Keep on it Jake, it WILL come. Having the chords on the charts is good for us when we have a piano or guitar friend along but it’s also helpful for us as we play, especially when we try to improvise over it and even do a little lick in between the melody. If we know the chord we can at least blurt out 2 or 3 notes of it and it will fit. This is basic stuff but I know that many are just beginning and it takes so much time to just get to learning the sax that these other things called theory and improvisation can seem unreachable…but it’s not. Like you say, baby steps. Keep an open mind.
