This course is made up of the improv sections in the Intermediate: part 1 & 2 Pathways. For the best results, I strongly suggest that you work your way through those Pathways. However, if you are looking for a course dedicated to teaching you how to improvise… this is it!
When it comes to learning how to improvise, there are two very specific sets of skills that you need to work on. The first is learning how to read chord symbols, and the second is learning how to make things up from scratch. Throughout this course, we will learn both of these skills and use the improv setlist to learn how to put them into practice.
At the end of this course you will be able to:
- Recognize chord symbols
- Understand how chords work together
- Improvise over a major 7th chord
- Improvise over a dominant 7th chord
- Improvise over a minor 7th chord
- