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II-V-I Patterns

April 1, 2006 in Sheet Music

I have updated the II-V-I patterns yet again. I consolidated some of the other patterns I had (like the Ray Brown ones). There are now 286 pages (or 286 4 bar patterns) to enjoy. Also gone is the Jazz Font in favor of a more clean, professional look using Bill Duncan’s Fonts for Finale.

These patterns were designed to be used with Aebersold Vol. 3, Track 2. Also included is a 24 page reference of the patterns.

If you want some more patterns, I highly recommend Jerry Bergonzi’s Inside Improvisation Vol. 5. There are some really great patterns in there. Enjoy!

  •   II-V-I Patterns Reference (600.9 KiB, 11,583 hits)
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  •   II-V-I Patterns in Bb (4.6 MiB, 11,763 hits)
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  •   II-V-I Patterns in Bb Pages 1 to 100 (1.7 MiB, 11,099 hits)
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  •   II-V-I Patterns in Bb Pages 101 to 200 (1.9 MiB, 10,733 hits)
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  •   II-V-I Patterns in Bb Pages 201 to 289 (1.6 MiB, 10,734 hits)
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  •   II-V-I Patterns in Eb (4.7 MiB, 11,172 hits)
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  •   II-V-I Patterns in Eb Pages 1 to 100 (1.7 MiB, 10,354 hits)
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  •   II-V-I Patterns in Eb Pages 101 to 200 (1.9 MiB, 10,295 hits)
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  •   II-V-I Patterns in Eb Pages 201 to 289 (1.6 MiB, 10,665 hits)
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Intermediate Jazz Conception

February 21, 2006 in Reviews

Jim Snidero has added another volume to his Jazz Conception series. Intermediate Jazz Conception features 15 songs based on chord changes to “St. Thomas”, “On Green Dolphin Street”, “Confirmation”, “Well You Needn’t” and others. The Alto version features Jim Snidero (as do all the other Alto versions of his books), the Tenor version features Ted Nash.

For style and sound, all these books are excellent….

You’d be hard pressed to find a better sound on Alto than Jim Snidero’s. On tenor, previous versions of the book have featured Walt Weiskopf and Eric Alexander, who are excellent players. However, I think Ted Nash’s sound is great in this book. I’d say better than the other two (but that is just my opinion).

The book’s tunes. Honestly, the tunes (or etudes) in this volume are lack luster. The first tune, “Splank Street”, has a great sound to it, but the tune never goes anywhere unlike in previous Jazz Conception books (IE: Basie’s Blues). “St. Sonny” is ok, “Confirmed” and “Freedom” are good. But there is nothing that just screams “cool” to me. In the original Jazz Conception book we had a ton of cool tunes like “Passages”, “Bird’s Blues”, or “Groove Blues” to name a few. But this volume, they are playable, but….not memorable.

Rating. It’s a solid edition to the Jazz Conception series. I give it a 8. I love Ted Nash’s playing in this book. But the tunes are not as good as they have been in previous Jazz Conception books. I’d still love to see Jim Snidero tackle a more contemporary play-along. Something that is really lacking out there.

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Gordon Goodwin Big Phat Band Play-Along Series

February 16, 2006 in Reviews

This is pure gold. 10 songs, playing with the Gordon Goodwin band. The solos are written out. The chart is there. Everything. You get a small clip of the band playing the tune (full band), and then you get the band minus your part and the solos. It’s the actual recording. Hunting Wabbits, yes, it’s the same as the recording. If you listen hard, you can hear a very faint bleed in from the solos.

You need to get this. You need to get both the Alto and the Tenor versions as the written solos are not the same in both books (IE: the solo for Swingin for the Fences is in the Alto book, but not in the Tenor. The solo for Jazz Police is in the Tenor book, but not the Alto).

On a scale of 10, I give this series of books a 12. No, a 14. Hell, ok, 15. It’s good stuff. Very good stuff.

Update: 02/17 21:49 GMT by E :You can get the book via Aebersold, or J.W. Pepper

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Silent Saxophone Practice

February 8, 2006 in Articles

Ok. Brass instruments have had that Silent Brass system for a while. Most sax players wish they would use it all the time ;-) . Now, it seems saxophone players can have something similar.

E-Sax is a new case/silent practice thing. Interesting stuff. Looks really funny, but they say it works. You can even do Karaoke with it. Woohoo!

