Alto Saxophone: tremolo using alternate fingerings

Question

On Alto Saxophone, which notes can easily produce a "tremolo" effect, using alternate fingerings?

It's a kind of "warble" effect I'm looking for, but without changing pitch (or without changing pitch much). I've seen and heard sax players produce this effect plenty of times, but what is the best notation? And, which notes in the Alto Saxophone range can produce this effect?

Or can most notes achieve this effect, even if you're not using a "proper" alternate fingering, but instead just using one of the side-keys?

I've just been reading up on saxophone false fingerings here. It's great info, but I wanted some specific advice about which notes have two different fingerings which can be switched between quickly enough to be played as a tremolo (with just one side-key, for instance).

I've seen this effect notated in a couple of ways. Firstly, I found this in a book of Cannonball Adderley transcriptions (using a tremolo):

(Yes, I know these notes are in a pretty extreme register...!)

And, I'm pretty sure this kind of notation would work too (with or without the tremolo mark):

Answer 1

This type of technique is known as a timbral trill where normal fingerings are toggled with false or alternate fingerings in order to produce subtle timbral shifts without actually changing pitch. Technically speaking, it is actually a repeat tremolo as the pitch is being changed at the microtonal level due to tuning and intonation of the instrument and therefore negligible in most circumstances.

Searching for "contemporary saxophone techniques" yields many examples of charts that show fingerings and their alternates for such use. I would recommend using these charts as a starting point and going from there.

For notation, there are a couple different options:

• If the fingering is ad lib., the instruction alternate fingering should be added at the first occurrence, and the abbreviation alt. fing. thereafter.
• Above the intended trilled note, place "tr" along with a wavy line to indicate duration. Next to trilled note, place a small black note head in parenthesis to indicate the desired "trill to" pitch.
• If a specific rhythm is wanted, write the intended rhythm with each note tied to the next throughout along with the above notation suggestion.
• The clearest notation, however, is one with the alternate fingerings written in the music and is my personal recommendation.

N.B. The last should be used in addition to either the wavy line notation above or the tied note values option.

I would use the charts I suggested above to find fingerings to suite your purpose and then put them in the score to fit the corresponding note.

That all said, there is nothing that substitutes actually working with a saxophonist to find out what works. Figure out some fingerings, write a bunch down, take it to a saxophonist (or the one you're arranging for) and ask them to try each of the fingerings out - which ones sound the best / easiest to use. Once you know which ones work, use them in the score.