Totally agree. I was challenged by a friend that we would learn to paint in oils and then see who could sell a painting for the most at a charity art auction 3months later. I just got some paints etc and set to. He spent time reading one “how to” after another. He really understood the theory and got better colour mixes but his brushwork was poor & lacked freedom. I beat him by £5, we both raised a handy bit of cash for the charity and had a lot of fun. We agreed that time at the canvas is of greater value early on, the book work then helps move the standard upwards. Music seems very similar.
Jamie Aebersold deserves mention. His many explainations and lessons on how to learn to improvise is invaluable. Plus all the tools like tracks to practice to.
I always felt that the Coker book had the value of having you being able to move an idea around in the different keys in different orders. I never looked at it as licks to memorize and use. I actually discourage students from doing that. It gives you a head start on creating your own phrases and moving them through 12 keys but in different progressions. I really like the book for that.
«Improvising Jazz» bei Jerry Coker is also my favourite for now. It should be definitely in every improvisers bookshelf. Coker explains the basics of chords and chord progressions very well. He also advices on keeping a journal where one should write down musical ideas and thus come up with a collection of licks and melodies over the months and years.
@@Atlantpunktch absolutely! otherwise you forget them as there are many , and with written down list of ideas,motifs,shapes,colours you can come back to them again and again to refresh your muscle memory..I am 62 and easily to forget.Will check out the other Coker book..Thanx all
Thanks so much. I studied jazz saxophone in the 90’s. The Charlie Parker Omni Book in Eb and Bb were the first books I bought too. I barely used them. They just weren’t doing anything for me. I also had to buy Patterns in Jazz for a course and barely used that either. My teacher gave me patterns that he thought would help me and I still have those hand written in his pen in the same binder that I have all my jazz improv class material. I haven’t played much but over the years just because, well, LIFE. Now at 53, I’m closing in on retiring from public education and looking at, well….LIFE… a new life. I’m finding that I want jazz saxophone back in my life. The tens of thousands of dollars that I spent on my music degree is still chronicled in that binder of staff paper. That’s valuable. This video reminds me to do the work and get back to transcribing, but transcribing according to my mature ear and taste. I may purchase these books you’ve recommended. And I’ll definitely buy the legitimate version!. Cheers.
I play guitar (just started learning the sax) and it drives me nuts when people say "I don't want to sound like Brian May/Jimmy Page/insert name". That's how you learn to play! What are going to do? Publish a song book of your own solos and then use it as an educational resource? Anyone can play the same sequence of notes as the past masters, but you are never really going to sound like them. "Your sound" is something that you are going to wake up one day and realize that you have.
People say “I don’t want to sound like jimmy page” because they want to sound like someone else. I also play guitar, and I don’t want to sound like jimmy page, I want to sound like tosin abasi, misha mansoor or Tim Henson. Nothing against page, but his sound isn’t what I like
The Hal Crook book is a lifetime reference book. I have left this book for years and come back to it with new perspectives. Great book. The Omnibook is a great book if you do not have time or have issues transcribing. Listen to the solos, read the notation, memorize and assimilate.
17:11 Thank you for encouraging people not to steal the contents of these books. Theft is theft. If somebody has written and published a book, that writer deserves to be paid. Buy the books! Don’t steal them!
Thanks Jay, I wrote a long comment on my favourite jazz Ed books from 45 years ago. I still like Coker’s books, probably still available and deserve a mention.. But thanks for letting me know about some great new books with a similar philosophy. I need to check out Jerry Bergonzi’s Pentatonics (I met him when he toured Australia with Dave Brubeck), and the David Berkman “The Jazz Musicians Guide to Creative Practising”. I’m 73 and have been a professional from age 16, still learning!
Some books that I’ve found useful: Yusef Lateef’s “Repository of Scales and Melodic Patterns,” David Liebman’s “A Chromatic Approach to Jazz Harmony and Melody” and Greg Fishman’s “Jazz Saxophone Etudes.”
I have Yusef’s book, and while an admirable and exhaustive effort, I find it, like just about all books of scales, useless. Personally (and I emphasize personally) I’ve found Barry Harris’s approach of building scales from arpeggios (in his case from the union of 6th arpeggios and substitutions) with their leading tone diminished arpeggios the simplest and most controllable way of making the direct connection between scales (and the color tones they provide) and the moods/emotions you want to convey. Its almost like having a knob you can just turn at will. But thats just me. The journey is finding what clicks with you.
just wanted to thank you for those free youtube content, many of us from developping countries can t even afford for a book or a course, your free course on youtube help us a lot, 🙏🥰
Surprised nobody is talking about Lenny Niehaus, this is the first step to sound jazz and the articulation needed (specially when coming from classical music)
As a saxophonist with no formal music education, I found Mark Levine’s “The Jazz Theory Book” quite helpful though some parts of it were a bit over my head. Thanks for sharing
Lenard Feather came to my wedding. Told me many stories about Billy Holliday. My Pop could hear a jam and name each player. I play jazz guitar. I learned totally BY EAR. Can't read a note. Ha ha
When I started Martial Arts I wanted to be like Bruce Lee. Now I know I'm better because I'm like me. When I play the Saxophone of course I'm inspired by the greats but I want to sound like ME!
Don’t worry, even you try - you’ll never sound like Parker! You’ll always sound like yourself - question is only - how good will “sounding like yourself” be
Since watching this video awhile back, I added 3 of those books to my library. It wasn't until the Patterns For Jazz book that I realized my saxophone teacher was basically feeding me all of these exercises. I sucked at scales and found them extremely boring but exercise number 33 finally got all 12 keys of scales to finally click in my brain and fingers to pass my Jury 2 a decade and change ago.
