Hi Neal,
I think I’m around levels 3-4. Any tips or practice books that you recommend to improve in improv from there?
Thanks,
Jessup

Neal:

Hey Jessup,
Jamming with other musicians is one of the best things you can do. Ideally musicians that are better than you, because you can learn more from them. It’s also good to help out people who are at a more beginning level than you are.

You can play along with Aebersolds too.

Listening to jazz and other improvised music is key to learning how to improvise on saxophone yourself.

You can play along with whatever music you want. The musicians on CDs won’t get tired or yell at you if you make mistakes!

Books can teach you patterns and you can drill them to get patterns under your fingers.

Here are a few books that I have used in learning the sax:
Patterns for Jazz by Jerry Coker. Patterns For Improvisation By Oliver Nelson, Charlie Parker: Charlie Parker Omnibook – E-flat, Charlie Parker: Charlie Parker Omnibook – B-flat Basic Aebersold Play-Alongs- Volume 54 – Maiden Voyage,

The Aebersold books are great fun to play with and are useful in learning tunes. They range in style and difficulty across over one hundred books.

The Charlie Parker Omnibook gives you many melodies and the improvisational genius of Parker in a single book.

Even if you mostly play jazz or another style, being comfortable with classical music will add something to your playing- specifically technique, precision, and a different set of musical ideas you can draw upon. Just listen to Bill Evans to hear the classical influence.

Intermediate/Advanced Aebersolds- Volume 64 – Salsa Latin Jazz, Volume 16 – Turnarounds, Cycles & ii/V7s

If you play some classical music or even if you mostly play jazz, it can be beneficial to study from the classical perspective.