Lesson 39: Bach Cello Suite
Here’s a very simple lesson taken from the 1st two bars of the second Bach Cello Suite prelude. The melody outlines the chord progression i minor to V7 b9. First, sing the melody until you hear it like a nursery
Lesson 38: 1st Inv Triads
Over the years I consistently hear from my students, “I know all my triads” and, “I know all my major scales”. After closer examination, it turns out that, for many developing sax players and musicians, this often means root position
Lesson 30: Sing and Play
Since I developed carpal tunnel syndrome in 1990, I began to sing as a way of practicing the saxophone without using my hands. After my operation, I could not use my hands to play the sax for 4 months so
Lesson 28: My Shining Hour
This is a short etude I wrote over the chord changes to My Shining Hour in concert C. The etude utilizes a lot of modern-ish concepts in terms of rhythmic groupings and harmonic/triadic substitutions. You’ll find several uses of #9
Lesson 21: V7 Chromatic
Although we all practice chromatic scales over the years, sometimes it’s challenging to actually use them as convincing melodies while improvising. One thing I’ve noticed is that every other note of a chromatic scale creates a whole tone scale, and
Lesson 14: Diminished Melody
Here is a simple melody that will help you hear diminished as diminished, not merely as a dominant 7(b9). This is fairly easy idea that is played through the keys around the circle of fourths starting in concert C. It’s
Lesson 11: Major b9, b13
Finding new ways to construct melodies over a major chord can be challenging as Ionian, Lydian and Lydian augmented seem to dominate the harmonic landscape in major. This lesson uses a melody that incorporates b9 and b13 over major. Although
Lesson 9: Arpeggiating Voicings
Sometimes when playing saxophone without a chordal instrument or accompaniment, it can be hard to hear the harmonic context for the melodies being improvised or worked on. One way to help hear harmonically while playing single note lines is to
Lesson 8: ii-V7 using triads
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126: Practice PDFs
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Lesson 6: Minor ii-V-i
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Lesson 5: 13th Arpeggios
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