I've owned several of those. I think you might define what you're trying to get out of these books. For example, Coker has another book called "hearin The changes" which was really useful for me as it defined many common progressions and the tunes that use them. As a guitar and piano player I am perhaps a bit more interested in harmonic approaches, although I really like motivic development.
Nicely done @Better Sax! You nailed it regarding the books I know (#1,3,4) and inspired me to check out the others. Concerning ‘Patterns For Jazz’ I always tried to get students through 1 or 2 patterns in each of the basic chord types. Interesting that the authors left out Minor 7 flat 5 chords. I like the Snidero books for phrasing, style and articulation, but still love my worn out copy of Dan Higgins’ ‘The Jazz Etude Book’. Unfortunately it’s been out of print for years. Bob Mintzer’s ‘14 Blues & Funk’ and ‘14 Jazz & Funk Etude’ books are also excellent. None of these books, however, show students the mechanics of jazz articulation so there’s still no substitute for the guidance of a good teacher/player. Thanks again!
Great list. Had the honor and pleasure of studying with Jerry Coker in the late 80’s (early 90’s). Patterns for Jazz remains an essential staple in my studio, it always bridges well into applied harms. Another good one is Joe Viola’s The Technique of the Saxophone Vol. 2 (chord studies). Excellent approach/passing tone applications over basic diatonic harmonies disguised as full range mini etudes. Great channel, you’re helping so many and in so many ways! 🙏🏼👍🏼
It is not learning over one another. Always want to learn the actual tunes. But Etudes are essentially exercises with a specific focus. So some will emphasize different techniques that can be used on a tune you’re learning, even if it is not the same exact tune.
I found it helps to internalise the harmony, especially if you start playing them WITHOUT backing tracks first. You'll hear the chord changes (with enough repetition) in your head and from there make better decisions when actually improvising. When you employ the backing tracks with the etudes, then it turns more into an exercise for time-feel and phrasing over the track. This is just what I discovered after practicing etudes over tunes for a while.
Ya, that Patterns In Jazz book does have a bit "too much". I'm happy you mentioned a few lines that your teacher highlighted from this book (98 and 132). Would it be too much to ask for some of the other numbered lines that they highlighted?
My reaction to the Coker books is very much the same. Some of the patterns are much more valuable than others. In this video, #98 and #132 are identified. So, the question is, what are the other patterns that are particularly valuable?
What about Yusef Lateef's 'Repository of Scales and Melodic Patterns?' Supposedly Coltrane and Dolphy swore by it? I bought a copy. Didn't get very far. Seems like it was missing something. Like some instructions or recommendations on how to practice from it, because as it is, it's pretty dull and dry.
Hey Jay this is an excellent review and summery. Thank you. You very much comforted me about Patterns for Jazz. I got discouraged at some point. Would you be willing to share with us the pattern numbers your teacher at the time and yourself recommend in this book ? That would be amazing 🤩
After a 18 year hiatus, two books I picked up that have helped are Joe Viola’s Saxophone Scale Studies, and Sigurd Rachers Top Tones. Jerry Bergonzi’s Pentatonics book sounds interesting. Added to my cart.
I really enjoy your content, Jay. What are your thoughts on the Lennie Neihaus Jazz Conception series? I often use Lennie's stuff. I really enjoy his writing.
I stopped reaching out of those books a long time ago. They are missing the element of a recording which I think is essential especially for beginners.
Of the excellent Bergonzi's Inside Improvisation I like Melodic structures best. Snidero etudes are fine, imho, but the play alongs and esp sax playing on those is not where it's at. Greg Fishman has a few books with jazz etudes where the rhythm section plays great (Greg plays great as well). Coker's book is fine for fishing for ideas and gives you the basic building blocks. It's not a clear and concise way of getting you from 0 to improv hero. None of the books is, imho. Omnibook is the jazz bible/koran. An Old Testament (sex, drugs and punishment) if you're a beginner.
Those are some great additions to my birthday list 👍. 6:52 That's good - those "all the riffs in all the keys" books do more harm than good IMO because they encourage dependency on "the dots". 10:23 So true - we all have our own intrinsic sound. Even if we can't hear it ourselves, everyone else can.
Wow you went to the conservatoire! It's now the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, there's still excellent musicians coming out of there every year, I'm sure it still has it's flaws but there's a great student led scene among the "jazzers" here still.
I was a saxophonist 1st and got placed in what was essentially a pretty advanced high school Stage Band while in the 8th grade. This was in the 70s. I started going to the piano to try to begin to figure out music theory. I kept pestering everyone who knew anything to show me chords and progressions on the piano so eventually I just switched to the piano. The piano just felt like the bridge/control room of the ship to me. There's a reason why all the great composers except Maria Schneider and Richard Strauss played piano. I should say I was also using the piano to begin composing.
I know the issues with the Charlie Parker Omnibook, but I still love it. I think it's great because it's fun to play and not that hard if you don't worry about playing at full speed. It really helped keep me engaged when I returned to sax after a 20-year pause. The other book that helped with that was the Real Book. When I switched to tenor it got the Coltrane Omnibook, and that's a different story... The Dan Haerle Scales for Jazz Improvisation book helped me to understand modes, but it took a lot of work to fill in the blanks before everything finally clicked. Modes are really simple to understand on a basic level, but you need a clear explanation. It's one of those books that takes some understanding for granted, even when teaching some basic concepts. More recently I bought Yusef Lateef's Repository of Scales and Melodic Patterns, which is insane but very interesting and I think useful for the strange intervals and different scales, though not at all practical.
