Translation of Reply:

Hi Lluis and welcome 🙂

Hopefully some studio members can respond here sometime soon. This month we are working using pentatonics over standards. Check out the ‘Bye Bye Blackbird Unit’ tune into what the students are working on directly.

I personally have been practicing trying to play long lines on the blues in all 12…

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Hola Lluís, ¡bienvenido! :)

Espero que algunos miembros del estudio puedan responder pronto. Este mes estamos trabajando con escalas pentatónicas sobre estándares. Escucha la melodía de la unidad "Bye Bye Blackbird" para ver en qué están trabajando los alumnos.

Personalmente, he estado practicando líneas largas de blues en las 12…

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Lluis’ Translation:

Hello everyone.

My name is Lluis and I live in Barcelona, ​​Spain.

I've been playing the tenor saxophone as a hobby for a few years now.

I also play in an adult big band at a music school, and I've decided to join this group to improve my improvisation skills (which are quite limited).

I hope to learn a lot with the help…

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Welcome back Robert! Great to have you here. Have a look around and let me know if you have any questions about anything 🙂

Hey Roberto – yes I just changed the order to go from ‘more simple’ to ‘more complicated’. I think people were getting frustrated with a very difficult song like ‘Confirmation’ being the first lesson 🙂

Hey Roberto – great question 🙂 sometimes when playing over dominant chords I prefer the sound of the natural 9 EVEN THOUGH there is a b9 in the chord. It just helps keep the sound clear in my head and to play cleaner ideas. I also prefer the sound of the pentatonic with no half steps in it because there is a good contrast when you switch to…

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HAHAHAHA – I put this right up there with my favorite trombone player joke… What’s the difference between a Bone player and a Pizza? The Pizza can feed a family of 4 😅

Hey Guillame 🙂

I appreciate the kick in the butt… They’re not up yet but standby. I have every intention to try to get something useful up by the end of the month. Thanks for your patience – this has been a wild month.

IN THE MEAN TIME, please consider revisiting one of the previous lessons with information you have learned in a lesson…

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Wooo! Yeah this is great man! Nice time feel and I dig the ‘Pass the Peas’ quote. You’re staying in the key center in a great way and playing ideas that the rhythm section seems to really dig. When it goes back to the concert F- I personally would keep blowing over all that just for fun 🙂 Other than that, not much to critique here – nice work!

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Hey Mike! Great questions and one thing is standing out to me from your line of questioning. Short answer is… IT ALL WORKS! With one exception – you had said ‘So What’ was in B- In the Tenor Key the A Sections are in E- and you would experiment with Improvising and building phrases in E-7 (E-7 Pent) or A7 (A Dom Pent OR E-6 Pent, its the…

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Hey Mike – Great question!
There are 2 things you want to think about with long solos over one chord: Tension and Release. I cover this a bit back in the ‘So What/Impressions’ Unit (the 4th unit in the studio) and cover some of my favorite ways to play over one chord for an extended period of time. The control of the tension comes from…

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This recording is CRAZY! Been listening to this album a lot lately. It is far from traditional and a very challenging song but whew… so beautiful!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg_mcdFeL8k

Beautiful sounds Alain! Coleman Hawkins was one of the best to ever do it. I love how intimate this recording in the duo setting. I wasn’t familiar with this song before hearing this. I think I might try to learn it after hearing this… thanks so much for sharing!

Or Yawn Slowtrane….

LOLOL nice one 😅

Very cool – apparently I have been living under the same rock! I have heard her name mentioned a few times but haven’t gotten around to checking her out yet. Thanks for this welcome reminder!

Woohoo! No problem at all 🙂

Happy Holidays!!

Ooofff I shouldve mentioned that one haha 🙂

@heartbecca definitely give that one a few spins if you’re not familiar with it and also here is a NAJO (New Alchemy Jazz Orchestra) playlist from an XMas concert that I did with a band I used to co-lead:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4GSvQnRE9j0L1uzfG5GztgPgb6X5R7fU&feature=shared

These are not…

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Mike!! Great to have you on here and looking forward to working with you on whatever you may have questions about. Life catches up with us and we can all use a break sometime but I can safely say that when you do this from the standpoint of wanting to have fun rather than making it feel like work, it becomes a lot easier!

Looking forward to…

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Hey Becky! I feel you here – this is a great question. Some of my favorites in no particular order are:

Harry Connick Jr. ‘When My Heart Finds Christmas’

Tony Bennett – ‘Snowfall: The Tony Bennett Christmas Album’

Frank Sinatra – ‘Christmas Songs’

Ella Fitzgerald’s Xmas

And I’m sure I am leaving some out. I have a long car ride ahead – i will find…

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You could indeed say that they are the sultans of swing lol… and that tempo… whew!!

Thanks for sharing – I havent heard this one!

Aw thanks Becky! Yes Chris Potter is my favorite. Such an incredible player and composer…

Yesss indeed! All of his albums are awesome! There are 3 ones labeled ‘In Common’ though which are my favorite 🤩

Heres one that I just loooove:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSlje4t2O2Y

Hauntingly beautiful…
Walter Smith III might be my favorite modern improvised music composer right now. I know there are many great ones but his approach to writing memorable music is very impressive.

