10 Standards will Prepare You to Play Anything!

[@Nestor_Fernandez]

Hi there, awesome video! I am missing your Videos with great advice. It would be great to see you back online!!

[@mileswhite4329]

Very convincing arguments. I will add these to my list of tunes to work on. Thanks.

[@matheusjp1]

Esse Oráculo é fantastico! Sempre muito coerente e claro!

[@TheSaxophoneOracle]

Muchos Gracias!

[@turnerjazz7872]

It's pretty hard to argue with that list. Those are all foundational changes that have tons of tunes based on them.

[@TheSaxophoneOracle]

Thanks for watching and commenting. I appreciate your input.

[@carvingCode]

Great list! I was looking for something just like this. Thanks!

[@TheSaxophoneOracle]

I'm glad that you found it helpful. Thanks for watching!

[@РифхатТуктаров-т9в]

Your videos are useful for me as a sax beginner

[@robstevens9590]

To learn this list of songs will take me a few years. I think I will have to interject some of these tunes into some of the other lists I am working on.

[@TheSaxophoneOracle]

Thanks as always for commenting. Slow and steady wins the race... or so I've read :) but, you make a good point. None of what I preach is "all or nothing" - taking one of these at a time and adding them to whatever else you are working on is the smart approach. Cheers

[@dipuoprandentertainmentmos2254]

please leave a link to your website

[@РифхатТуктаров-т9в]

Could you explain how can I choose right reed for me, any tips?

[@ChrisSmithSaxophone]

This is really interesting. I have to admit when I look at a new song, I start a dn learn the melody. Then when I can more or less play the melody, I start looking at how to improvise over the harmony. My first (actually my only) step is to treat it like a series of 1 bar problems to solve. "Oh A Major 7. I can play A C# E G# over that. maybe throw in a scale note for variety. Now, what's the next chord." As a result all of my solos sound a bit like one long arpeggio exercise. Any suggestions on how to break out of that mindset, and start looking at progressions, and how to approach a progression as a whole, not just a series of 1 bar arpeggios?

[@KMerrells]

I'm sure the Oracle will have good advice on this, but my first thought is to identify the resolution points (the "one" chords) in the tune, and "chunk" them accordingly. When you know where the resolution points are within a form, you can kinda do what you want as long as you resolve properly in the right spots. So it becomes less about "bar to bar" and more about "chunk to chunk", which can give you more flexibility without abandoning structure altogether. There's lots to that, though, so I'd like to see a video on that!

[@TheSaxophoneOracle]

Thanks so much for watching and commenting! I like your approach and I think it's an excellent way to go about tackling a new song so I wouldn't change that. There are several ways you could work at moving away from the arpeggios to creating more "melodic" statements and phrases, but without knowing your playing / level and all of that it's difficult to suggest one thing. The suggestion from Kris is very good. In addition to identifying key resolution points you might focus on the chord / scale relationship or what "bebop scale" will get you to that note and work backwards ie: playing 8th notes - what note of the scale do I need to start from beat 4 if I'm going to land on my goal note, then what note do I start on from beat 3 / 2 / 1 etc. I have a video about playing rhythm changes that you might find helpful where I break the song down to the most bare bone harmony necessary to convey the song - essential ignoring any chords that aren't crucial to the song. The 2 L.I.E. videos I have and the 3rd one that I'll publish in a few weeks could also help with this. It's an excellent question and I will spend some time thinking about it and plan a video or series of videos to address it. Thanks again.

[@TheSaxophoneOracle]

@@KMerrells good video idea... will likely require several. Thanks for chiming in on this topic!

[@shirleyfrancis4515]

Do you have a written transcript of this, please. I could not keep up with it. Mant thanks.

[@TheSaxophoneOracle]

Sorry I don't, but with KZbin you can choose to play the video at a slower speed and you can also turn on subtitles / closed captions.

[@hansmathiasthjomoe4817]

Suggestions. I have seen many of your videos. You have, to me, a lot of good statements, but you might make your presentation a little more exciting. It’s too much like sitting behind a desk and talk, like a professor (which I am). For example, I was looking for some short cuts from the songs you are suggesting.

[@pgroove163]

👍

[@TheSaxophoneOracle]

👍👍👍😀