Thanks for this Jay, really helpful. I've been using the "Patterns" book for a while now - would love to know which of the exercises your teacher circled to focus on?
Really interesting as always. In the UK, a conservatory is usually a mostly glass extension on the back of a house used as a sunroom. And conservatoire sounds classier!
Jay, thanks a lot for the video. One of my first teachers told me the two most important things to become a good musician are to play in bands and write tunes. 15 years later I think he wasn't totally wrong...
Hi Jay, very informative and straight forward material as usual. Could you please give us a few of the patterns that were circled in your copy of "patterns for jazz"?
The Bergonzi book is great! Another perennial. Accompanied by some Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter and later Coltrane solos it opens up your modern playing. And the Berkman book is great as well. I've taught out it as well. May I also offer the Oliver Nelson book Patterns for Improvisation
I was amazed to hear you studied with Chris Gumbley in the UK. I played in a big band with him when he was a student, and we did a few small group gigs as well. Small world!
Coker et. al. is on my music stand as I write, and I've gone about halfway through it. I think you make valid points. Do I really need ALL of this, like, this year? Probably not.
I wonder which music shop in Birmingham you bought it from. There was a good one near the railway station but that closed a longtime ago. I agree with you entirely about the patterns books - for someone trying to teach themselves it is too much information as you can’t sort out what to focus on and I have never managed to make a pattern sound authentic just by reading it. Over the years I’ve bought tons of books and got nowhere and obviously’ I have all the ones you mention. I can’t thank you enough for this review as I can now focus. I just watched a Chad LB video where he talks about using transcriptions and recommends memorising them along with the recording a few bars at a time until you can play the whole solo from memory. Finally I feel I have a route to follow.
I love your insight, and articulation of said insight on all of these things! First of all - yes yes yes buy a copy of the books for all the reasons you said. It can't be understated the value of having a real paper copy of a book to live with. My Omnibook is also torn to shreds and I love that (and yes I agree there is more value in transcribing one chorus of one solo rather than playing out of the Omnibook - I did that too) I can remember where I was with it - on a plane to Interlochen for the summer or at my grandfather's house. I suppose the "kids" these days aren't used to carrying so much stuff around! ugh old man talk here.... As a junior (size on youtube as I believe I am older than you) TH-camr, I love the content, delivery, and production of what you do. Very thoughtful on all fronts!
thanks man, really. I'm a bassist and I was reading books and make notatins. I got shapes, ideias, but nothing melodic or usual (good for exercises at last). I got to the point I was playing scales, arpegios, but not the "notes". so when you said 10 pages and/or somes licks can be better to digest and learn than the whole book, you opened my mind for a more minimal approach, not to absorve everything, but what is important and can be aplicated! ps: this pentatonic book is reealy great!
My friend got me that jazz patterns book from a garage sale for like a buck. It's a first printing and someone has marked some useful stuff in it already. Would recommend.
I learned all of “Patterns for Jazz”, and still couldn’t improvise well, because I never was taught exactly how and what to practice. So, I got great at the book, but sucked otherwise. I STILL don’t know what “doing the work means”.
Thank you for reviewing those books, and for you advice. I would add Bert Ligon's "Jazz Resources" it's quite similar to Mark Levine "Jazz Theory Book". Also from Bert Ligon "Connecting Chords with Linear Harmony". I Believe that intense Listening while Reading the Notes Really does help beginners get some confidence in being able to get the phrasing and transcribing by ear. Just Listen and slow it down if necessary, one note at a time.
My opinion: •Parker Omnibook: useless. Transcribe them by your own and/or Instead go buy some RealBooks •Hal Crook: everyone recommends it, nobody I know ever worked throught it. Hence useless too. •Patterns for Jazz: apart from that there aren't written "Jazz patterns" in this book, it's tremendously exhausting. instead of that study tunes and pick out the chords of the tune and study them in all ways you can. •Snidero: great player! Great solos! Great phrasing! Recommendable! •Bergonzi: I love it! For me it was the best approach to pentatonic I could imagine •David Berkman: didn't know about it yet. Sounds good... One book missing is Mark Levine's "Jazz Theory Book". IMHO a must have for every Jazz musician!
My all-time favorite book is Jazz Theory by Mark Levine. It's the size of a phonebook, and I'm not sure it reaches your goal of teaching improvisation, but what a book for musicians!
Very interesting and informative - thank you. I will be looking at these titles now. I already have Jerry Coker's 'Patterns' which I like a lot. I have found it useful to select one or two patterns only, using a pack of cards to make a random choice, rather than try to choose from so many in any rational way. One or two guitar players have commented as well. They might find Mick Goodrick's 'The Advancing Guitarist' interesting. (Notation only though, no tab.)
I am a bass player who's best friend is a tenor player. He hipped me to your channel and I love it. Great content. Love the Hal Crook book. Used it a lot as a former trumpet player. I also enjoy "Ready Aim Improvise."
Take a melody that's engrained in your mind - say "Happy Birthday." You can hear it clearly in your head - we all can - but can you translate that simple, basic tune you hear in your head to your instrument? Can you start on any random note on your horn and sing "Happy Birthday" thru your instrument? If you can't, no "book" will help you. Only time on the instrument will do that - so stop looking for that magic book and get busy.
Hi Jay, I always follow your publications, so your opinion is important for me. Now I practicing minor relative scale and end up with Coltrane modal jazz, so I had been listening and trying to understand the way he played, do you thing is good idea to buy a book for that? I have some progess but it is getting hard to get his concept. I have to mention that I am an adult, father of two, married and professional so I have to use my time as efficient as possible.
YOu lost me on the first book - when you both criticized it, but admitted you didn't read the key part of it. Back when I was learning jazz, it was not one or the other - trascribe or read transcriptions. It was both.
what do charlie parker, monk, duke, sonny rollins, miles, lionel hampton, clifford brown, etc etc have in common - they didnt learn to play music from books. i am amazed that people do the opposite of what the greatest masters did and think they are making an improvement.
Nobody learns to play music from books. I don't think I've ever met a person that thought that was possible. Everyone knows you need to play, learn from teachers etc. I can guarantee you that each of the great musicians you mentioned studied books not just about music but lots of other topics.
I've done the Aebersold thing, including attending workshops two successive years -- one thing to note, which is very obvious, is that jazz in a communal effort, so books only take you so far. Finding a like-minded group to jam with is pretty important. One major point -- you really only need to buy one patterns book :-). Buying multiple pattern books is a waste of money, in my opinion. And -- as far as the bebop thing goes -- David Baker, before his passing, was a big part of the Aebersold workshops. His Bebop book series is very interesting. He lists 40 or so "contrafacts", basically bebop melodies, and he suggests learning those melodies and transpose them to new keys. It's "paying dues" for learning the bebop idiom. The Omnibook could be used in this context (learn a melody/solo by ear, transpose it, move onto another).
By the way, my first year at the workshop, Jim Snidero was my ensemble instructor, and then I moved to Denis DiBlasio's ensemble. I think Denis's Bop Shop book, is a great starter book.
Jay, thank you very much for this video. This is the first one I came across that analyzes this very important topic. I would like to know your opinion of older books, widely used like: Patterns of Jazz by Oliver Nelson, Jazz Concption for Saxophone by Lennie Niehaus, How to play bebop by David Baker and also the books by Joseph Viola. The analysis of these books perhaps deserves a new one of your excellent videos. Greetings from Paraguay
Hi Jay, thanks a lot for this video very interesting. If I want to learn jazz improvisation with my tenor sax, which is the best book for this according to your 6 proposals ?
depends on where you are at. For beginners, the Snidero Easy level books are good, but I would recommend starting with my Pentatonic Foundation and Blues Foundation courses on bettersax.com since they cover the information I wish I learned before jumping into these books.
The beginning of the solo from "Now is the time" is just like a piece of Wardell Gray's "Twisted blues" (or it may be the other way round). Check it out, it is a really well thought out short tune that very few play, filled with gems...
This is really interesting and a good steer - thank you! I have a lot of music and some etude studies - some from your courses (eg 21 Major key explorations) which I find quite challenging to work through.
‘’ Stop making excuses and go do the work” is probably the best advice in the whole video.
Yeah come to think of it I should write that on my wall 😅
@@bettersax
I just did !!!
Totally agree. I was challenged by a friend that we would learn to paint in oils and then see who could sell a painting for the most at a charity art auction 3months later. I just got some paints etc and set to. He spent time reading one “how to” after another. He really understood the theory and got better colour mixes but his brushwork was poor & lacked freedom. I beat him by £5, we both raised a handy bit of cash for the charity and had a lot of fun. We agreed that time at the canvas is of greater value early on, the book work then helps move the standard upwards. Music seems very similar.
Jamie Aebersold deserves mention. His many explainations and lessons on how to learn to improvise is invaluable. Plus all the tools like tracks to practice to.
I always felt that the Coker book had the value of having you being able to move an idea around in the different keys in different orders. I never looked at it as licks to memorize and use. I actually discourage students from doing that. It gives you a head start on creating your own phrases and moving them through 12 keys but in different progressions. I really like the book for that.
«Improvising Jazz» bei Jerry Coker is also my favourite for now. It should be definitely in every improvisers bookshelf. Coker explains the basics of chords and chord progressions very well. He also advices on keeping a journal where one should write down musical ideas and thus come up with a collection of licks and melodies over the months and years.
@@Atlantpunktch absolutely! otherwise you forget them as there are many , and with written down list of ideas,motifs,shapes,colours you can come back to them again and again to refresh your muscle memory..I am 62 and easily to forget.Will check out the other Coker book..Thanx all
Thanks so much. I studied jazz saxophone in the 90’s. The Charlie Parker Omni Book in Eb and Bb were the first books I bought too. I barely used them. They just weren’t doing anything for me. I also had to buy Patterns in Jazz for a course and barely used that either. My teacher gave me patterns that he thought would help me and I still have those hand written in his pen in the same binder that I have all my jazz improv class material. I haven’t played much but over the years just because, well, LIFE. Now at 53, I’m closing in on retiring from public education and looking at, well….LIFE… a new life. I’m finding that I want jazz saxophone back in my life. The tens of thousands of dollars that I spent on my music degree is still chronicled in that binder of staff paper. That’s valuable. This video reminds me to do the work and get back to transcribing, but transcribing according to my mature ear and taste. I may purchase these books you’ve recommended. And I’ll definitely buy the legitimate version!. Cheers.
I play guitar (just started learning the sax) and it drives me nuts when people say "I don't want to sound like Brian May/Jimmy Page/insert name". That's how you learn to play! What are going to do? Publish a song book of your own solos and then use it as an educational resource? Anyone can play the same sequence of notes as the past masters, but you are never really going to sound like them. "Your sound" is something that you are going to wake up one day and realize that you have.
"Copy and steal" said Ritchie Blackmore
"Your sound" is the sum of your limitations and what people recognize you for.
Don't be so eager to have it...
People say “I don’t want to sound like jimmy page” because they want to sound like someone else. I also play guitar, and I don’t want to sound like jimmy page, I want to sound like tosin abasi, misha mansoor or Tim Henson. Nothing against page, but his sound isn’t what I like
I don’t want to sound like Coltrane or Rollins, so I barely practice- that ensures I sound like none of the greats
The Hal Crook book is a lifetime reference book. I have left this book for years and come back to it with new perspectives. Great book. The Omnibook is a great book if you do not have time or have issues transcribing. Listen to the solos, read the notation, memorize and assimilate.
17:11 Thank you for encouraging people not to steal the contents of these books. Theft is theft. If somebody has written and published a book, that writer deserves to be paid. Buy the books! Don’t steal them!
Thanks Jay, I wrote a long comment on my favourite jazz Ed books from 45 years ago. I still like Coker’s books, probably still available and deserve a mention.. But thanks for letting me know about some great new books with a similar philosophy. I need to check out Jerry Bergonzi’s Pentatonics (I met him when he toured Australia with Dave Brubeck), and the David Berkman “The Jazz Musicians Guide to Creative Practising”. I’m 73 and have been a professional from age 16, still learning!
81, 11, ditto... 🙃
Some books that I’ve found useful: Yusef Lateef’s “Repository of Scales and Melodic Patterns,” David Liebman’s “A Chromatic Approach to Jazz Harmony and Melody” and Greg Fishman’s “Jazz Saxophone Etudes.”
I have Yusef’s book, and while an admirable and exhaustive effort, I find it, like just about all books of scales, useless.
Personally (and I emphasize personally) I’ve found Barry Harris’s approach of building scales from arpeggios (in his case from the union of 6th arpeggios and substitutions) with their leading tone diminished arpeggios the simplest and most controllable way of making the direct connection between scales (and the color tones they provide) and the moods/emotions you want to convey. Its almost like having a knob you can just turn at will.
But thats just me.
The journey is finding what clicks with you.
just wanted to thank you for those free youtube content, many of us from developping countries can t even afford for a book or a course, your free course on youtube help us a lot, 🙏🥰
My great pleasure. Thank you for watching and supporting the channel.
it s an honour and a pleasure,
Ive been looking for books for a while thanks for giving some ideas
Greg Fishman Etudes are also awesome for me
Surprised nobody is talking about Lenny Niehaus, this is the first step to sound jazz and the articulation needed (specially when coming from classical music)
How funny that,I’ve asked him couple of lines above the same. Look his answer……. I’m a guitar player and I started with Niehaus’ books.
I just bought a ton of his cds on Contemporary. Good West Coast stuff and not easy to find!
As a saxophonist with no formal music education, I found Mark Levine’s “The Jazz Theory Book” quite helpful though some parts of it were a bit over my head.
Thanks for sharing
Yes, that's another great book.
I find I reference The Jazz Theory Book quite a bit in concert as I learn new skills! Excellent resource.
Lenard Feather came to my wedding. Told me many stories about Billy Holliday. My Pop could hear a jam and name each player. I play jazz guitar. I learned totally BY EAR. Can't read a note. Ha ha
When I started Martial Arts I wanted to be like Bruce Lee. Now I know I'm better because I'm like me. When I play the Saxophone of course I'm inspired by the greats but I want to sound like ME!
Don’t worry, even you try - you’ll never sound like Parker! You’ll always sound like yourself - question is only - how good will “sounding like yourself” be
Since watching this video awhile back, I added 3 of those books to my library. It wasn't until the Patterns For Jazz book that I realized my saxophone teacher was basically feeding me all of these exercises. I sucked at scales and found them extremely boring but exercise number 33 finally got all 12 keys of scales to finally click in my brain and fingers to pass my Jury 2 a decade and change ago.
Yes, great books! 💪
But you forgot Jamey Aebersold's materials too... 😉
you forgot liebs great book on CHROMATICISM !!mistake to leave it out
I've owned several of those. I think you might define what you're trying to get out of these books. For example, Coker has another book called "hearin The changes" which was really useful for me as it defined many common progressions and the tunes that use them. As a guitar and piano player I am perhaps a bit more interested in harmonic approaches, although I really like motivic development.
Nicely done @Better Sax!
You nailed it regarding the books I know (#1,3,4) and inspired me to check out the others. Concerning ‘Patterns For Jazz’ I always tried to get students through 1 or 2 patterns in each of the basic chord types. Interesting that the authors left out Minor 7 flat 5 chords.
I like the Snidero books for phrasing, style and articulation, but still love my worn out copy of Dan Higgins’ ‘The Jazz Etude Book’. Unfortunately it’s been out of print for years. Bob Mintzer’s ‘14 Blues & Funk’ and ‘14 Jazz & Funk Etude’ books are also excellent. None of these books, however, show students the mechanics of jazz articulation so there’s still no substitute for the guidance of a good teacher/player.
Thanks again!
"Its All in your Record Collection"Scott Henderson.
Great list. Had the honor and pleasure of studying with Jerry Coker in the late 80’s (early 90’s). Patterns for Jazz remains an essential staple in my studio, it always bridges well into applied harms.
Another good one is Joe Viola’s The Technique of the Saxophone Vol. 2 (chord studies). Excellent approach/passing tone applications over basic diatonic harmonies disguised as full range mini etudes. Great channel, you’re helping so many and in so many ways! 🙏🏼👍🏼
Ricci! I really thought Jerry's "Elements of the Jazz Language" had the bonus of showing one how to apply the ideas over multiple chord types.
Wow you sound like George Coleman when he was playing with miles on that etude..This is a great post
Do you have a list of the "Circled" exercises in Patterns fo Jazz?
What's the point of learning etudes over actual tunes? Is it because it reinforces specific patterns or something?
It is not learning over one another. Always want to learn the actual tunes. But Etudes are essentially exercises with a specific focus. So some will emphasize different techniques that can be used on a tune you’re learning, even if it is not the same exact tune.
I found it helps to internalise the harmony, especially if you start playing them WITHOUT backing tracks first. You'll hear the chord changes (with enough repetition) in your head and from there make better decisions when actually improvising. When you employ the backing tracks with the etudes, then it turns more into an exercise for time-feel and phrasing over the track. This is just what I discovered after practicing etudes over tunes for a while.
learning language
@@ricardofryson91 That makes sense!
Ya, that Patterns In Jazz book does have a bit "too much". I'm happy you mentioned a few lines that your teacher highlighted from this book (98 and 132). Would it be too much to ask for some of the other numbered lines that they highlighted?
My reaction to the Coker books is very much the same. Some of the patterns are much more valuable than others. In this video, #98 and #132 are identified. So, the question is, what are the other patterns that are particularly valuable?
So which patterns did your teacher in the UK circle in the Coker book?
must agree greg fishman
It's a language. We learned our mother tongue by imitation.
What about Yusef Lateef's 'Repository of Scales and Melodic Patterns?' Supposedly Coltrane and Dolphy swore by it? I bought a copy. Didn't get very far. Seems like it was missing something. Like some instructions or recommendations on how to practice from it, because as it is, it's pretty dull and dry.
Hey Jay this is an excellent review and summery. Thank you. You very much comforted me about Patterns for Jazz. I got discouraged at some point. Would you be willing to share with us the pattern numbers your teacher at the time and yourself recommend in
this book ? That would be amazing 🤩
After a 18 year hiatus, two books I picked up that have helped are Joe Viola’s Saxophone Scale Studies, and Sigurd Rachers Top Tones. Jerry Bergonzi’s Pentatonics book sounds interesting. Added to my cart.
I really enjoy your content, Jay. What are your thoughts on the Lennie Neihaus Jazz Conception series? I often use Lennie's stuff. I really enjoy his writing.
I stopped reaching out of those books a long time ago. They are missing the element of a recording which I think is essential especially for beginners.
This video should also be a great resource for guitar and piano. Definitely gets a bookmark.
Of the excellent Bergonzi's Inside Improvisation I like Melodic structures best.
Snidero etudes are fine, imho, but the play alongs and esp sax playing on those is not where it's at.
Greg Fishman has a few books with jazz etudes where the rhythm section plays great (Greg plays great as well).
Coker's book is fine for fishing for ideas and gives you the basic building blocks.
It's not a clear and concise way of getting you from 0 to improv hero.
None of the books is, imho.
Omnibook is the jazz bible/koran. An Old Testament (sex, drugs and punishment) if you're a beginner.
Those are some great additions to my birthday list 👍.
6:52 That's good - those "all the riffs in all the keys" books do more harm than good IMO because they encourage dependency on "the dots".
10:23 So true - we all have our own intrinsic sound. Even if we can't hear it ourselves, everyone else can.
Wow you went to the conservatoire! It's now the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, there's still excellent musicians coming out of there every year, I'm sure it still has it's flaws but there's a great student led scene among the "jazzers" here still.
I was a saxophonist 1st and got placed in what was essentially a pretty advanced high school Stage Band while in the 8th grade. This was in the 70s. I started going to the piano to try to begin to figure out music theory. I kept pestering everyone who knew anything to show me chords and progressions on the piano so eventually I just switched to the piano. The piano just felt like the bridge/control room of the ship to me. There's a reason why all the great composers except Maria Schneider and Richard Strauss played piano. I should say I was also using the piano to begin composing.
I know the issues with the Charlie Parker Omnibook, but I still love it. I think it's great because it's fun to play and not that hard if you don't worry about playing at full speed. It really helped keep me engaged when I returned to sax after a 20-year pause. The other book that helped with that was the Real Book. When I switched to tenor it got the Coltrane Omnibook, and that's a different story...
The Dan Haerle Scales for Jazz Improvisation book helped me to understand modes, but it took a lot of work to fill in the blanks before everything finally clicked. Modes are really simple to understand on a basic level, but you need a clear explanation. It's one of those books that takes some understanding for granted, even when teaching some basic concepts.
More recently I bought Yusef Lateef's Repository of Scales and Melodic Patterns, which is insane but very interesting and I think useful for the strange intervals and different scales, though not at all practical.
Thanks for this Jay, really helpful. I've been using the "Patterns" book for a while now - would love to know which of the exercises your teacher circled to focus on?
Really interesting as always. In the UK, a conservatory is usually a mostly glass extension on the back of a house used as a sunroom. And conservatoire sounds classier!
Aha that helps.
To be honest, at this point in my study, I use the Omnibook more as an “advanced etude book”
Jay, thanks a lot for the video. One of my first teachers told me the two most important things to become a good musician are to play in bands and write tunes. 15 years later I think he wasn't totally wrong...
Hi Jay, very informative and straight forward material as usual. Could you please give us a few of the patterns that were circled in your copy of "patterns for jazz"?
Hal crook… maybe the book I could study my entire life !
The Bergonzi book is great! Another perennial. Accompanied by some Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter and later Coltrane solos it opens up your modern playing. And the Berkman book is great as well. I've taught out it as well. May I also offer the Oliver Nelson book Patterns for Improvisation
I was amazed to hear you studied with Chris Gumbley in the UK. I played in a big band with him when he was a student, and we did a few small group gigs as well. Small world!
As a pianist I agree with Snidero, I also recommend Berklee Book of Jazz Harmony
Coker et. al. is on my music stand as I write, and I've gone about halfway through it. I think you make valid points. Do I really need ALL of this, like, this year? Probably not.
Great content, Jay, very informative. I have the Hal Crook book. The Bergonzi and the Jerry Coker books are going on my wish list.
Great jazz method books and i used the Aebersold play alongs alot which was very helpful in my improvisations.
Great video, Jay, thank you so much! I actually own 3 of them and I totally agree with you..
Thanks for watching!
I wonder which music shop in Birmingham you bought it from. There was a good one near the railway station but that closed a longtime ago. I agree with you entirely about the patterns books - for someone trying to teach themselves it is too much information as you can’t sort out what to focus on and I have never managed to make a pattern sound authentic just by reading it. Over the years I’ve bought tons of books and got nowhere and obviously’ I have all the ones you mention. I can’t thank you enough for this review as I can now focus. I just watched a Chad LB video where he talks about using transcriptions and recommends memorising them along with the recording a few bars at a time until you can play the whole solo from memory. Finally I feel I have a route to follow.
I love your insight, and articulation of said insight on all of these things! First of all - yes yes yes buy a copy of the books for all the reasons you said. It can't be understated the value of having a real paper copy of a book to live with. My Omnibook is also torn to shreds and I love that (and yes I agree there is more value in transcribing one chorus of one solo rather than playing out of the Omnibook - I did that too) I can remember where I was with it - on a plane to Interlochen for the summer or at my grandfather's house. I suppose the "kids" these days aren't used to carrying so much stuff around! ugh old man talk here....
As a junior (size on youtube as I believe I am older than you) TH-camr, I love the content, delivery, and production of what you do. Very thoughtful on all fronts!
Thanks, good luck with the TH-cam channel, looks good.
Who knew?! I was in Saxtet with Chris Gumbley!!
small, small world Jamie.
thanks man, really. I'm a bassist and I was reading books and make notatins. I got shapes, ideias, but nothing melodic or usual (good for exercises at last). I got to the point I was playing scales, arpegios, but not the "notes". so when you said 10 pages and/or somes licks can be better to digest and learn than the whole book, you opened my mind for a more minimal approach, not to absorve everything, but what is important and can be aplicated!
ps: this pentatonic book is reealy great!
My friend got me that jazz patterns book from a garage sale for like a buck. It's a first printing and someone has marked some useful stuff in it already. Would recommend.
I learned all of “Patterns for Jazz”, and still couldn’t improvise well, because I never was taught exactly how and what to practice. So, I got great at the book, but sucked otherwise. I STILL don’t know what “doing the work means”.
4:40....yes! In fact whole songs\performances should have a concept of "arrangement" and statement (s) to them!
Thanks for this, Jay. I laughed out loud at your comment, expression and look on your face at 10:15 !
Love the choices. I have a few of the ones mentioned. IMHO, there are NEVER enough music books!
Wow! Proud to see 3 that I’ve perused! All worth a look through again!
Pretty much anything from Sher Music is at least worth reading.
Hey Jay, another great video. I was just wondering if there will ever be a BetterSax Tenor Saxophone
It’s getting close!
@@bettersax Thanks!
Highly recommend both of the Berkmans books and the Snideros etudes. Love them! 👌👍😍😎💯
phrasing and spacing is one of the concepts my jazz director emphasizes a lot. it sounds better and makes it like you know what you're doing.
Thank you for reviewing those books, and for you advice.
I would add Bert Ligon's "Jazz Resources" it's quite similar to Mark Levine "Jazz Theory Book".
Also from Bert Ligon "Connecting Chords with Linear Harmony".
I Believe that intense Listening while Reading the Notes Really does help beginners get some confidence in being able to get the phrasing and transcribing by ear. Just Listen and slow it down if necessary, one note at a time.
Bert Ligon's books are tremendously insightful - lots of information but useful stuff I feel.
Yes yes yes! Bert Ligon's "Connecting Chords with Linear Harmony" is amazing!
My opinion:
•Parker Omnibook: useless. Transcribe them by your own and/or Instead go buy some RealBooks
•Hal Crook: everyone recommends it, nobody I know ever worked throught it. Hence useless too.
•Patterns for Jazz: apart from that there aren't written "Jazz patterns" in this book, it's tremendously exhausting. instead of that study tunes and pick out the chords of the tune and study them in all ways you can.
•Snidero: great player! Great solos! Great phrasing! Recommendable!
•Bergonzi: I love it! For me it was the best approach to pentatonic I could imagine
•David Berkman: didn't know about it yet. Sounds good...
One book missing is Mark Levine's "Jazz Theory Book". IMHO a must have for every Jazz musician!
My all-time favorite book is Jazz Theory by Mark Levine. It's the size of a phonebook, and I'm not sure it reaches your goal of teaching improvisation, but what a book for musicians!
his piano book is also excellent.
Very interesting and informative - thank you. I will be looking at these titles now. I already have Jerry Coker's 'Patterns' which I like a lot. I have found it useful to select one or two patterns only, using a pack of cards to make a random choice, rather than try to choose from so many in any rational way.
One or two guitar players have commented as well. They might find Mick Goodrick's 'The Advancing Guitarist' interesting. (Notation only though, no tab.)
Great advice through and through. Thanks Jay!
John Novello. Contemporary KB but read his how and why and ignore the scientology.
_Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns,_ Nicholas Slonimsky IF it's not there, you can't play it! 😎
Any jazz book that isnt teaching you jazz improvisational theory, is in fact, making you a better sight-reader.
Are you using a jodyjazz mouthpiece playing with the pattern for jazz?
I am a bass player who's best friend is a tenor player. He hipped me to your channel and I love it. Great content. Love the Hal Crook book. Used it a lot as a former trumpet player. I also enjoy "Ready Aim Improvise."
Nice video
Everyone’s looking for a short cut. If you tell them the best way to learn jazz language, their eyes gloss over.
Thank you,Maestro.⭐🌹⭐
Take a melody that's engrained in your mind - say "Happy Birthday." You can hear it clearly in your head - we all can - but can you translate that simple, basic tune you hear in your head to your instrument? Can you start on any random note on your horn and sing "Happy Birthday" thru your instrument? If you can't, no "book" will help you. Only time on the instrument will do that - so stop looking for that magic book and get busy.
Hi Jay, I know your right up on Yanagisawa. What's the 991 Black Alto like please ? Any and all info would be very helpful. Thanks.
Hi Jay, I always follow your publications, so your opinion is important for me. Now I practicing minor relative scale and end up with Coltrane modal jazz, so I had been listening and trying to understand the way he played, do you thing is good idea to buy a book for that? I have some progess but it is getting hard to get his concept. I have to mention that I am an adult, father of two, married and professional so I have to use my time as efficient as possible.
YOu lost me on the first book - when you both criticized it, but admitted you didn't read the key part of it. Back when I was learning jazz, it was not one or the other - trascribe or read transcriptions. It was both.
what do charlie parker, monk, duke, sonny rollins, miles, lionel hampton, clifford brown, etc etc have in common - they didnt learn to play music from books. i am amazed that people do the opposite of what the greatest masters did and think they are making an improvement.
Nobody learns to play music from books. I don't think I've ever met a person that thought that was possible. Everyone knows you need to play, learn from teachers etc. I can guarantee you that each of the great musicians you mentioned studied books not just about music but lots of other topics.
Barry Harris is all youll ever need and more....
i have a book i have written called the jazz work book published by mel bay books and it different than all these other books
“If someone has to explain jazz [improvisation] then you don’t got it “
Wow. That really makes a difference for me. Thx!
I've done the Aebersold thing, including attending workshops two successive years -- one thing to note, which is very obvious, is that jazz in a communal effort, so books only take you so far. Finding a like-minded group to jam with is pretty important.
One major point -- you really only need to buy one patterns book :-). Buying multiple pattern books is a waste of money, in my opinion.
And -- as far as the bebop thing goes -- David Baker, before his passing, was a big part of the Aebersold workshops. His Bebop book series is very interesting. He lists 40 or so "contrafacts", basically bebop melodies, and he suggests learning those melodies and transpose them to new keys. It's "paying dues" for learning the bebop idiom. The Omnibook could be used in this context (learn a melody/solo by ear, transpose it, move onto another).
By the way, my first year at the workshop, Jim Snidero was my ensemble instructor, and then I moved to Denis DiBlasio's ensemble. I think Denis's Bop Shop book, is a great starter book.
Excellent video. Thank you.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️I wish you had included The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine
I’ll talk about that one in a follow up.
Pattern Oliver Nelson e Quartas Ramon Ricker são clássicos livros
Jay, thank you very much for this video. This is the first one I came across that analyzes this very important topic. I would like to know your opinion of older books, widely used like: Patterns of Jazz by Oliver Nelson, Jazz Concption for Saxophone by Lennie Niehaus, How to play bebop by David Baker and also the books by Joseph Viola. The analysis of these books perhaps deserves a new one of your excellent videos. Greetings from Paraguay
Planning on another with more books since this video has been popular.
Thank you Jay. Great information!!
Hi Jay, thanks a lot for this video very interesting. If I want to learn jazz improvisation with my tenor sax, which is the best book for this according to your 6 proposals ?
depends on where you are at. For beginners, the Snidero Easy level books are good, but I would recommend starting with my Pentatonic Foundation and Blues Foundation courses on bettersax.com since they cover the information I wish I learned before jumping into these books.
The beginning of the solo from "Now is the time" is just like a piece of Wardell Gray's "Twisted blues" (or it may be the other way round). Check it out, it is a really well thought out short tune that very few play, filled with gems...
Good catch. That's from 4 years later, so it's definitely a Bird quote!
Your courses are outstanding!!! Thanks for your continued efforts to educate with excellent courses! I have 4 and they are great! Thanks! Dr Rocket 🚀
Thanks for your support!
This is really interesting and a good steer - thank you! I have a lot of music and some etude studies - some from your courses (eg 21 Major key explorations) which I find quite challenging to work through.
Great to hear!