1

2

How To PlayKiller Blues And Rockin’ Sax Solos

With 7 Notes Or Less

A multi-media course for all intermediate andadvanced saxophonists who want to learn blues

& rock soloing

by Johnny Ferreira

Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved. rights reserved.No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in anyform or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic ormechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, exceptin the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain othernoncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, email theauthor through the links below.

DisclaimerExcerpts from any copyrighted songs in this book are made in the spirit of"fair use" and are for the purpose of educating saxophonists by the teachingconcepts of the author who's transcriptions are his own interpretations ofany such compositions.

3

What People Are Saying About This Course:

"… at first I thought that it might be too difficult for me when Ibought the book but boy oh boy am I enjoying this." MarqueritteClasquin

"… this training course is perfect for the sax player that wants totake his playing to a place where they can perform with a band."Hr Mayers

"… his chatty style is a refreshing contrast to the other sax lessonsI have taken. Learning Sax has become fun again with a realbluesy sax sound coming through almost straight away andencouraging almost instantly noticeable progress."

“… after putting in huge amounts of commitment to learning theTenor Sax over the last 7 years and buying endless books thatpromised the key to the craft, finally the one that lives up to itspromise.” S.R Gibb

“… this is a delight to learn scales and exercises that help promoteimprovised playing and understanding how it is done. This isreally fun and challenging.” Etch

About the AuthorJohnny Ferreira is a professional saxophonist, band leader, composer,recording artist and saxophone educator who runs several websitesincluding: www.JohnnyFerreira.com andwww.HowToPlaySaxophone.org, a large membership site which youcan join for free and learn more about playing the saxophone throughvideos and communicate with Johnny and other sax players on relatedtopics within the members forum.

Check www.HowToPlaySaxophone.org for other saxophone articles,video lessons, and all upcoming courses by Johnny Ferreira

4

Table of contents

Introduction 5

A Little History 8Two of the most famous and influential rock & blues saxophonists

The Blues Scales 12The three blues scales that are your key for killer solos

The Basic Blues Scale 14Simple daily exercises to help you really learn these scales

Brown Sugar Sax Solo Revealed 23A perfect example of the most basic blues scale in action andsounding great

Let's Break It Down 29Dissecting and analyzing this classic rock sax solo

7 Licks To Help Your Solo Off To a Good Start Every Time 35Quick and easy 4 bar licks to learn and use

All Backing Tracks 39All the backing tracks used for the exercises, solos and licks plustwo bonus tracks

5

Introduction

All types of saxophones welcome! This is not intended for just alto saxor tenor sax, all lessons are written out for Bb and Eb saxes. You don’tneed to have a lot of musical knowledge because these lessons don't gettoo technical, just enough very basic musical theory to understandsimple blues scales that will lay the solid foundation needed for thesoloist you want to become. Even though there is written notation forall the examples, the primary focus is on listening and playing, and notso much on reading. In fact, you can do this entire course withoutreading a note if you wanted or had to. There is a lot here for you tolearn if you decide to consume it all:

• Composition of blues scales and how to use them• Exercises guaranteed to ingrain the notes into your brain• Copy some of my favorite go-to licks• Develop your own style of soloing with play-along tracks• Take your soloing up a notch with a few “sax tricks”• Learn the sax solo from the classic song "Brown Sugar"

"The Blues are a simple music and I'm a simple man. But the Bluesaren't a science, the Blues can't be broken down like mathematics. TheBlues are a mystery, and mysteries are never as simple as they look!"-BB King

I once read an interview from a famous musician who said, "If you can'tsay it within a range of five notes then it's not worth saying". When youconsider that musician was a jazz player this can sound a bit surprising.

The truth is that most famous songs and even the best known classicalpieces are composed of a melodic idea or "riff" that encompasses asmall group of notes that come in at, or under an interval of a 5th. Agreat lick or melody does not have to be complicated, in fact most ofthe best ones are very simple consisting of only of a few notes.

