Technical Studies for Jazz Saxophone

Book excerpt: It is a popular legend that jazz is an improvisational art form. But most jazz players will tell you that this is not always so. Jazz, like all other music, is comprised of scales, arpeggios, keys, chords, tones, rhythms, forms, and sound effects. All great jazz players have developed immense repositories of musical patterns to use as the moment in a solo evolves. And pieces of these patterns may be strung together in new or old ways to create melodies and phrases. These melodies and phrases may be used as springboards into true improvisational events. This book is a collection of musical patterns for jazz saxophone. Within it there are studies for scales, arpeggios, chord sequences, jazz phrases, and tone rows. When studies like these are thoroughly learned, your mind, your fingers, and your spirit will become as one; and your musical dreams will become true.