Refresh to sax / newbie to improv

[Anonymous]

welcome!
would love to hear some of
your playing uploaded here!

[john]

All very timely guys as I’m putting the finishing touches on my new Major Scale Improv Course.
meanwhile Jacinta, get started with the lessons that are accessible from the home page under “Improvisation”
this is a good starting point for anyone as it goes very slowly with only a few notes.

[Michael]

That’s fantastic news Johnny! Thanks for making more Improvisation lessons available…I was one of the members who, back when you e-mailed your survey out to everyone, I had requested more lessons of Improvisation. It’s really frustrating to look online and come up empty handed. They’ll talk about scales and the importance of using them in Improvising and they they just leave it at that. I Really love your Improvisation lessons on the home page and have made good use of them. I wanted to upload to your blog a video using part 2 of your lesson but I tried downloading the backing track for part 2 of the lesson but it wouldn’t download, not sure why.
Speaking of uploading videos, I’ll be uploading “The Green Onions” on Tenor sometime between this weekend and the following week..I have a Custom MBII coming that I had made for the Tenor and it’s supposed to arrive this week so I’m just waiting for that to come. I had one made for the Alto back in the fall and it’s awesome..but I think the Theo Wanne Durga is slightly better. I would have gotten one for the Tenor but in light of the $ I just spent getting my T.J. Saxophones, a Theo Wanne for the Tenor will have to wait till later this year…they’re very expensive. Your lessons on using the Blues Scales and the Minor Pentatonic Scales in Killer Blues ebook were perfect for the Green Onions 🙂 But from previous comments I’ve read you make regarding your new course, it seems like your new lesson will go way beyond what I’ve been learning in Killer Blues?

[john]

You mean you want to download the backing track from lesson 2 of Killer Blues?
The new improv course takes a very different approach to improvisation.
Killer Blues focuses on the 12 bar blues progression using the 3 different blues scales…
the Major Improv Course will cover more theory regarding the major scale and it’s diatonic modes and related scales,
this opens up a whole new world for you.
Anyone who wants to improvise fluently needs both concepts but I don’t like to mix things up. I believe you focusing on one concept at a time is better and ultimately more productive. Especially on the subject of improvisation which is huge and can get pretty complicated.
What I like (and think you’ll like) about this new course is that even tho it introduces you to more advanced sounding things like modes and diatonic scales, the concepts and exercises do not go beyond the notes of the major scale…very cool stuff.

[Michael]

Not the backing tracks from Killer Blues lessons; those are all fine. It’s the backing track from Major Pentatonic Scales Part 2 lesson on your “free lessons” section. I posted the link to that lesson below. The backing track for part one of that lesson downloaded fine.

Pentatonic Major Scale – Part 2

From what you’re saying, sounds like your new course is definately going to answer LOADS of questions that I’ve had..but right now I’m totally focused on your lessons in Killer Blues. When I finish that ebook and I can say that everything is under my belt and I’ve made it “my own” then I’ll get into your next course. I’m not very good at “multi tasking” with learning new things on the Saxophone and it would work against me if I try to focus on both of those courses at the same time. If I had tried to do that with your Altissimo course…I probably would have pulled my hair out or had a nervous breakdown LOL
I’m working on the solo to Brown Sugar right now, so I’m in the middle of the book. I’m guessing around late summer I’ll be ready for your next course…although I plan to buy your new course ASAP and that way it’s there when I need it–that old saying of not having the $ when we need something seems to always be the case with me LOL Starting either this coming weekend of within next week I will be uploading “The Green Onions” for Tenor and, from that point on, the majority (but not all) of the things I will be uploading for you to critique will have lots of Improvisation in it…this is the direction I wanna go with my playing–it’s huge here in the South.

[john]

Oh I see, I guess I haven’t made those tracks downloadable yet. will check on it.

[Dazza]

Johnny i really enjoyed those two examples you did that Michael referred to and I have been making up my own phrases around that and wondering if you could extend that backing track and make it available to purchase so i can work it some more and so you could play it over a song length.

[Michael]

Hey Dazza,

The backing track for part one of Johnny’s lesson downloads fine; just right click on it and choose on your cpu. where you want to save the track at..it’s free to download. It’s part 2 of Johnny’s lesson that I can’t download….looks like you haven’t been able to download it either? Yes, those 2 lessons that Johnny did are great, very simple and easy to follow–it’s a great lesson for anyone who wants to start Improvising. I think that many of the best songs for the Saxophone are the most simple to play…I recall a quote from Michael Brecker where he was talking along the lines of a player who should have the ability to use so few notes and know how to Improvise with them.

[john]

Right Michael, I quoted Michael Brecker in my Killer Blues book from a book I read many years ago where he said something like “if you can’t say something with in a 5th it’s not worth saying”. This really stood out for me cause this was Brecker, one of the best modern jazz saxophonists of the day. But if you think about the span of a 5th, that’s not even the full pentatonic blues scale! You;’re working on the Brown Sugar solo so notice that it’s all done with 5 notes…the whole solo! Something to think about. Improvising doesn’t need to be complicated…it can be but anyone can get a good start on it with those exercises I made available there. Speaking of which, I’ll check that out as for downloading that 2nd track.

[Michael]

Yeah..now I remember where I read that quote from; I knew I had read it somewhere (at least you know I really am going through your Killer blues course LOL) It’s funny you mention how we’re using nothing but 5 notes on Brown Sugar…that’s was a real eye-opener. I noticed the same thing you mention as I started working on it. So I started listening to other solos like “Urgent” “The Logical Song” “Smooth Operator” and the solo I learned last year “Tequila”…every single one of these solos use only a handful of notes and that’s it…amazing. That would be great if we could download the track for part 2 of your Pentatonic lesson from your homepage Johnny–I wanted to do an upload with it a few months back but couldn’t download it. I did made a post a few asking about it; not sure what happened with that post.

For my Green Onions on Tenor that I will upload within a week (my custom MBII for the Tenor comes this week so just waiting for it to arrive, it’s in-transit on the shipping) the things you can do with a song like this are endless, but it gets to a point where you just have to know when “enough is enough”. There’s lots of places where all I play is the chord of the scale and that’s it, but there were a couple of places where a flat 5 fit in nicely. I think a flat 5, when used properly, really adds a lot…even though it may be a “Devil’s” note 🙂 In light of what I learning right now, I think The Green Onions is a perfect track to work with because it’s great for applying your techniques in Killer Blues. I can change the key of the track and that makes me work on Improvising in another scale which I plan to do for both Alto and Tenor. I have had A LOT of fun working on this song, everything feels just right about it 🙂

[Author]

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