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  • #26067
    Ginny Duke
    Participant

      Hi! I am trying to get back into playing the sax after about fifteen years and your site is super helpful!! My question is probably silly, but what are the written notes above the notes on the staff? Is that some kind of trill or chord? Thanks!

      #26069
      Anonymous

        chords

        #26071
        john
        Keymaster

          Yes as JB said. as a sax player you can simply get away with just playing the melody but having the chords there can be very beneficial. How?
          take a few minutes to look at each chord change and notice the melody notes that are written under each chord. you will see that most of these notes are directly related to the chord above, either as a riff derived from part of the diatonic scale or the chord itself (3rd, 5th etc) this can help us when improvising because when we solo over a chord progression we must use the notes related to the chord being played. if you think about it, when songwriters are writing a song, they are improvising the melody over and over until it fits in with the chords they are playing and whether they know improvisational theory or not, the notes they choose are always directly related to the chord because they’re the notes that fit the best.

          I’ve been getting a few questions regarding this stuff and for those interested you can learn all about it in much depth with my Major Scale Improv Course: https://howtoplaysaxophone.org/major-scale-improvisation-course

          another reason having the chords in the song is that if you want to play the song with a friend that plays guitar or piano they will have the chords to accompany you… mind you, they’ll need to be transposed from Eb or Bb to concert pitch.

          #26103
          Ginny Duke
          Participant

            Okay, that makes perfect sense. Thanks so much for breaking it down for me!

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