[ErikJon]

Hello, friends.

(I really shouldn't post another question until I finish answering the posts on my other threads, but, if you will forgive me, here it goes...)

Before sitting down to learn some transcribed solos, I usually like to listen to the solo first, to see if the style even interests me. Otherwise, it could take years to go through all the transcriptions that I have acquired over the years (and never used). Yes, I know that I need sight-reading practice more than any of you, but time is sometimes a factor when all I want to do is practice the blues, for example.

When I want to work on the blues alone, usually I don't even know if the collection of transcriptions that I have contain a blues chorus (unless there is a hint in the title, and even then, if its modal blues or something out of the ordinary, I would rather learn basic blues first)

I've got books of transcriptions on the shelf, such as Lester Young's, Stan Getz's, Sonny Rollins, West Coast Jazz Solos, the Charlie Parker Omnibook, and so on, but, in addition to the problems mentioned above, oftentimes the transcriptions don't match the particular recording that I find on Youtube. Of course, this is because we don't always know which recording was used to produce the transcription, although many books are now careful to provide that information and even links to the source, or links to the recording if it is online.

On one occasion I bought a big collection of Lester Young recordings on 3 CDs, only to find that, while most of them were the same songs, they were not the recordings that corresponded to the transcriptions in the book that I had bought separately.

Of course, I could use the books of transcriptions that include online-source information, and go to Youtube, and figure out how to download them, but once in a while the recording information is not even linked to any particular video online, but only to the LP that the solo was taken from. And, even when there is a video online, these days my video-downloading programs no longer work with the new version of Youtube on my old Windows Vista operating system, so it gets complicated to record it in real time, and takes much longer than just downloading for later use. Then I have to convert the video into audio, and so on.

Yes, I know, it's not the end of the world, but it consumes time, and yes, I know that that's part of the game, and I don't mean to sound lazy, but I'm just curious to know whether you HAPPEN to know of a collection of blues solos already published or available for download (but only blues solos) that comes with a CD of the very solos transcribed, in audio format? or else quick mp3 downloads of the same transcriptions, all in one spot on one website for easy download without any of the searching and listening and recording process? (but again, only blues choruses)

So far, I think that the only one I know is the Lennie Niehaus recording of blues in all 12 keys, that accompanies the Aebersold book of the same title. I've got that one, and I have been using it for a couple of years already, but I would like another similar collection, perhaps by other musicians, of other styles, of famous musicians or unknown musicians, I don't care--as long as it sounds good--I'll take it and use it.

Maybe some sax teacher out there, for example, has a website that I don't know about, with DEMO recordings of fifteen of his own nice blues solos, and transcriptions thereof, all for $15. That would be perfect. The main thing is that it include a demo track of every song, so that I can quickly listen to each transcription while driving my car, before marking which ones I want to start practicing and learning.

I also have the very nice blues practice-book series by Jordan Ruwe, but it does not come with audio samples of any sort so that would not serve my purpose on this point.

Don't misunderstand: I am not asking for blues play-along books--just in case someone asks; I just need transcriptions that come with the solos in audio format.

Thanks again.

 

[Bari Gordon]

You didn't specify which horn, but Dennis Taylor's Blues Saxophone book/cd is marvelous for tenor. His solos demonstrate the tone and technique of some very great players and the cd has him playing and also just the rhythm section.

 

[lesacks]

Bob Mintzer did a book of blues and funk études - not transcriptions - with demo and backing tracks. It's way above my ability to play them at the speed of the demos; but an education anyway.

 

[Jazzoetry]

I Checked out Bob Mintzer's product years ago and liked it.

 

[swperry1]

Learning solos/ repertoire would go a lot better and the included ideas would become a part of your vocabulary faster if you listened to a piece of music until you can sing the whole thing, then learn it...no sheet music. It seems you have a ton of books...use the ones with no recording as reading practice. Reading a bunch of solos and etudes without analyzing them and/ or listening to them a ton doesn’t do much for you when called upon to improvise. Based on this and the rest of your threads, you should consider spending your money on lessons with a working saxophone player...you have plenty of books and gear.

 

[ErikJon]

Thank you, Bari. That looks exactly like what I was talking about. Yes, I did not specify alto or tenor, but I don't think it will matter too much, so I will order that book. I could always play along with my soprano or tenor, or transpose the solos that I liked the most.

LeSacks: thank you for the lead. I will check out that book, even though they are not solos per se. Jazzoetry, thanks for the confirmation.

SWPerry: thank you for the good advice. Money is a bit tight these days for me to get lessons right now, which is why I've been trying to teach myself with books and online helps. (If I told you how little income I had right now, you would probably retract your suggestion and tell me to sell my saxophone instead-ha ha)

I like to think that I am doing what analyzing I can--which is one of the reasons that I use only transcriptions with chord symbols written in throughout--and I've been trying to practice blues in all keys, as much as possible (the Ruwe and Niehaus books help in that area).

I'm just trying to avoid spending too much time searching and listening online, so that I can accelerate the process with book/CD sets already published on the subject (rather than searching for individual transcriptions and then searching for separate individual recordings to match). Being able to listen first (with the rhythm section accompaniment) tells me immediately if the solo is going to be of the genre and style that I'm looking for.

Of course, not to say that blues is the only goal in my practice routine, but when I want to practice blues progressions, that was the plan I came up with.

