Sight Reading Exercises

Rhythm and time are two of the most important aspects of sight reading. By improving your ability to recognize rhythms, you will greatly improve your sight reading abilities. I struggled sight reading music in a swing style for a while…until I realized there were approximately 12 rhythms that kept reoccurring.

Click here for the 12 basic swing rhythms!

Once I developed a system to see an imaginary barline splitting each measure in half, I was able to quickly identify rhythms and play more accurately. Below is an example of my “imaginary” barline for the first 8 measures of Charlie Parker’s “Moose the Mooche”.

Imaginary barlines for “Moose the Mooche”

Check out my two videos below. The first has a series of exercises for you to try. The second one goes a little more in depth with the process of spltting measures in half and seeing rhythms. Hope you enjoy!

7 Miles Davis Licks`

Musical genius. These are the best words to sum up Miles Davis. He was a pioneer across several different genres of music. i’ve put together a few of my favorite licks from the man himself. This is in no way encompassing of the vocabulary he left the world. I encourage you to watch my video - 3 ways to use jazz licks and really get deep into embodying one of the musical greats! Enjoy and happy practicing!

7 Miles Davis Licks in C

7 Miles Davis Licks in Eb

7 Miles Davis Licks in Bb

Click here to purchase the PDF in all 12 keys!

Scale Tone Enclosure Exercise

Enclosures are an excellent tool to add to your arsenal to expand your vocabulary as an improvisor. They can really give you a “bebop” sound if that is what you’re looking for. Once I learned them in all 12 keys, they really expanded my ears and gave me a better understanding of what I was hearing when listening to bebop music. I hope you enjoy the video and happy practicing!

Embellished Scale Tone Enclosure in 12 keys - PDF

My Book on Enclosures!

Scale Cells for Jazz Improvisation

Scale cells are an excellent way to generate ideas in your improvisation. In the video below, I use John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” to illustrate five different scale cell variations. I also go over three different ways that you can practice them. These are great at expanding your ears and your technique on any instrument that you play. Download the PDFs below to follow along with the video. I’m performing them on alto saxophone…so E-flat! Happy practicing!

Scale Cell #1

Scale Cell #2

Scale Cell #3

Scale Cell #4

Scale Cell #5

John Coltrane Licks

John Coltrane was a pioneer of music and the saxophone. It’s honestly hard for me break down his massive contribution to music to a mere few licks however…I will always stress the importance of learning vocabulary. With that being said…one must also study the context in which the vocabulary is used among many other things. Take some time to listen to the original tracks along with the “licks” below. I hope you enjoy and HAPPY PRACTICING!!

John Coltrane Licks - C

John Coltrane Licks - Eb

John Coltrane Licks - Bb

Check out my store if you’re interesting in getting them in all 12 keys!!

Jazz Improvisation Techniques - Chord Cells

Chord cells are short melodic shapes that can be used to outline a chord. Check out my YouTube video for the first video in a series of “Digital Pattern” exercises that you can use to sing your ideas through whatever instrument you play.

In the examples below I utilized the chord changes for John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps”.

Hope you enjoy and happy practicing!

Giant Steps Chord Cells 1 (1,3,5,8)

Giant Steps Chord Cells 2 (8,3,5,8)

Giant Steps Chord Cells 3 (1,3,5,7)

Giant Steps Chord Cells 4 (8,3,5,7)

Giant Steps Chord Cells 5 (1,3,4,5)

Charlie Parker Licks - Part 2

Hello everyone!! I hope you all are staying safe during the pandemic. I decided to make another video showcasing the bebop language of Charlie Parker. If you haven’t checked out my last blog post on Charlie Parker, click HERE!

Charlie Parker Licks - Eb

Charlie Parker Licks - C

Charlie Parker Licks - Bb

Anyway…I hope you enjoy the video! Time to go practice!

The Art of Playing Lead Alto Saxophone

Playing lead alto saxophone is an extremely fun and rewarding experience. I’ve had my share of challenges over the years developing into a confident lead alto player. Having a mostly classical background playing the saxophone...I had an interesting time when I was assigned to play lead alto in my college jazz band my freshman year. Below are five tips that can hopefully help you so you don’t have to learn things the hard way as I did (for more elaboration on each topic...check out my YouTube video below)...

Click here for an excellent resource!

1)Don’t play too soft

2)Don’t play too loud

3)Scoop notes less than you think you should

4)Be Consistent (rhythm and intonation)

5)Learn your doubles (check out the video here and here)

List of lead alto saxophone players:

Marshall Royal

Dick Oatts

Phil Woods

Dan Higgins

Eric Marienthal

Tyler Kuebler

Jim Riggs

List of lead alto tunes (check out the sax soli sections)

Oh Soul Mio - Count Basie

The Groove Merchant - Mel Lewis and Thad Jones

Little Pixie II - Mel Lewis and Thad Jones

Mission to Moscow - Glenn Miller

You Didn’t Know Me When - Harry Connick, Jr

The Old Country - Nat Adderley

Beautiful Maria of My Soul - Mambo All Stars

Saxophone Tone Exercises

Hello everyone!! There are so many references and resources out there that it can often be hard to decide on where to start to improve your saxophone tone. So…I thought back to what I think would have helped me the most 25 years ago when I first started playing the saxophone. If you do these three things…you will be well on your way to a beautiful saxophone tone.

1. Playing just the mouthpiece.

2. Overtones (and overtone matching)

3. Open throat…and warm air

As a side note…I would say that the most important “non-technical” thing you could do is to have a sound concept…basically, find someone you think has a beautiful sound and listen to it non-stop.

Watch the video below for more details!

Drake NY Jazz vs. Claude Lakey 4*4 Alto Mouthpiece Battle

I’ve have my Drake NY Jazz alto saxophone mouthpiece for almost 7 years now. It was recommended to my by a fellow musician Charlie Arbelaez (who is a killer saxophonist out in San Diego…www.charliearbelaez.com). I decided to buy one and it has been my main piece ever since. I still have my saxophonist tendencies (buying new mouthpieces just for the heck of it) but regardless of what I get I always return back to the Drake.

While I was in Tokyo a few months ago…I stopped by a store called Wind Bros. in Shibuya. They have a ridiculous inventory of saxophones and mouthpieces. I saw a Claude Lakey piece for 10,000 yen and I thought to myself, why not. I tried one back in college (about 19 years ago) and I couldn’t control it at all…at the time.

So in this video…I do a little comparison of both mouthpieces. Fully realizing that at this point I’m going to sound like myself! Let me know if you hear any differences!