6

Just think of some well-known melodies and you'll notice that most fallin this category of being within a 5th, except for the odd jump onoccasion. The classic Chuck Berry guitar riff that helped to put theguitar in the forefront of rock & roll such as the intro to Johnny B.Goode and many others of his.

A Blues Lesson From Beethoven?

One of the most recognizable intro riffs is Beethoven's 5th. Of coursethe trick, or in this case his genius was how he developed a simple twonote riff. The point is that you can, and should start by implementing asimple riff within an interval of a 5th, and even as small as a 3rd oreven less to start off with. Hey, that’s how Beethoven did it!

Once the theme or main riff is established you can continue to playaround with it and of course expand on it as much, or as little as youlike. This is the beauty and freedom of improvisation.

Just What Are The Blues Anyway?

The blues mean different things to many people ranging from musicalstyles to a way of life or philosophy. The blues do have musicalinfluences from Europe and Africa but it is truly an American musicalform and tradition fully rooted in the black experience of the post-warsouthern United States. I want to be clear that when I talk about theblues or the blues scale I'm not only referring to this type of musicaltradition and style but include all types of rock & roll, funk, R&B,country, jazz and pop.

Like the old saying goes; “The blues had a baby and they named it rock& roll” and from there came just about every form of pop music inwestern history since that explosive time in the mid 1900's. So, I thinkit's safe to say that the blues scale is easily one of the most used andimportant scales for all types of western popular music.

7

In these lessons we will focus on the most powerful and useful group ofnotes we have available to us in modern western music for playing inthe rock and blues style, and that's the blues scale. From this basic andvery simple scale came not only blues but rock and roll and even jazzso don't ever overlook it as something that is too simple or notimportant enough. I truly believe that it can give you the solidfoundation needed to be the player you want to become, I know it didfor me.

If you're a saxophone player interested in playing any type of bluesbased music like rock & roll, swing, funk, R&B, pop, punk and evenjazz then you need to use these blues scales as your main tools to makethings sound right.

8

A Little History

The Blues - To investigate back to the beginnings of the blues as itcame about in America, we start with W.C. Handy, who was a blackcomposer and musician active in the early 1900's when the blues formbegan to get popularized because of his instrumental compositions"Memphis Blues" (1912) and "St. Louis Blues" (1914). Of course theblues oral tradition can be traced back to the mid 1800's. W.C. Handy iscredited for taking that raw folk style that was being sung during the1800's and nationalized and popularized it into the form we have today.

The Saxophone - Although the saxophone had already been inventedin Belgium by Adophe Sax, it had not made it’s way to America yet atthis time early in the 1900’s. Several years later when it did arrive, itwasn’t too long before it became a popular instrument, most notably onthe jazz scene where it became synonymous with that style of music.

As the swingin’ big band era was losing steam, a new sound wasgaining it. During the 1940’s you probably couldn’t find a jump bluesor R&B group that didn’t feature a sax, and it was usually a tenor thatwas front and center. As the forties came to an end, rock & roll was infull swing, regardless of what and when the DJ Allen Freed said it,since he “announced” rock & roll to the world in the mid 50’s. Thereare rock and roll records from 1948 and 49 that sing about the termrockin’ and rollin’ which at this time was often used as slang for havingsex.

Rock is what the pounding of the piano and the strumming of theelectric guitars were doing and roll was the rolling, almost swingingfeel created by the drummers which together created that groove… rockand roll.

9

Important Early Blues and Rock & RollSaxophonists Worth Listening toIf you’re a jazz fan there are plenty of famous names for saxophonists.Guys like Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, and John Coltrane werenot only great saxophonists but were innovators of the jazz musical artform as well.

Although there aren't a lot of really famous blues and rock saxophoniststhat are household names recognized by everyone, there are quite a fewthat you may, or should know about.

