Join me on my quest to help you learn to improvise on the sax! This is the 5th lesson in my series on improvising on the saxophone and you’ll find all on my other videos on my YouTube channel.
In this video we’ll be looking at another hugely important chord progression in Jazz. That of the chord II to chord V movement.
For this exercise we’ll be improvising over 2 bars of a minor 7th chord followed by 2 bars of dominant 7th chord.
Again, I want to work on the progression in two different ways with you. Firstly, I want you to improvise using purely chord tones, as this is great for your ear and accuracy. Then secondly, improvise using the associated modes modes, as this will give you more colours to play with and help you build a better sense of flow into your soloing.
Ultimately, when we improvise we use a combination of both scales and arpeggios to express our ideas!
Jazz Licks for Saxophone, Vol. 1 is arguably the most authentic and efficient book for saxophonists to use to help them develop their jazz vocabulary.
Included in the book are 100 licks to play over the hugely important “long” Major II-V-I chord progression. The licks are written mostly in the bebop tradition and presented in all 12 keys. They all cover the key aspects of jazz including enclosures, tri-tone substitutions, diminished and altered scales. This is core jazz language for any saxophonist!
“A very enjoyable pair of books. Good tunes, cool licks, ace backing tracks and a great workout for my playing – Hugely recommend!”
J. Raisbeck, Sax Student, Newcastle, UK
As well as the 100 licks written out in all 12 keys, this book comes with a huge number of demo and backing tracks. You’ll get the following practise materials when you download the book: –
100 Demo/Play-a-long tracks for each of the licks
6 Demo/Play-a-long tracks for the example “Spliced Licks”
72 key based practise tracks (covering 6 different tempos ranging from 108 – 200 bpm)
48 fluency work out tracks (taking the major II-V-I around all 12 keys in 4 different ways, covering the same tempos as above)
Chord charts for all of the above, and space for you to try out and write down your own major II-V-I licks!
Alternate fingering recommendations where applicable for each of the licks!
Please note, as most of my website’s visitors are now not UK based, I’m now processing payments in US Dollars for their ease of purchase.
Scroll images for example pages from the book.
A More Authentic Approach to Using Jazz Licks in Improvisation
Not only does Jazz Licks for Saxophone, Vol. 1 give you 100 great licks, the core concept of this book is that the licks are “interchangeable.” What do I mean by this?
In Jazz Licks for Saxophone, Vol. 1 I group the licks by the note that they land on beat 1 of bar 2. You can then transition to another lick at this point should you wish, and the result will always sound good. This then gives you lots of different options to work with, helping you use licks in a more creatively.
Jazz Etudes for Saxophone Vol. 1 is the first in a series of eBooks written to help the saxophone student learn to how to improvise.
Please note, as most of my website’s visitors are now not UK based, I’m now processing payments in US Dollars for their ease of purchase.
“The book is really good. So much material in each and every one of the études.”
Alistair Parnell, iSax Academy
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If you are an intermediate or advanced level saxophonist, but when it comes to jazz and improvisation you don’t know what to play, then this series of jazz etudes is specifically written for you.
Scroll images for example pages from the book.
Authentic Jazz Etudes
In the book, you’ll find 12 jazz etudes based upon the chord progressions to famous jazz standards and the blues. All in common keys for the saxophonist, so they’ll fit “neatly under the fingers.” No dubious transpositions to be found here!
Sonny Stitt’s Solo On “Elora” (Take 2) by J. J. Johnson
Sonny Stitt in 1971. Photo Credit: JPRoche
This is how I discovered the music of the great jazz saxophonist Sonny Stitt…
When I was fresh out of the Royal College, very young, and so very naive I arranged to have a sax lesson with the legendary American saxophonist Bob Mintzer whilst he was over in the UK on tour with his band the “Yellow Jackets”.
Back then I was still finding my feet with my jazz playing and if I think back to that lesson it makes me shudder! What on earth was I thinking?! Anyway, Bob was very kind to me in that lesson and actually he gave me some invaluable pointers.
In this post I’m going to go over the key area of how to add licks to your improvised jazz solos. It’s a great way to start building your jazz vocabulary for improvisation, plus it’s great ear training too!
For this I’m going to be using my “Top 5 Bebop Licks” introduced in one of my earlier posts. Please check that out or just grab the PDF download from the resources section below.
Following on from my previous “Favourite Jazz Saxophonists – The Greats” post here’s part two as promised focusing on contemporary artists. Hopefully it will provide you with a useful introduction to some fantastic and inspiring musicians, all of whom are well worth checking out.
With this playlist I’ve tried to create a selection that covers a wide range of players and styles, and if you listen carefully you will hear that all of them have learnt from the Past Masters like the ones featured in my previous “Favourites” post.
The great Charlie Parker and band, with a young Miles Davis!
As you’ll have probably seen from this website already I like the analogy that Jazz is a “Language”. We all know that when studying any language learning the written form will only get you part of the way there. You need to understand the inflections (articulation, swing), the way it flows and cadences (phrasing), as well as it’s structure (harmony, voice leading). See what I am getting at? We need to learn how to “speak” Jazz!
Luckily not only do we have great masters both past and present to learn the art of jazz improvisation from, but we live in a time where we practically have unlimited access to recordings and videos online. Bearing that in mind, there has probably never been a better time to learn jazz saxophone because of these available resources!
Are you looking to strengthen your jazz improvisation?
Building a “language” is invaluable if you want to become a convincing improviser, whatever the genre that you are interested in.
Bebop is undoubtedly the building blocks of jazz as we know it today and so at the bottom of this blog post is a pdf file for you to download and keep of 5 of my favourite jazz licks. They are by four of the greatest exponents of the idiom, namely Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt, Sonny Rollins, and Clifford Brown (Yes, a trumpet player. It’s extremely useful to transcribe solos by the masters that didn’t just play your instrument!).
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