I started out with the Aebersold blues books (e.g. "Blues in All Keys" and "Nothin' But the Blues") but those books are essentially a collection of short, trite, repetitious etudes, at best, followed by several practice choruses of accompaniment to improvise on. That did not seem to help me create solos, but I did my best to fake it, which is why I needed patterns and transcriptions to borrow from.

Then I discovered and played through all the Niehaus solos in 12 keys, several times, and that was a good sight-reading challenge, as it was. The nice thing is that it came with accompaniment, and then a separate demo CD (which I discovered late). Still, Niehaus is only one style, as far as I can tell, so I wanted more variety within the same realm of blues--not just bebop or cool jazz.

So I switched to the Ruwe book for a few months, in all keys (major-blues transcriptions. The nice thing was that this volume of Ruwe solos in 12 keys combined perfectly with the Aebersold audio accompaniment for "Blues in All Keys", and that made the Ruwe book infinitely more interesting to practice with (and the same goes for the Niehaus book).

So, the point is that sometimes I get transcriptions, chord changes written in, a demo track for each, and even accompaniment to practice with and improvise with--all in one place, and I can listen to them all before I even start using the book.

And, of course, I don't just play the transcriptions in those books; rather, when I have audio accompaniment, after I play the transcriptions through, I start by embellishing what is already written, deviating little by little, and finally improvising my own solos over the same chord changes.

So, just sight-reading transcriptions alone without any audio support in the way of demos and accompaniment, makes the whole practice routine very dry, to me--especially if I don't even know the song. It's like learning a book of patterns with no context.

 

[swperry1]

I feel you on the cash flow...had two paying gigs (on one weekend) since early March. Been odd-jobbing as much as I can to stay afloat, but the past two+ years gigs were 95% of my income and sourcing cleaning and painting work is almost as hard as booking gigs. Initially the extra playing/ practice time was cool...now depression and anxiety over the indefinite future of gigging for a living has me barely doing a maintenance routine. Hope things start to turn around for both of us (and the rest of you out there) soon.

 

[lesacks]

Erik. I'm going to post completely out of line here. I'm no musician. And with a good will...
But from this and other posts it seems you have a large repertoire and extensive coverage of études, licks, patterns etc. All the tools. But you seem to remain unsatisfied and searching - more books, more theory.
And I'm not sure you know why you are dissatisfied.
I reckon lots of folks go through that in professional life or the arts or whatever. But no project, focus, vision. I certainly do! Sometimes people are dissatisfied with what's happening not because it's bad but because they lack a vision of what they find good.
I can't possibly say what the answer is. Maybe swperry1 is right, maybe you need a mentor?

 

[ErikJon]

**************************
Wow, SWPerry. I feel for you.

At least I am glad that you have physical skills in addition to your artistic talent, as that would naturally open doors in several directions, even though the pay scale may be much lower than what you are accustomed to. It may require a little more humility, but then, we could all stand to have more of that, and after all, money is money.

Maybe you could get a teenage computer guru to set you up on your own computer, so that you could teach private lessons online. By cutting down lots of overhead like that, you could probably make lots of money in a short time.

My problem is that I am still stubbornly trying to stay in the realm of my one non-musical career, for a multitude of personal reasons, rather than getting a job in a new area where I could make faster money. But, until I give up, I'll keep trying. That's the SOTW attitude anyway.

By the way, here's a funny story, before I get back to the subject of the blues:

I've got lots of very close Hispanic friends, here in Atlanta, these days, and we have had intimate conversations about their life in the U.S., their long journey here, tragedies along the way, life in other countries, and so on. In fact, I have lived in some of those countries, also, so I assume that I understand their point of view a little better. Anyway, whereas lots of Central Americans have come over as unskilled laborers, and continued in the same vein in the United States, but are now earning much more money for it, the (legal) Venezuelans refugees here on political asylum, on the other hand, are oftentimes college graduates, former doctors, former lawyers, etc., and for various reasons they cannot get a job in the U.S. comparable to what they had in Venezuela (without additional coursework in the U.S. and lots of money to acquire it, which they don't yet have), so they end up working as unskilled laborers in the U.S., in the meantime, alongside the Central Americans, but oftentimes with a very different attitude, because they were formerly highly-respected specialists in their own country, and are now performing "menial" tasks, but now earning 100 times what they earned in Venezuela. (The average Venezuelan is making about $15 a month now, back in Venezuela, believe it or not).

I have one Venezuelan lady friend, for example, that was an engineer, back in Venezuela, and had a maid cleaning her house and cooking meals there. Now she's in Atlanta, but is unqualified to work as an engineer here, so the only work she has found is as a maid, cleaning house and making meals for an upper-class family in Atlanta. On one hand, she hates the work, because it is very demeaning, and her college education as an engineer is of no value to the family that she now works for; on the other hand, she cannot help but recognize the value of her job, because she is making 100 times what she was making in Venezuela. Isn't that weird?

So, even though she's disgusted, I always tell her to be grateful, look on the bright side, and recognize the value of using the humility involved to build better character.

Anyway, back to the issue of the thread...

**************************

Lesacks,

I guess it's "my turn" for advice now. Ha ha.

Thanks for the good advice. Not out of line at all.

Yes, somebody pointed out that some of us were willing to spend lots of money on books, but not a dime on private lessons, when sometimes one lesson can be worth many hours of self study.

Maybe I will shoot for a compromise, and try to find some online lessons that are much cheaper than private lessons in person (which are over $50 per hour in Atlanta)

Update:

Oops. It looks like online teachers charge just as much as they do from their home. Something's wrong with that picture.