This Technique Saves 100s of Practice Hours

#bettersax #saxophone #adamlarson
Jay Metcalf shares how practicing the technique in this video will speed up your ability to improvise over chord changes in any style of music.
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[@JeffreySaxophoneTallNewton]

"Play what you hear in your head. If you don't hear anything, don't play anything." ~ Chick Corea.

[@MarkPeotter]

Perfect! I still keep a copy of Chick's "Cheap But Good Advice..." on my wall.

[@davidwood351]

Some people need to learn what not to play first. Once that’s out of the way, they can dig into the good stuff. “Learn” how to learn…

[@JeffreySaxophoneTallNewton]

@@davidwood351 "It's taken me my whole life to learn what not to play" ~ Dizzy Gillespie

[@Julialady6]

I think he really said "if you don't pay anything, don't play anything". Correct these please.

[@Julialady6]

The money is the key my friends, not the ear. Is so important. Don't brainwash please. Stop. On the future the reeds are made of gold, Cause this sound make more money in every gig. And i eat money you know. Money with ketchup. ~ uno más xd

[@disgruntled_llama]

I got this exact same advice from my sax teacher as an undergrad about 20 years ago. It also really helps when you're trying to memorize tunes and the chord changes.

[@bettersax]

Absolutely!

[@kennyfoster2837]

From a historical perspective this makes sense too! Many early jazz players played lines that were essentially ornamented chord patterns. When playing in pe-WW2 style swing bands this really helps you sound authentic.

[@timothytikker3834]

I'm a classical improviser -- organist -- and just watched this just to see what it might have to offer in terms of improvisation learning techniques. I have to say, I think these methods given here make TOTAL sense, and I'll be looking for ways to apply them to teaching classical style -- bravo!

[@musicwithmatt5721]

I love using this method on tunes that I am just starting to learn. I've found that using the idea of creating quarter note melodies helps me hear harmonies better in the tune!

[@terria1254]

Thank-you VERY much! I'm a sax player applying your principles (which are GREAT) to learning to improvise with fiddle on bluegrass! All the best to you! 😀🎻🎷

[@davidwood351]

Outstanding, so many beginners need to start somewhere, like here.

[@ubustudio]

Nice. This is critical info to have in your brain bucket, this quarter note practice reinforces this. With this info ingrained I’d also encourage one to listen to recordings of an improvised piece and identify the chord notes and listen to how they are emphasized and listen how the passing notes complete the picture. Good work Jay is laying it down!

[@MarkPeotter]

@bettersax Thank you for endorsing this improv course. I am one of those guys who grew up with Aebersold, and, as you stated, he showed us the Scales and Chords, but left us on our own to figure out what to play with the knowledge. I love teaching jazz improv to my students, but I always feel like I am still learning for myself.

[@Player-To-Player]

So happy I came to this channel. Love the fundamentals. Thank you!

[@ChipTheMusicMan]

Brilliant, Jay. This is A+ stuff here 👍

[@emmarawiczsax]

[@raseshgandhi6702]

Thank you so much 🎉🎉🎉

[@joshuabonnelle6527]

Wow, awsome stuff, thanks for the vids!

[@vpayano]

This is great, very realistic, practical and effective lesson. Thank you very much.

[@robstevens9590]

Good method for getting started in playing over chord changes! And getting the chord tones under your fingers!

[@kakaloribeiro740]

Very helpfull, thank's, great job

[@scarmouche2454]

great thanks for the shortcut man

[@emmarawiczsax]

Excellent!

[@Ethantea1356]

I got very similar advice for playing the trombone as scales are much harder to play at speeds due to the nature and physical limitations of the instrument. Chord tones are a winner for anyone here that's learning to improve at improv on Trom

[@mazpassi1423]

Awesome!

[@pmnt_]

Thank you so much for this. In these seven minutes you brought my motivation back after months of slowly burning out. I'm a hobbyist practicing for a big concert with our concert band, with some songs/passages being uncomfortably difficult. The fact that I'm the first Alto doesn't really help, it's just adding pressure. Now I have something to look forward to, after months of practicing. Actually play sax, also in the sense of playing around. Thank you so much.

[@bettersax]

Glad this helped!

[@MaxYaan]

This video is very useful . Thank you

[@bettersax]

Thanks for watching!

