Saxophone Alternative Fingerings

A Chart of Common Alternative Saxophone Fingerings

Not to be confused with "alternating or false" fingering.

Whereas False (alternating) fingerings are used primarily for effect, these alternative saxophone fingerings (often misleadingly called "alternate fingerings") are meant purely as alternatives to the regular saxophone fingerings and can be used for passages that would otherwise be very tricky.

In some cases there are very slight differences in sound and/or intonation, e.g. the side C is sometimes called the "ballad C" as some people consider it to have a better tone than the regular (front) C.

In the fingering chart below the top F and top E need to be used with the octave key, all the other fingerings apply to both upper and lower register of the saxophone.

Hover mouse over notation to see fingering in image (left)
	REGULAR Mouse over note	ALTERNATIVE Mouse over note
F			Auxiliary F fingering useful for arpeggio F Also the basis for many altissimo fingerings. For altissimo F# use this fingring plus Bb side key.
E			Auxiliary E fingering, useful for arpeggio F maj7
C			Side C In some cases this may have a clearer tone and better intonation.
Bb			Alternative 1: Bb bis Useful for interval jumps from Bb to Db.
			Alternative 2: Fork Bb You can use either RH1, or RH2 depending on context, but RH1 is most common. RH2 is useful for interval jumps from Gb to Bb You can actually use RH3, but I haven't yet found a use for it yet, although it could be used as a false fingering
G#			Articulated G#. This allows you to use the same fingering for low C# as for G#, which can help a lot with scale passages and interval jumps in many sharp keys.
Gb/F#			Side Gb/F# Useful for trilling F to Gb