Just prior to the big commercialization of the style called rock and roll,there was a group of players that were instrumental in the formation ofthis style, and some of these were saxophone players, which in thosedays were usually the main soloists in the band.

Honkers and screamers as some were called because of the raw, earlyrockin’ style of screaming in the highest possible range of the sax andthen instantly over-blowing the lowest notes, making a honking sound.Although you don’t hear it too much now, in those days it was new andexciting and was what rock and roll was all about. Personally I’vealways loved this style and it remains a big part of how I approach theinstrument.

Some of the most important early rockers, honkers and screamers wereJoe Houston, Illinois Jacquet, Lee Allen, Red Prysock, Sam “the man”Taylor, Arnett Cobb, Earl Bostic, Wild Bill Moore, and Big JayMcNeely.

McNeely was probably the wildest and craziest of them all, taking thehonking and screaming aspect of it to the fullest extend possible withsome parts of his solos having nothing but high piercing screams,interrupted with only a thunderous low honk. It was extreme but hewanted to make a point.

10

Earl Bostic, interestingly enough was an alto sax player. His tone wasvery close to that of a tenor, and sometimes when listening to him youthink you’re hearing a tenor sax instead of an alto. A young alto playernamed John Coltrane was asked to join Bostic’s band and since theleader Bostic was the alto player, Coltrane was forced to make theswitch to tenor if he was to keep the job, and the rest is history.

Sam “the man” Taylor had a big beautiful tone which got him on tomany recording sessions of big hit records of the day. Likewise withLee Allen, who was also the main sax man for years with two of thebiggest stars of the early rock & roll era; Fats Domino and LittleRichard.

One of the most famous, because he was also a singer and composerwas Louis Jordan.

Louis Jordan - King of the juke box, jump blues, and early rock &roller. Jordan came on the scene in the late 30's and early 40's when itwas all about the big bands. He quickly found his own voice leading asmall 5 piece combo consisting of himself playing alto sax and singing,a trumpet, drums, bass, and piano. The guitar wasn't added till muchlater in the 50's. when rock and roll was all the rage and hitting the mainstream. Since the sound of the electric guitar was starting to be the focalpoint in rock & roll Jordan re-cut many of his earlier hits just tomodernize his sound and cash in on this popular sound.

Louis Jordan was nick named "the jukebox king" because at one timehe had more hits than anyone else around him. Although adding theguitar didn't really do much to boost his career in the later 50's, he isstill recognized by many well known artists who have sited him as amajor influence. Such diverse musicians as Van Morrison, RobertPlant, Ray Charles, BB King, James Brown, and Chuck Berry whoeventually was responsible for solidifying the electric guitar as the leadinstrument in rock and roll, not to mention his clever song writingabilities.

11

King Curtis - Born Curtis Ousley in Texas 1934, he grew up listeningto Louis Jordan during his formative young sax playing years. KingCurtis said that alto players Earl Bostic, Louis Jordan, and two fellowTexan tenors, Illinois Jacquet, and Arnett Cobb were his maininfluences on the saxophone. Making his move from Texas to NewYork in the early 50's he landed a gig with Lionel Hampton's band.This was the same band that Illinois Jacquet played with about 10years earlier. Jacquet of course had rocked the sax world with hisscreaming sax solo on Flying Home with this same band. That solo hasbeen called the birth of modern day rock & roll saxophone soloing bymany music historians.

I can tell you that while learning the sax and spending hours copyingsome of these guys solos, you can boil most of it down to what we'll bestudying here, these few simple little blues scales…

12

The Blues ScalesIntroduction and a little theory

I know it can get a little confusing when you first start trying to figureout and understanding about scales, which ones to use and where, andhow they apply to what you’re playing etc, but the following fewexamples will put it straight for you. I've learned and used these exactscales successfully over the years and hope you can do the samebecause they work very well for just about everything you may end upplaying, including all types of rock from classic to punk, blues, funk,R&B, reggae, and most any pop music as well.