I have always been hoping for some sort of noise cancelling system to come out. A system where you’d hook a mic up, and while you play a digital box takes your sound, and then produces and blasts out the inverse and cancels out the sound. Perhaps someday….

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The Lighthouse Omnibook – David Liebman & Steve Grossman

January 18, 2006 in Reviews

There are a couple of books every saxophonist should have in their library. The Charlie Parker Omnibook in Eb, Michael Brecker Collection Vol. 1 and Michael Brecker Collection Vol. 2, Stan Getz and now, The Lighthouse Omnibook.

This great collection contains all the solos off Elvin Jones’ Live At The Lighthouse album. This book is great. The notation is a little questionable (IE: bad formatting in Finale, etc), but the content is amazing. I have a transcription of Taurus People I got from someone in college that was ok. The transcription in this book nails it.

For anyone looking to learn how to improvise in a more modern style, get this book. 9.8 out of 10 (.2 deducted for poor notation in areas, which could easily have been fixed).

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Zinn Practice Regimen For Saxophone III

December 16, 2005 in Sheet Music

NOTE – An updated version of this Regimen is available here

One of the most downloaded things on Jazz-Sax.com is the Zinn Practice Regimen. It was inspired by Daniel Zinn, master saxophonist/woodwindist when he took over saxophone instruction at CSUH about 10 years ago.

I updated it a couple of years ago, and I’ve updated it again. Changed the font, clean it up and came up with some new ideas to maim, I mean break, I mean develop fingers and skills. This is probably the last revision of it, as I think it encompasses all that I want it to, and takes about 30 minutes to play through. Enjoy

  Zinn Practice Regimen III (592.7 KiB, 52,290 hits)
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Around The Horn Backgrounds Part III

December 14, 2005 in Sheet Music

Final batch of backgrounds for Walt Weiskopf’s book Around the Horn. They were encoded using AAC compression supported by iTunes and Quicktime.

They are zipped for easier downloading. Enjoy!

Band in a Box files for all these.

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Around The Horn Backgrounds Part II

December 2, 2005 in Sheet Music

More backgrounds for Walt Weiskopf’s book Around the Horn. They were encoded using AAC compression supported by iTunes and Quicktime.

They are zipped for easier downloading. Enjoy!

Band in a Box files for all these.

More to come!

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Around The Horn Backgrounds Part I

November 28, 2005 in Sheet Music

Four years ago, I did some backgrounds for the Etudes found in Walt Weiskopf’s book Around the Horn. Well, technology has changed. The original backgrounds were done with Band-In-A-Box version 11 for PC , exported to Midi, and then rendered using a variety of sound modules.

Fast-forward four years, these backgrounds were done using Band-In-A-Box 2005, and Roland’s Super Quartet. These were rendered in seconds using DXi. They were encoded using AAC compression supported by iTunes and Quicktime. They are zipped for easier downloading. Enjoy!

Band in a Box files for all these.

More to come!

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Articulation At Fast Tempos

August 10, 2005 in Articles

harry63 writes “In slow and medium swing tempos I understand that “off-beat” articulation is used most often (I know there are times of course, that you don’t use this articulation, but I am generalizing on purpose). With fast tempos this articulation can really make your playing sound heavy and tend to drag. I am curious to know what sort of articulation patterns you all use at break-neck tempos?”

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Oboe Etudes For Saxophone Technique

April 19, 2005 in Articles

As a follow-up to my previous article about taking up Oboe as a double, Yampol pointed me towards the International Double Reed Society. They have a wealth of free technique etudes available for downloading that work on saxophone. They also include the Finale File for them, so you could even load them into Finale and make a SmartMusic accompaniment. Good stuff.

Anyone have other good sites where one can find etudes available to help build technique?

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Oboe As A Double

April 16, 2005 in Articles

I dabbled with Oboe playing in college. I suppose one goes to the dark side every now and then. I was terrible. Looking back on it, I think I was learning too many instruments. I was taking clarinet, saxophone and flute lessons, suffering through piano classes, in addition to all the performance groups that I was in. So, Oboe fell to the wayside.

