit chat

Patrick is my favorite living saxophon player but i wont copy these fingerings

I play altissimo like trumpet d to f# becoms g to b and g a g a g a up to c3

Thanks for this man. Its amazing of you to give this info for free, taking your own time to edit/record/set up for this kinda stuff. Appreciate you dude!

That's crazy, I was actually taught these fingerings for the upper altissimo in college. Todd Rewoldt has an altissimo technique book that basically involves overblowing the palm keys up a major 6th for altissimo B-D# (high F# with the high F# key for altissimo D#) and then overblow the palm keys again by a 4th for upper altissimo E-G#. The main difference is that when playing altissimo B, C, E and F you stabilize it with side C, so your kind of sliding between the side C and high E keys.

Damn! Thank you for sharing! I’m a clarinet main and saxophone doubler. I’ve got a few “false” fingerings for some altissimo notes that work on my alto. Can’t wait to try out some of the ones you like. Thank you 🙏 🙏🙏💚💚💚💚💚

please do this for tenor!!!

That lick at the end of the AYG intro is so cool

So i wanna learn altissimo notes but the problem is the sound coming out muffled or smth might be my embouchure but any tips on how to prevent that. I usually get it trying to play an altissimo note from the get go and not going up the chromatic scale. usually on the side palm keys of e and f

How do you approach tonguing. For example double tonguing and different types of jazz articulations.

You mentioned voicing a few times and I really would like to hear your take. Voicing was something I didn't know about (none of my teachers ever mentioned it) until I got married to a clarinet player and started looking into it. Most interested in how you voice for plain altissimo vs your split tone.
Also, I use the same overblow 6th fingerings for altissimo myself. They work on tenor just as well for me.

This summer, I went with some friends to a free Gerald Albright concert, just for something fun to do, and I kid you not, on the ending of the last tune he played he did the exact same ascending altissimo line. I don’t remember if it was on Georgia on my Mind, but I remember that blew my mind a bit. I talked to him after the show a little, and what was even crazier to me is he was playing on a Legere 1.5 American Cut. 1.5. And he got wayyy up there.

glad to see the fingering diagram generator got a good showing lol. Also great that now you made this you should get asked this less (incl the times I ask).

Interesting to see what fingerings you use! I'm 99% sure the recording of Gerald Albright is from his version of "Georgia on my Mind" and I had the same reaction when I first heard it lol

That cadenza at the end of Georgia on my Mind is legendary! Thanks for sharing your insights with us....Who else be using LimeWire + dial up Internet back in the day?

It’s so funny that I started playing altissimo last week when i had to transcribe a solo that had a high Bb and was just the note i found would work with overblowing high c# but i thought it was unconventional. I then experimented with the palm keys and got like to altissimo E and thought i’d get scorched for doing so but seeing this one week later makes me really laugh

Great video Pat! Gonna try them!

Sounding amazing as always! What kind of reed are you using in this video?

Flute players eat your heart out lol