Saxophone Transcription Paths

€25

Saxophone Transcription Paths

Course
21 Lessons

Ever felt overwhelmed as where to start with learning jazz saxophone solo's? And perhaps when you got ideas, they are too far out of your league at the moment? That's exactly why we designed "Transcription Paths". These so called "paths" are carefully designed to start with an easy entrance level solo that still sounds awesome, to then increase the level bit by bit transforming your playing into beast mode!

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A Beginner's Guide to Jazz Sax

In the early stages of playing saxophone it can be hard to get into jazz because the bigger load of improvised solo's usualy have a high complexity factor to it. Heck, even if you've played saxophone for years and control the instrument well, but you've just never done much jazz, it can be hard to find solo's that are challenging without sounding dull, but don't require superhuman skills either.

This "path" selects some of the more feasible solo's that sound incredible, while not demanding to have a PhD in technical capacities on your instrument. The level will increase progressively, meaning, the first one will be the easiest, second one a bit harder and so on. We believe that even if you're a good intermediate or advanced player, going through these are still essentials that build heavily on your fundamentals. And, it's not because an improvised solo is technically easier, that it is less genius!

The Parameters considered to determine the order:

-The length of the solo (the longer, the more time you need to practice obviously)
-The technical complexity on the instrument (sometimes things that look hard on sheet music aren't necessarily that, and stuff that looks easy might be harder then they look due to the technical facilities of the saxophone)
-The key of the solo (and - the amount of - potential modulations within the chord progression)
-The range of the solo
-The tempo
-Special applied techniques like altissimo's, ,note bends, special trills, etc...

Sandu - The 12 bar Blues solo by Kenny Garret

A Taste of Honey - Diatonic beauty with Paul Desmond

All Of Me - How to variate on the melody by Johnny Hodges

Autumn Leaves - Staying cool when the Rhythm Section brings up the heat by Paul Desmond

There Is No Greater Love - Adding some Bebop to the idiom with Sonny Stitt

Short & Sweet Solo's

These solo's are selected on basis of their shortnessness... that's not a word, I know, but these are some of the finer solo's that consist of a lot of great content and idea's in mostly just one or two chorusses. That's a hard thing, to come up with a good story in a short time and capture the essence at the same time.

They are ranked by difficulty. The first being the easiest and the last one the hardest. Enjoy!

I Got A Woman - Storytelling with a few notes by David "Fathead" Newman

Buona Sera - Rock'n Roll on the chord changes by Sam Butera

Sandu - Nailing the Blues in One chorus by Kenny Garret

There Is No Greater Love - Fat bebop by Gene Ammons

Spain - Creating memorable melodies in a hard key by Eric Mariental

Jazz: A Brief History of Saxophonekind

When learning jazz, we usually start with a first trigger that inspires us to the genre. This might be someting at any point in the jazz history, but soon when we want to develop further and we search the web for advice, or a personal teacher, we'll get directed usually to bebop. After a slice of Bebop, we maybe want to explore some Hard Bop which came later or perhaps check out how Lester Young was an influence to Bird. But, what if we just would start from the very start?

This path will take you chronologically through the first steps into the jazz sax improvisation idiom, starting in the 1920 with composed solo's from the dixieland era, leading through all developments per decade all the way to Fusion jazz. That's Right, From Frankie Trumbauer's C-melody saxophone all the way to Michael Brecker.

1920s: Trumbology - Composed dixieland by Frankie Trumbauer

1930s: Shoe Shine Boy - Improvised independant lines by Lester Young

1940s: Cherokee - The early signs of Bebop by Charlie Parker (aged 22)

1950s: Freddie Freeloader - Obscure Blues by Cannonball Adderley

1960s: Work Song - This Bops too Hard... by Cannonball Adderley

1970s: Some Skunk Funk - Heavy Metal Bebop by Michael Brecker

The Art Of The Pop Saxophone Solo

Mostly from the 80s, there was an explosion in pop saxophone solo's all over the radio. The saxophone gave that extra edge, that special smoothness, mostly in the second third of the tune and otherwise the outro. Here is a selection of what we consider some of the best played and improvised ones, all in order of level so you can build on your skills transcription per transcription.

There will be more added soon, but if you have suggestions, surely leave it in a comment down!

I Love Your Smile - Gracenotes as Main Tool with Branford Marsalis

I Will Always Love You - The Gospel & Soul approach with Kirk Whalum

Konichiwa - How to stay funky over a Smooth Groove with Dan Waples

Englishman in New York - Soprano Sax throughout the tune with Branford Marsalis

Still Crazy After All These Years (Live version) -Expand on the album version like a God with Michael Brecker