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Beginner improvisation.

3K views 9 replies 4 participants last post by  edwardmcardle 
#1 ·
Hi , i have been learning the Alto sax for just over a year now and love every minute!! It was my first instrument and i started to learn to read music at the same time so have been on a very steep learning curve. I would love to be able to improvise and wondered if there were any good books out there which would help me? When looking for music books on amazon i am finding that the contents aren't listed and there are no reviews so it is a bit difficult to choose my "next level". If amyone has any ideas or links i would be very grateful.
Thanks in advance.
 
#2 ·
Not a book, but I'm constantly striving to make my site resources more beginner friendly. Well actually I am in the process of writing a book, but it's not ready yet.

You'll find my rock & roll and blues tutorials here on SOTW and some other jazz beginner's stuff on my site. I'm kind of working backwards because the jazz theory stuff was originally written as part of a university course, but I'd love for beginners to let me know if the new beginners intro to those pages is making sense to you - writing stuff for beginners is deceptively difficult I find.

As for books, I still think the old Jerry Coker book "Improvising Jazz" is great.
 
#3 ·
i've only been playing for 6months but like you i only started learning to read music at the same time. i found Jazz Method for Alto Saxophone by john o'neill very good. It has allot of basic tips for improv and encourages it in alot of songs. If you want something slightly more advanced you could try his second book or hal leonard's amazing pharasing, which's basically tips and practice exercises for jazz improv.

Thats my 2cents-hope it helps!
 
#7 ·
You will also get a lot of ideas as well as having something to play along with if you get volume of Jamey Aebersold's play-along series. (www.jazzbooks.com)

Perhaps someone could chime in who has seen it because I haven't, but I would imagine that Jamey's "Anyone Can Improvise" DVD might also be helpful.

If you understand German, Dirko Juchem has a very good basic tutor "Improvisation in der Popmusik" (Voggenreiter publisher) with play-along.

Regarding the John O'Neil book, I use it in private lessons but I use it for phrasing, not for improvising. I believe it's limited in this respect.

There are many excellent improvisation methods out there but IMO few which really take time to lay it out for beginners before jumping ahead to an intermediate level.
 
#8 ·
hey gary which of the abersold books do you thing are best for improv? i was thinking of getting the blues in all keys but wasn't sure.

pete i went to your site with absolutely no musical knowledge. that was about six months ago when i started to play. i found it extremily informative, for example up until then i didn't exactly know what a chord was! i also never knew about cord progression or harmonys. i now consider myself to have a basic knowledge-just a matter of making use of this knowledge, which is quite tough:)

in short-it's a terrific site!
 
#9 ·
edwardmcardle said:
hey gary which of the abersold books do you thing are best for improv? i was thinking of getting the blues in all keys but wasn't sure.
Edward, I recommend the play-alongs in this sequence:
Vol I, A New Approach (a bit convoluted but IMO the basic source of all that follows)
Vol 2 Nothing But Blues
Vol 5 Time to Play (both/and, either/or) 54 Maiden Voyage - they're about the same level

Then you start "peeling the onion" -
Vol 21 Gettin' it together (somewhat a continuation of Vol 1)
Vol 3 II-V-I Progression
Vol 47 Rhythm Changes in All Keys
- and concurrent with these, any of the play-alongs you want to use. Just look in the catalogue listing for those with intermediate level. My experience is that many, if not most, of the play-alongs volumes have some tunes that are relatively easy and others which are more challenging, so just take your pick of what tunes/composers you like.
 
#10 ·
gary said:
Edward, I recommend the play-alongs in this sequence:
Vol I, A New Approach (a bit convoluted but IMO the basic source of all that follows)
Vol 2 Nothing But Blues
Vol 5 Time to Play (both/and, either/or) 54 Maiden Voyage - they're about the same level

Then you start "peeling the onion" -
Vol 21 Gettin' it together (somewhat a continuation of Vol 1)
Vol 3 II-V-I Progression
Vol 47 Rhythm Changes in All Keys
- and concurrent with these, any of the play-alongs you want to use. Just look in the catalogue listing for those with intermediate level. My experience is that many, if not most, of the play-alongs volumes have some tunes that are relatively easy and others which are more challenging, so just take your pick of what tunes/composers you like.
thats a great help thanks-there is just so many i didnt know where to start!!
 
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