The topic of this audio is a subject I’ve spoken about with my peers as well as my students over the years. And that is the subject of composing.
You see, throughout musical history, the musician / performer was…
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Playing over a Dominant 7th Chord
With this article/sound file / pdfs, I'd like to discuss and demonstrate some of the thinking and techniques I use when I'm faced with having to solo over a dominant 7th chord for an extended solo.
In college, we often…
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Try this "Minimalist" Exercise to improve your Improvisation
All improvisers are looking for new licks and/or techniques to improve our soloing. As saxophonists, too often are we seduced to licks with many notes with sometimes some quite complicated harmonic structures. I got a little weary of that I…
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Enclosures for Improvisation - Part One
A while back someone asked me about enclosures and how to practice them for improvisation. I had to first identify what was meant by "enclosures". I realized that I've always referred to this technique as "encircling".
What I would do…
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Improv Etude over "There Will Never Be Another You"
Here's another Improv Etude over a classic jazz standard. "There Will Never Be Another You" by Harry Warren.
I've added just one technique in using alternate changes in the second part of the form. See if you can find it…
Improv Etude over "Cherokee"
This is a challenging Bebop standard from Ray Noble. Any improviser that wants to prove their worth must be able to play this standard, often at break-neck tempos.
This improv etude will force you to use the whole range of…
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10 Ways To Improve Your Jazz Soloing
Everyone who works hard on improvising jazz comes to a point that they hit wall. They feel that their practicing is not helping their soloing anymore. They don't know what to practice anymore. They looking for inspiration but don't know…
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