Now, some 6 years out of college, I took it up again. Mainly due to a flute student of mine trying it out in her middle school band. She did not believe me that I could play Oboe. I said I could, though not nearly as well as the other instruments I play (flutes, clarinets, saxophones). So, I rented one (really low end student model….anyone want to finance me a Loree or something? 3K people. I’m good for it ;-) ).

First day of practicing was painful. The embrouchure for Oboe messed up my usual embrouchure, and it took about 20 minutes for me to get it back. Subsequent oboe practice session have made the transition back to the light side (ie: normal woodwinds, not evil double reeds) a painless thing. The fingerings, which I vaguely remembered, but never was good at, are really easy now. Even the stupid second octave key. And the fact that low C is above Eb. And F on sax is F# on oboe. And half holed D’s. Oboe is turning out to be a piece of cake.

Except for reeds. I’m too lazy and not skilled to make my one reeds. I’ve been buying them. Avoid Rico oboe reeds. Terrible reeds. Fox Oboe reeds are good, as are Meason reeds. I’m finding that medium hard reeds give me a good tone and intonation.

Anyone else have Oboe as a double? Or have dabbled in the dark art of double reed playing?

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Developing Sightreading

January 14, 2005 in Articles

One of the things I try to do with my students is make them excellent sight readers. If there was one thing I learned in College, it was that sightreading is essential. To that end, I usually start a lesson trying a new song, something I picked up from those years in Tim Smith’s (mainly) and Dave Eshelman’s Bands. Dave didn’t always do it, but Tim, being Tim, allocated time (15 minutes or so) on his very detailed (obsessive?) rehearsal schedules he would publish.

Anyhow, I did a gig a month or so ago, and talking teaching, someone recommended “A Study of Intervals for Sightreading and Transposition
William Vacchiano”. Supposedly a trumpet book, but he said it was good none-the-less. I also have used a Sightreading book by Bugs Bower. Both of these do not seem to be published at the moment. Another excellent book is Vol. 3, Rhythm Studies by Joe Viola. Anyone have any other recommendations?

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Random II-V Patterns

September 6, 2004 in Sheet Music

I had, a while ago, posted some Patterns that fit Aebersold Volume 3, Track 3 (Random II/V Progression). Here is an updated version. It has ballooned to 246 pages (up from 137 in the last version).

These are intended for practice with that track, or something similar (like backgrounds generated via Band in a Box). Enjoy!

Adobe Acrobat 7 is required to view and print these.

  •   Random II-V Patterns in Bb (4.1 MiB, 5,256 hits)
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  •   Random II-V Patterns in Bb pages 1 to 100 (1.7 MiB, 5,119 hits)
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  •   Random II-V Patterns in Bb pages 101 to 200 (1.8 MiB, 5,090 hits)
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  •   Random II-V Patterns in Bb pages 201 to 246 (763.6 KiB, 5,088 hits)
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  •   Random II-V Patterns in Eb (4.1 MiB, 5,132 hits)
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  •   Random II-V Patterns in Eb pages 1 to 100 (1.7 MiB, 5,056 hits)
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  •   Random II-V Patterns in Eb pages 101 to 200 (1.8 MiB, 5,053 hits)
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  •   Random II-V Patterns in Eb pages 201 to 246 (755.2 KiB, 5,074 hits)
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Where Do I Start?

June 20, 2004 in Articles

olsonco writes “I learned to play saxophone in high school and have decided to take it up again as an adult approaching my late thirties. I have discovered that learning to improvise is a far different process than that used to teach high-school band students how to play.


After relearning my major and melodic minor scales, I bought some Jamey Aebersold play-along books. So far so good … I’m very slowly beginning to hear some sounds that I think are not entirely offensive.


What suggestions can the experienced players offer on where I go from here? What other teaching aids would you recommend? Should I engage private lessons? Are there any recommendations for finding a compatible teacher? And how can I find people to jam who are at my level?”

Private lessons are probably the single best way to get better.

Secondly, go get Jim Snidero’s Jazz Conception books. Play those. Then get Bob Mintzer’s books. Play those. You need skills, and these etude books will expose you to a variety of styles, and you can hear how things sound over chord changes.

Third, go get the Charlie Parker Omnibook. This is a great repository of jazz. And get the recordings so you know how it is supposed to sound.

Fourth, set reasonable goals for yourself. I’d aim to do a Snidero etude or two a week, plus maybe jam on a Aebersold playalong using different scales/patterns.

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