Composition “Maker’s Curse”
I find that composing is a great way to spend time alone and to work out ideas that you may also use when you improvise. Original tunes also give you something to record and play with other people while contributing
Hot House
I’ve been looking at using Modes of harmonic Major and harmonic minor over the chord progression “What is This Thing Called Love”. The first two chords (G half diminished and C7b9) could be thought of as coming from F harmonic
Jason Moore – 6 Months of Sax
I’ve been listening to students for years and years now, and I’ve begun to notice a pattern in what you tell me. You’re over scheduled, over worked, and overwhelmed by all that you want to learn about music and the saxophone. Time in the practice room often feels like you’re just spinning your wheels but not really getting anywhere. You’re making time to practice, but your unsure of exactly how to use that time.
Duo with Bob Bowman
Here’s a short video of me playing an old standard with Bob Bowman on bass. Bob’s one of my favorite people and players. He listens, interacts and has an amazing creative spirit plus is a fantastic original bass player. I
~New Book: Tetrads: Triad add 9
This new book is an in depth look at the Major Triad Add 9 Tetrad (or 4 note cell). There’s a ton of great melodic and harmonic material that can be found within this simple structure. There are 96 note order
~New Video Series~
121: Fool To Want You
Today I’m working on the first melody of the standard “I’m a Fool to Want You”. I’m singing the opening phrase at the piano while visualizing the fingerings on saxophone. I’m using the piano to help with my pitch and
120: Singing/Tapping
Today I’ve been singing half note roots over Coltrane’s tri-tonic system. In this case: C Maj, Eb7, Ab Maj, B7, E Maj, G7 repeat… while singing the roots I’m thinking of the chord names and qualities and tapping a 5/8
119: Relative Pitch
This is a supplementary post to Lesson 26. This skill will help you learn to play what you hear, learn to hear new ideas, melodies and intervals, help you transcribe and help you play by ear over songs that you
118: All Intervals
I’ve been working on this interval exercise with a drone for the last week or so and it’s really starting to have a positive effect on my ear and connection between my ear and my fingers. There’s an outline of
117: Major 9 #5 Melody
This short warm up is a melody based on a Major 7 #5 chord. The melody starts on the Root, ascends to the #5, ascends to the Major 3rd, descends to the Major 7, ascends to the Major 9. The
Album, “Iberica”
Matt Otto “Iberica” – Origin Records Dan McClenaghan, from All About Jazz, has given it a nice review which you can read below. Here’s a preview of the track “St. Paul”: By DAN MCCLENAGHAN: Saxophonist Matt Otto presents the
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