Because our western music has it's roots in European classical music,theorists had to come up with a way to notate the blues scale as it wasnaturally played and sung into understandable musical notation whichcould be analyzed and played by western trained musicians.

I find the simplest way to explain it's theory is this:Take the traditional major scale; C D E F G A B C and add a flat 3rdand 5th and flatten the 7th. Now it looks like this: C D Eb E F Gb G ABb C. The flats are what makes the scale sound minor, giving it the"blues" or sad sound as opposed to the "major" or happy sound.

C major scale

C blues scale

13

For us sax players these flat notes are the perfect vehicle to extend therange of our expressive capabilities. We can incorporate things such asa "growl" or a "swoop" or "glissando" or "trill" on these notes to furtheremphasize a bluesy expression or rock it up a bit by making it morenasty.

So with these additions, our regular major scale of 8 notes is now ablues scale of 10 notes. You could play the long 10 note version of thisblues scale and technically all notes may be related to some music youmay be playing but that’s not the way we do things. Playing up anddown all these notes would sound like an exercise and not music. Sowhat we do is break it up into more workable chunks, and depending onthe chords and keys of each particular song we play the most fitting ofthese which are…

The Basic Blues Scale

The Pentatonic Major Scale

The Pentatonic Minor Scale

14

The Basic Blues Scale

This is the stripped down version of the 10 note blues scale example fromabove. You can count 7 notes but the last note is a high C which is arepeated C nevertheless so technically this is a 6 note scale.

C basic blues scale

The Pentatonic Scales – major and minorNow that you understand how the blues scale and basic blues scaleswere formed we’re going to talk about the pentatonic scales becausethey are the other scales we use in blues as well. The pentatonic scalehas five notes (penta means five in Greek).

The pentatonic major scale consists of the 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 notes ofthe regular major scale, so in the key of C these notes would be C D EG A as shown in the notation example below.

C major pentatonic scale

The pentatonic minor scale also has five notes but they are 1, flat 3, 4,5, and flat 7. So the C pentatonic minor scale is C Eb F G Bb. Thisscale is almost the same as the basic blues scale from our earlierexample above, just without the F#.

C minor pentatonic scale

15

These three blues scales are all you need to know to have a solidfoundation in rock and blues improvisation and in the following lessonsI’m going to show you the best way to go about it. The first step is to dothe following fun and practical exercises that will make you learn allthree starting right now so…

Time To Take Action!Exercises To Help You Nail These Scales Down

Copying other people’s solos is definitely one of the best ways tobecome a better soloist, and once you know these scales doing that willbe easier and make more sense. Eventually, after knowing these scales,copying a few licks from others, your own ideas will start coming.These simple but very effective exercises will really help you get morecomfortable with playing this type of music. Once you can do themwithout thinking about the notes anymore, that’s when the creativejuices can begin to flow.

1. The Basic Blues Scale

Our first playing lesson consists of two exercises played back-to-backover a 24 bar medium shuffle straight-ahead blues track. The firstexercise establishes the first five notes of the blues scale, the secondbrings in the flat 7th and 8th (octave). Notice how the flat 5 isemphasized and not just used as a passing note of the scale. Give alisten and then go for it!

*Note – click the link below for audio tracks and to watch this sectionas a video lesson:http://howtoplaysaxophone.org/killer-blues-blues-scale-exercises

16

Bb Saxes

17

Eb Saxes

18

2. Pentatonic Major Scale

The pentatonic major scale's notes; 1, 3, 5 and 6 (all except the 2) arewhat forms one of the most common bass and guitar lines in a lot ofblues and roots rock n’ roll and so will have a very familiar sound whenyou hear it. Check it out now:

Bb Saxes

19

Eb Saxes

20

3. The Pentatonic Minor Scale

This one has more of a bluesy sound because of the flat 3rd and flat 7th.The first exercise simply goes up and back down the scale, and thesecond time around goes as far up as the 5th and back down to play theflat 7 and 5th below the tonic note so we hit them from a different angle.

Bb Saxes

21

Eb Saxes

*Note – you will notice that all exercise tracks are in the key of Bbconcert. This is for good reason; tenor and soprano saxes will be in theirkey of C, alto and baritone saxes will be in their key of G. These aretwo of the most popular and fortunately the easiest to play so are anexcellent choice to learn these lessons on. You will also get proficienton the 4 and 5 chords of these keys because you are also playing theexercises through the entire 12 bar blues progression.

22

So, after going through this course you will be proficient on 3 keys, orscales, considering there are only 12 notes in our western music system,and a few of these are not commonly used in blues, rock and pop, that’sa good chunk for a starting point. Remember you have to walk beforeyou can run, consider this the walking stage.

23

Brown Sugar Sax Solo RevealedA perfect example for our blues scales

This classic rock & roll song by The Rolling Stones features a simplebut very effective rock sax solo performed by long time, part timeRolling Stone Bobby Keys. The song happens to be in the key of C andthe sax solo uses only the notes from the blues scales mentionedpreviously.

Most of the solo actually only uses 5 notes - C, Eb, F, G Bb. This is theC minor pentatonic scale. So the entire solo for Brown Sugar is these 5notes with 2 more used only once as passing notes, these are the D andthe A, both of which are from the major pentatonic scale. This makesthe entire solo a total of 7 notes - remember the title of this book?

I’ve transcribed the solo so you could not only have fun learning it butalso see how the notes from this simple scale were used by Bobby Keysto make it happen.

This song is in the concert key of C. You should automatically knowthat if you play tenor your key is D. If you play alto you should knowyour key is A. If you don't quite get this theory regarding the differentsaxophone keys in relationship to the concert key then keep readingbecause it’s important you understand it completely.

Here's the quick and easy way to figure it out:

Below is a chromatic scale which includes all the 12 notes in westernmusic. When you play with a pianist or guitarist and they're playing inthe key of C, for the Bb tenor and soprano to be in this same key, youneed to play in the key that is one whole tone up, which is D. You canalso count 2 half steps up from C to arrive at the right key (C, C#, D).

24

If you play an Eb alto and bari you need to play a minor 3rd down fromthe C which is A. You can arrive at this by counting down 3 half steps(C, B, Bb, A).

What if your guitar player friend is jamming in one of his favorite keyswhich is most likely E? If you're playing your tenor just count up onetone from E to F# (or 2 semi tones, E, F, F#) and you guys will both bein the same key.

If you're playing alto, then you'll play in C# to be in the concert key ofE, which is a minor 3rd down (or just count 3 semi tones down, E, Eb,D, C#).

Here is the longer, more detailed explanation for those who want it:

The Saxophones and their keys:

Sopranino is in Eb Soprano is in Bb Alto is in Eb Tenor is in Bb Baritone is in Eb Bass is in Bb Contrabass is in Eb

There are others of course but I didn't include them on the list becausethey are rare and not made or used anymore. These are the C soprano, Cmelody, the C bass, and the Sub-contrabass.

Here's What You Need To Know:

25

Knowing which key your saxophone is in relative to other instrumentsis a must. There are long-winded theoretical explanations (see bottom)but they aren't necessary for you to totally understand what you need toabout your particular sax.

When we sax players play along with concert pitch instruments such aspiano, guitar, violin etc, we must play a different note on our horns forit to come out sounding like the same note the concert pitch instrumentsplay.

If You Play a Bb Saxophone:

Let's take a concert C as played on a piano. As a tenor sax player Iwould need to play my D on my saxophone for it to sound the same asthe piano's C. If you look at the C on the piano you'll see that the D isthe next white key above it making it a major 2nd away, which is equalto 2 semi tones; C, C#, D. Count C# as one semi tone and D as the 2ndsemi tone. Two semi tones make a major 2nd. So, a Bb saxophone suchas tenor and soprano play a major 2nd up from the piano and guitar.