[@user-we8kr3yq4n]

I'm 13. I'm a former Clarinetist, and current guitarist, and now I'm Inspired to play Saxophone! I want an Alto Sax BAD, that's how much I want to learn. I might get one though for my Birthday or Christmas. You're vids are very educational! Thank you! I'm hoping the switch from Clarinet to Saxophone will be a good one for me.

[@ketchuppoptart2315]

I also switched from clarinet to saxophone when I was about 13 and once you have the breath support I think you'll find the sax is a much more intuitive and resilient instrument. Just make sure you explore different mouthpieces and reeds to find what works best for you, I'm still finding ones that sound different or better 7 years down the line.

[@egg-jz1xu]

I started on clarinet as well, the air you need to use translates well onto alto sax. I went from clarinet to Bari sax to alto sax, and the of mix the amount of air with a bari sax + the pressure needed for a clarinet will make your tone so much better than if you didn’t play any of them.

[@Jessikas-Klarinettenoase]

This was the first exercise I get from a Jazz collegue. It helps also to know, where I am in the music 😀

[@embodiedconducting]

Great! Walking bass for melodic instruments.

[@hecateswolf6007]

Wise teacher

[@martindalmasi5340]

The patterns won’t matter much if there isn’t swing and phrasing. You guys are pros and make even chord tones sound good. 🎷🎷🎷😅

[@mslourenco100]

Bravo

[@kingpillow1698]

Thanks man, all these things you've made videos about have really helped me

[@bettersax]

Glad to hear it.

[@Cursedc23]

I play clarinet, bass clarinet mostly. I learned to improvise by naturally letting it flow and playing what would sound good and. Well. It worked

[@serge.mp3]

Certainly, I'm Overwhelmed.

[@markdrezdzon7542]

The Adam Larson course is great! I'm decent at improv, but backing down to doing chord tones on quarter notes is brilliant. More time to think about creating a melodic line versus playing a million notes!

[@bettersax]

Definitely!

[@BenG-vf7et]

I’m good on playing the “right” notes. The tough part is giving it structure.

[@valentinguillaume6403]

Thanks for the great advice ! And, this is unrelated, but I love your tone !

[@bettersax]

Thanks!

[@emmarawiczsax]

[@unpeople]

When I heard "nobody wants to eat just potatoes," I immediately thought of the famous Baked Potato jazz club in L.A. - their menu is just baked potatoes (with a couple of salads for the people who don't want to eat just potatoes).

[@chinua000]

I was skeptical, but man this is powerful. Its training my ear tohear the chord tones and know where to aim. It's like studying anatomy for painting. I am a pianist, and this exercise giving me a direct way to experience the inherent emotional impact of the various chords through melody, something I strangely never felt improvising on sax before, the questing sadness of minor 7th chords, or the lush velvet completion of major 7th chords, the pomp of dominants. Its like having GPS for soloing, and its just sinking in, i can feel it. I also get upper structure stuff for free, where I play the appropriate triads starting on different scale degrees. I go through the tune playing chord tones from the root, then diatonic triads starting on the third, then fifth, then seventh of all the changes. It's not creative, but it is its skeleton of creativity.

[@bettersax]

Yes, especially when you add the rhythmic element from the rest of the course it does wonders.

[@Julialady6]

The Kenny G video was so funny. I never saw in my life more plastic you know XD. Plastic and plastic and plastic................ The music doesn't matter. The "plastic" is the key.

[@insaneevillogan]

I like doing this exercise already but instead of starting on quarter notes I like to start at 60 bpm whole notes on the root and they make an effective long tone exercise and slow articulation exercise, as well as half notes on 1 - 3 doing the same.

[@peteryakubu3434]

can you make a video about what chord progressions for beginners

[@Beauweir]

Jamey Abersold! I have these books haha

[@mileswhite4329]

This looks like a promising approach if not exactly new. I will probably buy this course anyway to see if it can up my game. I don’t think you should belittle the blues scale though. It’s only as interesting as the player using it don’t you think?

[@user-wl9hn9sc5g]

Funny, because when I see the Aebersold charts I see the same arpeggios that were demonstrated, not just straight scales because if you know the chords, you can't help but see it.

[@dennisd2531]

Excellent content Jay, love it. Bye-the-way, I noticed your Bettersax logo on the neck of the tenor you are using, that wouldn't be the long awaited Bettersax Tenor would it? I already have the EAS112 Alto (and love it) however, I'm planning to upgrade and purchase a Tenor Sax around September this year and would strongly consider the Bettersax Tenor if it was released and available, any update on this? D..

[@bettersax]

Yes, the tenor is on the way and planned for availability this fall! Will be worth the wait.

[@usererror2572]

Did you make a bettersax tenor? I watched a video you made a couple weeks ago, and it looks like you played a bettersax tenor, but I don’t see anywhere on your channel where you talked about it

[@bettersax]

It’s still in development. I’ve been playing the prototype in some videos though. It’s going to be well worth the wait.

[@RichinMexico]

good shirt

[@njrnjo1612]

Hi! I found this very useful, thank you! Would you recommend reading chords from an original chart (in C), or from a transposed one (in Bb) when playing on a Bb instrument?

[@bettersax]

Good to be able to do both but read the transposed chart if you can.

[@insaneevillogan]

I’m having trouble not falling into a formula when doing patterns of quarter and 8th notes. For example, when playing an F blues I’ll just do 1-3-5-7 or even something 3-1-7-5 but in the next bar trying to switch it up I get a little stumbley sometimes. Does this mean I haven’t done it at a slow enough tempo yet?

[@rielzuad7028]

as i undestood your point i agree that you saved me 100hrs of praktis time

[@bettersax]

Awesome!

[@louisnws]

Question: I enrolled in the course. I have the general problem that im not really able to hear which chords are played. I can only do the first ercercices (Root, third 5th 7th) with the notes or maybe by heart after a while. But not by ear. Is it the right approach to just keep practicing these exercices until that gets better? Thanks

[@NoteSmoking]

Cool, now do it in drop 2 and drop 3.

[@TTFMjock]

So play bass lines on saxophone?

[@dipupoawe9318]

You didn't mention how to voice lead between the chord changes but I guess that would be covered in the course

[@bettersax]

The beauty of practicing chord tones is that they can naturally resolve by step or half step to a chord tone in the next chord. Your ear will guide you automatically.

[@MarkPeotter]

@@bettersax "your ear will guide you automatically" if you are trying to play like the jazz greats. I have young students whose inclination, their ear, is to make unexpected leaps. They enjoy surprises. They are not instilled with the old jazz greats.

[@ezphd]

Hi Jay, I noticed that you seem to be using one of the heavy mass screws on the tenon of your tenor sax-- do you sell those? I wonder if you might explain how you came to decide to do that? TIA< Elliot

[@bettersax]

Don’t have these for sale. I use them because I like how they look and feel. Can’t say that they make a difference for me in terms of sound.

[@angelomilletti1146]

Are these courses aviable in french ?

[@bradystewart6420]

very helpful video! however i noticed that in the A- in the sheet at 0:51 F# was listed as a tone for the scale and I was wondering why this wouldn't be F natural? thanks

[@ChipTheMusicMan]

There are different minor scales. If the 6 is natural like A minor w/ an F# then it's a Dorian minor scale. I don't know what tune this chord chart is from though...

[@MarkPeotter]

@bradystewart6420 @ChipTheMusicMan Good answer, Chip! This is a rather impotant topic to discuss, which type of Minor scale gives you the sounds that we want at any given moment. I don't recognize the song either, but I could easily hear my self playing the A Natural Minor scale , or the A Harmonic Minor scale in this example. Notice also the use of D Dorian Minor in measure 11, where it could have easily been D Natural Minor.

[@bradystewart6420]

makes sense. thanks guys!

[@Kenonharp]

Great but how do you decide which chord tone pattern to use in your practice? In some cases you just simply use 1,3,5,7 but then it varies. There appear to be some patterns but I am sure without transcribing the video. What am I missing or is this just something that requires the course? Thanks.

[@tobitikare4152]

What if I wanted to improvise over groove music where there are 2 or 3 chords changing every 1 or 2 bars. This happens a lot in afrobeat or afro funk. What will be the most efficient way to speed up my ability to improvise...?

[@bettersax]

This method will help even if there are fewer chords. The later steps in the course get into developing rhythmic variety. This is crucial when playing groove music and will make a huge difference for you.

[@zadzadplayerzadsham8074]

👍👍👍👍

[@Laura-wg5jk]

How "fluent" do we have to be with the chord tones in order to take the Rhythmic Pyramid course? Interested but still working through Harmonic Foundation.

[@MarkPeotter]

I have not taken the course myself, but I speculate that the course can teach you which notes belong in which chord as you go through it. As Jay stated in the video, the Aebersold books were good for showing us chords and scales, but there was no advice on what to play with this knowledge in the Aebersold books, except for some of his written samples of improv's, which were more like well crafted melodies.

[@bettersax]

Laura in the course we use the Bb blues for the exercises. There are 5 chords with 4 notes each. Practicing this method is the fastest way to get fluent so anybody can benefit from this and also strengthen harmonic knowledge at the same time.

[@Laura-wg5jk]

OK I am in!

[@MrDaneBrammage]

As a bass player, this feels very familiar. Focusing on the beat and the chord tones is the basis of everything else. All the other notes are just filler on the way from one chord tone to another.

[@bettersax]

Yes sax players need to think more like bass players!

[@regparham4793]

👍🏾👍🏾

[@dividedwords]

Leaving out the business of transposition, is there any reason this course would not benefit or not be useable for players of other instruments ?

[@bettersax]

This method is equally good for any instrument.

[@atmamanifesta9749]

practice with some pauses makes even more sense. more fun and like cats play

[@obedbuenrostrojr.320]

By any chance do you know Jim Metcalf. (CA)?

[@coleprior]

Haven’t watched it all yet but thanks for the help ❤

[@phunkme11]

Like 7:26

[@shreddaily101]

Total click bait. Solid content. Thanks Jay

[@andreaadd1987]

Why is the blues actually in C but said it was in Bb? Are those the same thing? Greetings from Italy

[@ChipTheMusicMan]

Tenor would be up a whole step. Tenor C = Concert Bb.

[@andreaadd1987]

@@ChipTheMusicMan ohh. I didn't get he specified "tenor saxophone" sorry

[@kwootamuckbear9294]

👍🏾🎶🎵🎷

[@nafawi7965]

Transcribe…if just one bar a day.

[@donmilland7606]

I do this with Giant Steps. I also use half notes, dotted quarter notes, etc. Its harder than you think.

[@donmilland7606]

And I'm trying to be melodic when doing this.

[@normalizedaudio2481]

Captions and annotations really "pop."

[@jazznutz]

What they don't tell you here is that your fisrt attempts are not going to sound as good as these because these quarter note lines are carefully constructed with voice leading as well.

[@lando_kxng4148]

Who here is still trying to figure out what the number is in a chord? I hope I’m not the only one

[@MarkPeotter]

I teach jazz improv also. The number next to the chord indicates which scale degrees belong in the chord in addition to the the basic triad 1, 3, 5. This is not a thorough answer, but I hope it helps. There are many teachers, like Jay and myself, who offer instruction in understanding chord symbols. Another good source is Rick Beato.

[@lando_kxng4148]

@@MarkPeotter thank you man this hopefully will help me

[@vouserdelegado]

SUMMARY: Here are the 10 main ideas from the video: 1. Learning how to improvise can be overwhelming. 2. Using scales as a tool for improvising may not sound like jazz. 3. The alternate approach is to limit oneself to chord tones and a single rhythmic subdivision. 4. Practicing with quarter notes and chord tones helps slow down and play more relaxed. 5. It is important to learn the chord changes of a song before improvising. 6. The exercise of playing quarter notes on chord tones can be applied to any chord progression. 7. The next step is to practice playing eighth notes on chord tones. 8. Working through the rhythmic pyramid course can greatly improve improvisation skills. 9. Enrolling in courses can speed up the learning process and provide structured guidance. 10. The rhythmic pyramid course offers additional content, a masterclass, and a discount. That’s it!

[@disgruntled_llama]

Thanks? I think?

[@vouserdelegado]

@@disgruntled_llama 😅 Who knows!

[@patrickpillon9334]

It’s very close to a bass Line played by a pianist or a bass

[@impacc]

For newer players, it's probably better to start with whole notes first, then half notes, then quarter notes, etc.. imho

[@tommyt7566]

Meh, no.

[@cmw12]

Just mash the keys? Got it. Don’t even need to watch the video.

[@colbybelk]

TLDR: learn chord changes of songs. Jesus wept.

[@CharlieHoliday369]

How is this not obvious?

[@peterankin985]

Jay can we use the upside down and backwards technique from the pentatonic foundation coarse to learn these chord tones aswell or is it a silly question?

[@timmysaxsaint9589]

My best video from bettersax