Rule # 1 for Jazz saxophone players....and a little FYI

Listen up boys and girls. Uncle Jim here has a few words for you that your band director probably forgot to tell you. I have seen many questions related to jazz and improvision. How do you improvise? How do you learn to play by ear; to adlib a solo without reading music. The answer is quite difficult. First of all, let me ask you this. What is music? Music is more than just something you hear, it's something you feel as well. Music is emotion. There are those songs that make you want to get up and dance, and there are those songs that make you want to cry. When you listen to music, try listening not only with your ears, but also with your heart. Try to get a better understanding of what the music is saying. Try to understand the emotion. Listen not only to the notes that are being played, but HOW they are being played. Try to follow the dynamics of the song. Count along and listen to the rhythem section. Pick out the patterns, listen for the bass drum, the high hat and symbol. Listen to the bass patterns. When you improvise, these are all things that you have to be in sync with. Most often when you play music, the dynamics are directed by the band director. It's also noted in the music. With jazz, the soloist puts his or her own "spin" on the music. There are a few things that you can do to become a better improvisor. The absolute most important thing; RULE #1, is to become a BETTER LISTENER!!! As I said, Listen not only with your ears, but with your heart! Tune in to the emotion expressed in the music. Practice your scales. Get familiar with major and minor scales, diminished scales, major and minor sevenths, and know your way around the horn. Don't even worry so much about the altissimo fingerings and playing the highest notes! Worry more about learning what notes constitute a scale. Learn to recognize patterns and progressions in music. It's really quite easy. Just listen to some recordings of music that you enjoy and follow the progression. Once you have begun to train your ear, improvising will become more natural to you. Most of you have no idea how to improvise because you have not been taught how to recognize these changes and patterns. Your band directors hand you the sheet music and tell you to follow the magic wand he's waving in the air! Jazz doesn't work that way! The soloist is the one working the magic! How many of you that are still in high school are in jazz band, concert or symphonic band, and marching band, and have the SAME band director for all of them? Probably quite a few, I would imagine. This is often the case. Here's something that your band director probably doesn't want you to know. The majority of band directors are brass instrument majors more so than woodwinds. Most of them play both, but if you ask your band director what instrument he or she played when THEY were in band, the majority played a brass instrument. If they have played a woodwind instrument, most often it was clarinet or flute and they played mostly legit or classical music. So, when you ask your band director what mouthpiece to by, chances are, he's going to tell you to buy a Selmer of some kind, most likely the mouthpiece that his professors in college recommended. Again, the majority here played brass instruments. They don't know about tip openings, chamber size, etc. They want you to play a Selmer C* because that's what was suggested to them, and the reason WHY the C* was suggested was due to the closed tip which limits the amount of air into the saxophone and therefore limiting the volume! Most classical directors would prefer that the saxophones just stuck rags in their bells! Now, this is not always the case. I know that some of you have instructors who play sax and jazz and they are very good at it, but consider yourselves very lucky if you do! So, here you have teachers who are schooled in legit and classical music trying to teach jazz, and they have a very poor understanding of the subject. If this is the case and jazz is what you really want to do, you need to find a private instructor who understands jazz. I'll be waiting to hear your replies. Jim

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