If You Play an Eb Saxophone:

For an Eb saxophone like the alto and baritone, we count down a minor3rd from that same C on the piano: C, B, Bb, A. The minor 3rd downfrom C is A. We got this by counting 3 semi tones down from C.

The long-winded theoretical and more technically correct explanation:

If you were an orchestral arranger and you were scoring a piece ofpiano music then the actual tone for the saxes would be like this: The Cnote on the piano to sound in the same octave on the baritone sax wouldtechnically have to be transposed up an octave plus a major 6th.

We don’t need to think about it that way though because it doesn'tmatter, we just want to know the relationship in the keys so the first

26

explanation I gave you will be all you need to make sure you're playingin the same key as your accompanying piano or guitar player.I strongly recommend you get familiar with the concert key and thenwork on the proper transposed key for whatever saxophone you areplaying. This is important because outside your practice space, in thereal world you'll be playing with pianists, guitarists, hopefully otherhorn players such as trumpet, trombone and other saxophones,everyone must talk in concert pitch to avoid confusion.

Since all other exercises and lick patterns in this course are in Bbconcert, there will be a transposed Bb version of Brown Sugarfollowing these original key examples which are in the key of Cconcert.

27

*Note – click the link below for audio tracks and to watch this sectionas a video lesson:http://howtoplaysaxophone.org/killer-blues-brown-sugar

Solo for Bb saxes in original key of C concert(as recorded by The Rolling Stones)

28

Solo for Eb saxes in original key of C concert(as recorded by The Rolling Stones)

29

Let's Break It Down*Note - this analysis is included as video lessons found in the DVD

The Rolling Stones changed the chord progression from the lyrical partof the song which is a typical 1, 4, 1, flat 7 type to a differentprogression which happens only for the sax solo. This 4 bar progressionis Eb C Ab Bb C. When talking to musicians that play a differentinstrument than you, use the numerical notes so there is no confusion,in this case it's 1, flat 3, flat 6, flat 7, and 1. The 1 is the C, the flat 3 isthe Eb, the flat 6 is the Ab, and the flat 7 is the Bb.

The entire solo is 16 bars long. The best thing to do is break it downinto four, 4 bar sections. Remember, I will be referring to concert pitchas we go.

We’re talking in is concert pitch now:

The first four bars use only the first three notes of the blues scale - 1b3 4 (G Bb and C)..

The second phrase uses the same notes but introduce the Eb and F.

The third phrase uses the same notes in a slightly different variation.

The fourth and final phrase utilizes the same notes as well but addsthe A on the final lick only as a quick passing tone.

The best way I found to learn a solo is to just take it bit by bit, that wayyou can memorize just a few notes or a few bars and work on it overand over until you know it, it's like memorizing the lyrics to a poem ora song, it's the same thing. We're going to take the first four bars of thesolo, which is a lick that you can't really break up into any smalleramount than that.

30

The next four bars we can actually divide in two and make it eveneasier, the easier the better right? And so that four bar phrase endswith…(refer to video)So the third phrase we're going to break down into two sections becausethere's the break in the middle, so two bars at a time. The first part is thenasty little thing with the tongue… the flutter tongue (refer to video).Winding up to the big ending here… and the final one.

Flutter tongueTwo or three things there that we could work on. The first and mostobvious one is the flutter tongue. It's kind of growly. (refer to video)You could do a bit of a growl behind the flutter tongue to make it evennastier and dirtier but the thing of the lick here is the flutter tonguewhich is just (does example) RRRRRR, rolling your tongue. Firstcouple of notes don't have it, gives you a chance to get into it and thenstart fluttering. While you're fluttering your tongue you don't actuallyhit the notes with your tongue to differentiate different notes as inregularly tonguing the notes. You just flutter away…

Scooping the notesCouple of scoops there, on the 29th bar, which is the first bar of the lastphrase. On that high E flat concert you just scoop it. Sounds so muchbetter than if you were to just play the note straight (video example). It'skind of square that way, you want to dig in to it by scooping it. So byscooping it you just hit the note underneath where it would normally be.It's going to be flat but then you scoop into it.

