Vol 2 Beginners Impro

Description

Taming The Saxophone Volume 2: Beginners Impro. “TTS2” is a theory book along with simple but interesting blues, ska and swing playalong tunes.

As well as the backing track versions, there are also fully produced finished tracks with saxophone playing the melody and improvisation which is transcribed so you can choose to play the transcribed version or make up your own improvisation.

Each track has performance notes so you can easily refer to sections of the theory book to help decide what to play, or you can just play along, use your ears instead of worrying about the theory.

What’s in the book?

• What are chords?
• How chords are formed.
• Why do saxophone players want or need chords?
• About chord sequences, how harmony helps music to “tell a story”
• How to make your solos more melodic, not just running up and down scales
• Blue notes and blues scales

Who is it for and what do you need?

• Ideally you already know some very basics of music theory, e.g. about key signatures and notes on the staff. If not we advise getting a basic music theory book such as Grade III.
• Any saxophone player, beginner to intermediate who may or may not have reasonable saxophone technique, but is not yet confident enough to improvise.
• Anyone who wants a simpler yet highly musical approach to improvising – no complex jazz theory to make your brain hurt. No mixolydian dominants or modes of the melodic minor.
• Harmony examples need to be played and although you don’t need to be a piano player, you need a keyboard (either piano, MIDI or virtual, e.g. keyboard app). It doesn’t matter how slow you are finding the notes.

Many theory books start off quite simple but then suddenly progress to the very complex jazz harmony. In this book we will try to keep it as simple as possible for as long as possible, while still giving you a thorough grounding in how to do some basic improvisation. It’s recommended that you be able to read music so you can try out the musical examples, but you don’t need to be a great sight reader. You don’t even need to read the tunes in the playalong, you can learn them by ear from the fully produced versions if you want.

Contents

• Understanding chords
  • Major chords (triads)
  • Minor chords (triads)
• Chord functions
  • Two sets of numbers
  • Major, minor and diminished
  • Major chords
  • Diminished chords
  • Minor keys
• Beyond triads
  • Major 7 chords
  • Minor 7 chords
  • Dominant 7 chords
  • Four-note chords (summary)
• A harmonic journey
  • Why is there tension in a dominant chord?
  • Voice leading
• A closer look at minor harmony
  • The harmonic minor and leading notes
• Using chords in improvising
  • Right notes and wrong notes
  • Passing notes
  • Suspensions
  • Avoid notes
  • Honing your improvisation
• The Blues
  • Blues chords
  • Blue notes
  • Blues scales
• Glossary

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