Great overtone exercise. Just one more helpful hint: ALWAYS remember to tune your instrument before you play anything. This is especially important for overtones because the low notes will not respond correctly if your sax is not in tune. After warming up, check your tuning again because you will have to pull your mouthpiece out a little after warming up. Don't worry about having to play loudly to make your low notes speak. The low notes are more difficult on the sax than any other instrument because of the conical shape of the sax. The sax goes from small opening to large opening more drastically than any other wind instrument... this is why the sax has a more flexible sound than other wind instruments. If you have tuned your instrument and you are trying to play your low notes loudly and the low notes are still not coming out correctly, then you first try a different reed, or make the back of your reed more flat with sandpaper or reed tool... if correcting the reed doesn't help, then you might want to borrow someone's mouthpiece (someone that doesn't have problems with the low notes... see if your sax plays low notes better with someone else's mouthpiece. Remember to always store your mouthpiece with a reed on it and a mouthpiece cap...if you get scratches and dings on any part of the mouthpiece where the reed touches, then your mouthpiece will not play correctly. If you have a good mouthpiece and your sax still doesn't play low notes, you have to check your sax for leaks... a leak anywhere on your sax will affect the response of your low notes (even a leaky pad on the high F key will make your low notes not speak). If you also do your long tones, after a while (it might be a year) you might be surprised that you will start to hear whether you are in tune without looking at a tuner. You won't get perfect pitch, but when you develop a good tone through these overtone exercises and long tone exercises, you should be able to hear whether your sax is in tune... you will hear the centered pitches... you will hear a more lively and beautiful tone when you get to this stage.
Thanks Jamie! The neighbors were gone for 4 days, so I was able to freely work on this exercise. It has been a help in improving my tone and it has been a real help in playing the altissimo notes with greater ease!
I doing it for six months now every day, it's really works, on tenor I struggled on beginning to get into hig "D" but now is so easy to play Ab atlissimo with low Bb fingering. Many thanks
Great tutorial, Mr Anderson, thanks a lot. Every time, when I'm practicing, I'm starting from long notes, 15-20 minutes, and then overtones 5-7 minutes, and a lot of another trainings. I heard that from your (from your and Mr Paddock) free RU-vid lessons, and it's very useful program to study.
Have been doing this daily for 12 months as part of his Total Tone Mastery course and it really does work. I have only managed to get to the 3rd overtone for low B, but still making progress. Remember Rome wasn't built in a day , the daily effort you put in will pay big dividends.
Super great Overtone Lesson! Not only does this exercise help you discover your saxophone "voice", it also improves your Altissimo! By the way, the first overtone is the most out of tune, so don't dwell on that imperfection.
Aw no tuning app! But I live for that green smiley face! 😂 Good reminder Jamie…gotta admit I’ve been very slack about doing the daily practice basics as I get enough complaints from my neighbours in caravan parks when I’m just playing songs so pretty sure they’d call the cops on me if I attempted this excercise so daily practice is unfortunately out for me but I will endeavour to give it a go next time I’m in the middle of nowhere!
I struggle to reach the Bb key on my alto yet have no problem reaching it on my tenor! 🤪🤪Any advice Jamie? Maybe it’s just my arthritis..but don’t understand why I can do it on one and not the other! 🤷🏻♀️🤔
Very good exercise. Like many though I cannot find Overtone 3. It pops out sometimes and then I can hold it, but once released just cannot find it again. Anything higher is just a pipe dream.
@@ttg40 I find I can release a key on the left hand - say the C whilst maintaining the rest of the low Bb fingering and the high Bb will pop out, I can sustain it for a bit when I close the C key, but it soon falls off. Still I understand this exercise is as much about the journey as the arrival so I guess grin and keep on trying is the order of the day.
Ahhh you covered up your fingers with the sheet music at the bottommmm. So now I'm gonna have to ask to be sure. (on tenor) Step 1: Finger actual low b flat, meaning the low C key, plus the bottom table key, yes? Step 2: Keep that fingering, but use overtones to reach the bis key b flat. Step 3: Hold that overtone a bit. Step 4: While keeping the bis key b flat overtone held, finger the actual bis key b flat Step 5: Still keep the bis key flat overtone held, but go back to the low C + table key b flat Step 6: flip flop slowly between those fingerings Step 7: Finish on the low c plus table key b flat Transpose for the other pitches. Correct? I'm ESL...so I really want to get this procedure down pat. Thanks for offering it to begin with.
Good exercise! After playing the overtones I have a hard time playing the fundamental low note (Bb or B) / 24 hours later - problem solved. I changed my reed.🙂
Hi! I've been struggling for months to get to the high D overtone and over it, how can I improve, or how can I think of it to get it sounding? I'm playing alto. Great video thank youuu
Hi Jamie. When flip-flopping, are you using the normal fingering of the equivalent higher note? Also do you use the overtones when playing actual songs (e.g. fingering low Bb for playing a middle F)?
@@GetYourSaxTogether For example if you blow low D ( on tenor) the next overtone one octave higher D after ,A and 2 octave D with palm key! With a palm key two octave higher D ,do you use the octave key?
This is a great exercise Jamie- thanks! I don't know if it's just my horn (Selmer Mark VII tenor), but of the notes below D I find B the hardest to start, and B flat the easiest. I recall you once saying "you've got to be a bit of a nutter," and I think it's easy for people to forget that it's normal to have to put in a lot of focused effort. Lol at the howling dog!
@@GetYourSaxTogether This is the only tenor I've ever played, and I bought it in 1982. I can get it to speak, it's just the hardest low note on my horn, so wondering if this was common.
I am practicing this for some weeks now but I still cannot get second octave. All others isn't a real problem. I've tried with my larynx as explained in one of your other lessons but without result. Maybe a different mouthpiece, reed? Any suggestions? Anyway, thank you for this lesson!
I have the same Problem with the second oktave right from start, my workaround is to get it is to lift an drop my right ring finger very fast one time, turn the second octave is there.
When you play the first low b flat is it the full fingering and then slide to octave with same low b flat fingering or do you blow the overtone when alternating between the two?
