Jazz Licks for Saxophone, Vol. 1

saxophone lessons

Jazz Licks for Saxophone, Vol. 1

B Flat Saxophones Edition (PDF Download)

100 Interchangeable Long Major II-V-I Licks

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.

5 Top Tips for Beginner Saxophonists

general, online lessons, saxophone lessons
The Yamaha YAS-280 – arguably the best beginner level saxophone available to buy!!

There is an absolutely crazy amount of content on the internet with saxophone lessons aimed at beginners, but from a lot of the videos I’ve seen they either get the basics wrong or they don’t explain things particularly well. I thought I’d therefore do a post providing some useful tips aimed at beginner saxophonists. That way you can get off to the best of starts!!

Here are 5 top tips for beginner saxophonists everywhere: –