For a long time I have wondered why the flute can play up to a G7 in the fourth octave, but the piccolo cannot play a half-step higher from the C to an altissimo C#.
I began experimenting with various fingerings in an attempt to play this elusive C#. While there are several fingerings on the web for this note, they may or may not work on your piccolo. Try this fingering:
If this fingering works for you, there are several places in the literature in which you can play this note. In Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, Op. 47, 2nd movement, bar 53 there is a passage which ends with a high A, B, C. When that passage returns at 69, it is written a half-step higher A#, B#, C#, except the last two notes are written an octave lower. I think it is logical to assume that Shosta-kovich would have written the two passages alike had he been aware of the piccolo’s ability to play an altissimo C#. Now I am working on a fingering for altissimo D.
