Let’s continue our work on improvising by looking at your first complete II-V-I chord progression!
This is the 6th lesson in my series on improvising on the saxophone and you’ll find all on my other videos on my YouTube channel or in previous blog posts.
The II-V-I chord progression is arguably the most important progression in jazz music, and so let’s take a deep dive into it, with lots of exercises to work on to help build your accuracy and fluency when improvising.
Let’s get to it!
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!
Let’s get to it!
Join me on my quest to help you learn to improvise on the sax! This is the 4th lesson in my series on improvising on the saxophone and you find the other videos on my YouTube channel.
In this video we’ll be looking at the hugely important chord progression in Jazz. That of the chord I to chord IV movement.
For this exercise we’ll be improvising over 2 dominant 7th chords, with 2 bars on each chord.
This time 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, I want you to improvise using mixolydian modes, as this will 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!
Let’s get to it!
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: –
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.
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.
UPDATE – I’ve had an awesome response with this offer and I’m thrilled with just how popular it has been with new and existing students, so I’ve decided to keep it running for another month!
I’m offering a 10% discount for any student who books and starts a block of 10 lessons in August (or now September) 2020. That’s up to a £40 saving if taking 60 min lessons, or basically you’ll be receiving one lesson free!
The summer holidays are upon us and yet with most of us staying at home, there couldn’t be a better time to take up a new hobby, or get cracking on your new goal for your saxophone playing.
The short answer is I always recommend that people start learning on an Alto Saxophone.
“Why?” you might ask…
So, as you might have gathered I’ve been teaching for quite a few years now and during that time I have literally taught hundreds of saxophone students. I’ve taught complete beginners (both adults and children) right the way through to advanced level students studying for their performance based degrees at the London College of Music.
I’ve seen how a lot of people handle and can cope with the various types of saxophone at different stages of their advancement and have drawn some conclusions.
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: –
With the Coronavirus, Covid-19 currently bring life as we know it to a standstill I thought it would be a good time to write a post focusing on teaching music lessons online.
Having music lessons of any any nature online is nothing new. With the development of broadband and platforms such Skype people have taken music lessons via the internet for years.
If you think about it there are some serious benefits to having online lessons. Arguably the biggest one is that you can take saxophone lessons with whoever you want to as there are no physical requirements to be in the same place. With only a good broadband connection and a webcam you can benefit from lessons with some of the best professional saxophonists working today, and not be limited to those who lives close by to you. (ed. As a professional saxophonist with (usually) a busy performing schedule as well as my teaching and lecturing positions at both the London College of Music and Royal College of Music, I hope that does include me! – modest I know!!)
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.
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!