Nice! I love this one. There is a ‘cult’ following of Patrick playing this tune that I think started from a live concert they did before the pandemic. For lack of a better explanation, his playing just always sounds like joy to me. I love the vibrant sound and energy he is emanating – I hope to get there someday too! This is a wonderful goal…

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Frustration: the telltale sign of future change and growth 🙂 You’re doing awesome. I think part of the tracking progress should include making sure you’re consistently working on similar things so you can see growth in those areas. If you’re doing this then you’re gonna be making some significant progress, even if it takes time on a topic…

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HAHA! Well… the good news is that if you get even 1 of these things into your routine you will see noticable improvement over the course of time and it will lead to improvement in other areas. I think the biggest mistake any of us can make in this artform is to think that we can master it in a short period of time. The thing we need to find…

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Hey Becky – this is a great question. I think that while its not required, it will certainly help. It is a multifaceted bonus when you look at things from the perspective of another instrument. Here are the immediate improvements I see on top of just learning how to think like a piano player:

1. Playing multiple notes at the same time lets you…

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Awesome lol… Most of these can be used at the next concert band rehearsal 🔥

Thanks Becky!

This is so insightful! I think the frustration absolutely comes from the inability to play what you practice and part of this is because what we practice begins in our conscious mind. How do we get it to the subconscious quickly though? I think the answer is to be sure to include the subconscious as part of the practice routine.
I always make…

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👌 so accurate… 🤣

I can’t wait to use this one on the bandleader… 😅

Ha! Perfect – love it.

A trombone player parks his car on the street and walks into CVS to get some things needed at home. He leaves his trombone in the back seat thinking everything will be ok. Gets back to the car and as he approaches he realizes… the window is broken!! Looks in the car and sees that there is an extra trombone in the back seat 😅

I love these versions with Zakir! gonna dig into this album more – thanks Guillaume 🙂

Ha! You’ll be happy to know there’s even less rules here than there are in improvised music 🙂 Thanks for asking though – I’m sure others were wondering the same thing.

Sure thing! Looking forward to hearing from some others for some new music to check out 😎

I love Bob Reynolds’ playing. I am not aware of this recording but look forward to checking this video and the album out. Thanks for sharing this!

I’ve been listening to Chick Corea’s ‘Now He Sings, Now He Sobs’ Trio record. I am obsessed with the precision of playing on there as well as the sound of Roy Haynes’ drums. I can hear the…

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Hey Becky – thanks for asking this. You’ll notice that at the moment this forum is a bit of a ghost town but I plan to change that this month. To answer your questions:

For the studio tunes, you can post anything relevant to the tune. While it would be great to hear your playing or progress, I’ve found that sometimes people post questions about…

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Super glad you’re here Becky! Talk to you soon I’m sure 🙂

Love to hear this Robert- welcome back! I will agree that there is some technical work involved but once you can get a nice workflow going where you understand what to practice, I’ve found it can be such a rewarding experience regardless of what level you’re at. It sounds like you have a good trajectory going on – super happy to hear this!…

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Woohoo!! Awesome so glad to have you here 🙂

I promise, being a nice guy is not just an act. I feel I am genuinely a happy person and I have music as a career to thank for this sunny disposition haha… Thanks for the kind words about the live stream I have really enjoyed getting to produce them

I just have 2 basic rules that I always apply to…

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Hey Robert – Welcome aboard and thanks for sharing this with us! Welcome back to the saxophone, the community is very glad to have you. I can say that this journey of playing the sax for the past 30 years for me has been quite an interesting one but I am thankful for every minute of it 🙂
We can’t wait to hear your playing and how your progress…

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Its all good! I should reach out to him I really enjoy his tracks. This is great info, thanks for sharing and looking forward to hearing more from you 🙂

-SK

Hey Tom – Loving the EWI effects. Such an unexpectedly cool sound! You have that thing dialed in nicely with regards to expression and the way you are able to shape your sound.
What backing track are you using here? Also sounds great! 🚀

Listening to your first chorus of improv, you are outlining the changes perfectly which is AWESOME. I think…

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Hey Chrissy!

Thanks for dropping a line here. While this area is a bit of a ghost town at the moment I see that changing in the near future when I create some things designed for users to participate in this section more.

There’s not enough jazz flute players in the world – you are very welcome here! I think you’ll…

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I like the way you describe the desire to get something down – I feel the exact same way! This could be a great place for you to learn and grow. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions. That’s what I’m here for 🙂

Hey Becky! You came to the right place 🙂 I pride myself on creating exercises that people who are great at reading music can easily memorize and begin to IMPROVISE with. Some things of course will be more challenging than others, but as long as you consistently return to the same material and commit ideas and knowledge of music theory to…

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Hey Guillaume!
Great to meet you and thanks for letting us know your background. Bari is truly for the lovers of the saxophone, it definitely takes patience as does any instrument I guess haha.

It would seem that we have a lot of similar influences – I’m really looking forward to hearing you play 🙂 Really nice set up on your alto as well. I…

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I appreciate this response! Barry Harris is the ‘go to’ when it comes to having a clear explanation for theory. His method is very specific and helps provide clarity to this broad topic of complexity – I strongly approve 🙂