Can anyone recommend any good books?

[saxygirl]

Ok, im bored with the music in my "introducing the sax" book (all the stuff i can play so far anyway) Can anyone recommend any good books with some stuff i can play until i get a bit further on? :P

[Dave Dolson]

Saxygirl: Put down the written material and start training your ear. Rather than depending upon someone else to write out your notes, listen to some good players and emulate THEIR sound and technique. You won't be bored for long. DAVE

[Gandalfe]

Along the lines of what Dave recommends, pick some relatively easy players to copy, like Kenny G. I'm not trying to dis the artist, I just find his stuff incredibly easy to play along with. Compare that to Bird and you get the idea how complex he would be to try to copy.

You can often borrow CDs from the library and work out a couple of songs. The neat thing is you will learn a lot about intonation and inflection, you will have memorized some songs, and you may be able to improve your skillset.

[dpwadw]

Get the Jamey Aebersold "Volume 1 Jazz: How to Play and Improvise". Comes with a great CD of tracks in keys for all the saxes. Great stuff to begin improvisation. It goes from very simple to a good solid intermediate level.

Can be found at:
http://www.jazzbooks.com/scripts/search.asp?detail=1&item=1

or in many local music stores.

Best of luck to you!

[saxygirl]

Thanks guys. will give the cds a go. hadnt really thought about it before but it seems like a really good idea so thanks a lot.

[adrianw]

I picked up a pretty good book the other day.
Progressive Saxophone by Peter Gelling. It has a CD included to let you know what every lesson sounds like on Tenor and Alto.
It starts with the basic G, A, B, etc and ends with swing rhythms, blues scales and a lesson on transposing.

[wainsworth]

Jamey Aebersold's books are great for learning jazz. If you can afford it Volumes 24 and 1 are considered the two basic books to buy.

[CodyW]

Jamey aebersolds great for improv, but the Art of Saxophone by Teal is a great book for all around sax knowledge.

[electricninja]

My fun didn't begin until I threw away my beginner books (who plays Bach on a sax anyway??), practiced my scales, and tried improvising with all my favorite music.

[Billy The Fish]

I have to confess, I am a book person. Some love working from books (and play-alongs) like me, others prefer to do their own thing and just dive into the music. The only right way is whichever gets you to put the horn in your mouth and blow !

If, like me, you would prefer to use books, I would recommend the following:

Jazz Conception

These will get your technique up to scratch, help you sight-read, and help you hear and emulate jazz articulation as it applies to your specific instrument, with excellent play-along backings. get them in the order shown, as they get progressively more difficult.

1/ Easy Jazz Conception - Jim Snidero
2/ Jazz Conception - Jim Snidero
3/ Reading key Jazz Rhythms - Fred Lipsius

Improvisation

Those non-book users do have a point. You don't want to just be playing what is in front of you. You need to get comfortable improvising. Two good books to get you started come from the Aebersold series. The first gives you a good beginner's grounding, and the chance to improvise over some simple backing tracks. The second (Vol 54) has backing tracks to around a dozen great jazz tunes (including Maiden Voyage, Footprints, Autumn Leaves, Summertime etc) all at easy tempos with easy chord changes to get you started. The heads are included in the book, along with the chord changes :

1/ Volume 1 - How To Play Jazz And Improvise
2/ Volume 54 - Maiden Voyage

If you have got through your "Introducing The Sax" book, I think you are ready to tackle the material above, and will be well on your way to success :D

Have fun.

Billy The Fish

[alsdiego]

And once you get through the books Billy mentioned (and you might want to add Vol. 70, "Killer Joe", another beginner level book/cd set), and you are an "intermediate" improvisor, get "Intermediate Improvisation" by George Bouchard. It's as thick as a local telephone book, and absolutely excellent for the intermediate player. The lessons are very progressive in difficulty. It's like having a teacher by your side who not only can play jazz, but more importantly for your purposes, can TEACH intermediate improv techniques. Absolutely first class, IMO. Using this book, I can actually feel the improvement, which is a first for me :D

Al