The Note Top Eb - Fingering and Exercises

Introduction to Top E Flat

The next note we'd like to introduce is top E flat, the highest note so far in the course.

Playing Technique

• It's a palm keynote played in a similar manner to high D plus the next key up.
• You play it with the inside of the index finger of the left hand.

As a reference:

• Your D is E flat.
• By touching just a semitone higher, it's E flat (or D sharp), which are fingered the same.

Enharmonic Notes

• Enharmonic notes are written differently but sound the same, exemplified by E flat and D sharp.

Exercise 1

Exercise 1 walks you through how to approach it:

1. First Bar:

   • Practice this many times until you can achieve it without catching any other key.
   • Just watch you don't catch the big one, which is the F key; we'll come back to that later.

2. Second Bar:

   • Not too hard.

3. Third Bar:

   • We throw in a C just to make it more interesting.

4. Final Bar:

   • This one is the hardest as we have to move three fingers at once to go from C up to E flat.
   • Play this really slowly at first.

As you can see, my fingers are moving as one:

• Two distinct positions: an on and an off.
• Avoid any unwanted catches; a clean interval is required.

Putting It All Together

The next challenge is the hardest of the lot, the final bar on that line, where we go from B up to E flat.

• With slow practice, you'll be able to achieve this very easily.
• Let's put that into practice in the form of the E flat major scale.

Practicing the Scale

• Have a smooth transition right to the top E flat.
• It's worth taking sections of the scale and working at them.

Let's just look at the first five notes:

• I'm using the B flat key in this case, which I find easier in this context of a scale.
• If you play those notes up and down, it forms a five finger exercise, which pianists are very familiar with.

You can work your way up the whole scale like that, moving through the next group of five notes until you reach the top.

• Focus on working each section individually.
• When you join them all together, it should come out nice and smoothly.

Technical Considerations

Just a quick technical point:

• Flat keys on the saxophone are less common than sharp keys because of transposition.
• The saxophone mechanism is designed to be more comfortable in sharp keys.

In context:

• Playing in A major is the same as C major concert pitch on piano or any concert pitch instrument.
• You always have three sharps more to negotiate than what the piano does.

When it comes to flats:

• It's the other way around; we have three flats less to negotiate.
• If we're starting with three flats, the piano will have three flats more, meaning it will play in the key of G flat major if the alto sax is playing in the key of E flat major.

Summary of Key Difficulty

This explains why extreme flat keys (of three or four flats or more) are harder than their sharp equivalents on the saxophone:

• The layout is designed to favor playing in sharp keys rather than flats.

As musicians, we have to make them sound equally smooth. E flat major parallels E major:

• E major is an easier key; although it has four sharps, E flat major can be easier to play.
• We must train our fingers to make all keys sound equally good.

E Flat Major Arpeggio

Now onto the E flat major arpeggio:

• There are lots of leaps involved here, so play very carefully.
• I favor the B flat key in this case.

Your E flat major arpeggio study in E flat is a pattern like we've had in earlier keys, just going up and down the scale, but in thirds.

Although it's quite tricky, it's worth practicing.

Final Studies

The next little study is an octave study, which is good for tuning:

1. Work your way up the scale in octaves.
2. Play it tongued at first, then add the slurs.

Last Challenge

The last challenge is the hard slow exercise:

• Keep the air going right through the note to achieve a nice octave.