Episode 012 - Dan Gelok; Voicing, Overtones, and Altissimo

This week’s episode is a good one. Dan Gelok from the University of Houston stops by to give us somewhat of a masterclass on controlling the saxophone. This discussion comes in the form of talking about voicing, overtones, and altissimo. All of which Dan is a master of both as a player and a teacher. So many players have trouble with this aspect of playing the horn and Dan does such a great job of breaking it down into easy to digest information that can be put into action right away on the horn.

A little bit of background on Dan Gelok:

Dan is originally from New Jersey and received his bachelor’s from Indiana University. After that, he moved on to study with Lynn Klock at University of Massachusetts Amherst. Dan is now the Assistant Professor of Saxophone at The University of Houston. Dan is doing great things in Texas including starting the Montgomery Saxophone Day Festival which we discuss in the show today.

The link to his full biography, along with more Resources for this episode, is on our website.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Dan’s background and how he became a world-renowned saxophonist.
• Studying with the legendary Lynn Klock.
• Why Texas produces such great musicians.
• How to approach voicing with no previous experience.
• His approach to finally popping out the high harmonics on the horn.
• What a small piece of paper can do for your high tones.
• Articulation as it relates to altissimo.

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