I’m currently working my way through the IFR Courses – they are long term, talking years to work my way through. I’ve founds parts of it useful, it’s a case of trial and error, i tend to pick out the parts i find useful and incorporate them in my daily routine.

I’m just a novice, but if anyone comes up with any useful stuff or corrects me if i’ve got things wrong – by all means share the information, everyone has a lot to gain by discussion.

i’m currently memorising all 12 “minor 7 flat 5 (half diminished) arpeggios. The only reason i’m memorising all the types of chords (or arpeggios) – major, dominant 7, minor 7, half diminished, diminished, augmented is because i got fed up of looking through music sheets and fumbling trying to work out what chords are on the sax.

That’s a good exercise William in all 12 Keys.

I bought 84 backing tracks, for each of the 7 different Modes there are backing tracks for each of the 12 scales (ie 7 x 12 = 84 tracks).

So each day i pick 2 new scales (ex F & Gb) then i practice going up and down the sax (from low Bb up to altissimo D, depending on where each mode starts and ends) for each of the 7 different mode backing tracks.

Practicing each of the 7 modes in one scale with representative backing tracks for each of the 7 modes is quite interesting, as each of the 7 mode backing tracks sound different. ex if you play up and down mode 1 in C major you can feel with the track the natural resting place is on note 1 (ie C), where as if you play up and down mode 2 in c major you can feel the natural resting place is no longer note 1, but note 2 instead (ie D) with the backing track. Although Both tracks are in the C major scale yet you feel as if you want to end properly on a different note and not always end on the C note.

Playing the modes without a mode backing track, you don’t experience how intense the modes are, and how bad the sound is if you pick the wrong mode for a track, it just doesn’t sound right.

the chords for each of the 7 modes in Scale C
c,e,g,b – 1,3,5,7
d,f,a,c – 1,3b,5,7b
e,f,g,a – 1,3b,5b,7
f,g,a,b – 1,3,5,7#
g,a,b,c – 1,3,5,7
a,b,c,d – 1,3,5b,7b
b,c,d,e – 1,3b,5b,7b

the 1st mode and the 5th mode share the same pattern (1,3,5,7) , so you can see why the 1st and the 5th chords have a close sounding relationship and the pattern of the 4th mode is 1,3,5,7# so you can see why the 4th chord sounds well with the 1st and 5th chords which makes the I-IV-V progression sound so nice and natural.

correction, correction, correction (i’m definitely a novice)

the chords for each of the 7 modes in Scale C

c,e,g,b – 1,3,5,7
d,f,a,c – 1,3b,5,7b
e,g,b,d -1,3b,5,7b
f,a,c,e – 1,3,5,7
g,b,d,f – 1,3,5,7b
a,c,e,g – 1,3b,5,7b
b,d,f,a – 1,3b,5b,7b

playing the 1st 4 notes of each mode in Scale C

c,d,e,f – 1,2,3,4
d,e,f,g – 1,2,3b,4
e,f,g,a – 1,2b,3b,4
f,g,a,b – 1,2,3,4#
g,a,b,c – 1,2,3,4
a,b,c,d – 1,2,3b,4
b,c,d,e – 1,2b,3b,4

the 1st mode and the 4th mode share the same pattern (1,3,5,7) , so you can see why the 1st and the 4th chords have a close sounding relationship and the pattern of the 5th mode is 1,3,5,7b so you can see why the 5th chord sounds well with the 1st and 4th chords and creates a bit of tension, which makes the I-IV-V progression sound so nice and natural.

I’ve got loads of stuff learn about the blues, which i’ll start working through, when i’ve finished memorising 72 chords (arpeggios), just got 24 more chords to go. The more you practice these chords over and over, the less time you spend trying to remember what notes make up the chords from the theory.

“What’d i say” is also a nice tune to work, in Johnny’s list of music.