AltissimoThe last lick goes to a high G and on the tenor that's a high A which isan altissimo note which is a minor 3rd out of the regular range of thehorn. If you don't have your altissimo together yet there's no reason tonot be playing this solo, that's why I made a transcription of the octavebelow. You could jump down at that particular point, or you can playthe whole solo an octave lower for now until you get your altissimorange a little bit better.

31

RecycleWell the good news here is, all this stuff you're learning can berecycled. Just because you're learning the licks and the solo from aparticular song like Brown Sugar in this case, doesn't mean you can'tpull it out and use it in other songs. Any rock or blues song really. Justfor fun I'm going to show you what I mean. I’m going to take thebacking tracks off right now and just play along with the recordedsaxophone solo for Brown Sugar but what I'm going to do is play thechords on the piano, one four five typical blues progression instead ofthe Brown Sugar progression which was minor three, one, flat six, flatseven one. So check it out. (refer to video)

32

Brown Sugar In Concert Bb

Now that we’ve analyzed the solo let’s bring it down to the key of Bbso it’s in keeping with all our other licks and exercises in this course.Below is the transposed chart, complete audio with band and sax, andbacking tracks for your accompaniment, all in theme key of concert Bb.

Bb Saxes High Octave

33

Bb Saxes Low Octave

34

Eb Saxes

35

7 Licks To Get Your Solo Off To a GoodStart Every Time

Each of the 7 licks were recorded twice so you can play it over a swingblues and also over a straight ahead rock beat.

*Note – click the link below for audio tracks and to watch this sectionas a video lesson:http://howtoplaysaxophone.org/killer-blues-7-licks

#1 – The Starter

Bb

Eb

#2 – The Starter Plus

Bb

Eb

36

#3 – Top Of The 9th

Bb

Eb

#4 – Flat 5 Rules

Bb

Eb

#5 – Trill Me

Bb

Eb

37

#6 – High & Low

Bb

Eb

Eb lower octave

#7 – Hit It Hard

Bb

38

Eb

Once you can play these licks, the natural progression is to learn themin the four chord and the five chord, this way you can play it as a 12 barexercise over any of the full backing tracks in this course. As youprogress you can begin by altering notes, changing the rhythm etc. Butdo these things only after you firmly have the basic licks down.

39

All Backing Tracks

*Note – click the link below for all audio tracks listed herehttp://howtoplaysaxophone.org/killer-blues-backing-tracks

Blues Shuffle - This track is from the Basic Blues Scale Exercises

Jump Blues - This track is from the Pentatonic Major Scale Exercises

Slow Blues - This track is from the Pentatonic Minor Scale Exercises

Rock & Roll

Brown Sugar

Two Extra Bonus Tracks:

Jump Blues with Horns

Brown Sugar in Original Key

I’ll leave you with these thoughts as you continue…The more you do all these exercises the quicker you will improve.Don’t worry about other keys at this point because having it down verywell in one key will make it easier later when you move on to theothers. If you’re an eager beaver you have the other saxophone keysalready written out so practice them as well, for example – if you playalto, also practice the Bb versions of all notations in this course andvice-versa.

Try to keep to the examples I’ve shown at first, then after you’vemastered them start experimenting by bringing in your own ideas.These can be slightly different or even turning it totally upside-down.

40

When you hit on a lick that sounds good to you, make a note of it bywriting it down or recording it. Pretty soon you’ll have your own list ofgo-to licks.

Remember that you have full access to me in the forum to ask aboutanything in here that you think I may have overlooked, ask a questionabout a lesson, or about the saxophone, or music in general. The forumand further information on other lessons and courses are at:

http://HowToPlaySaxophone.org

Thank you and good luck!

Johnny Ferreira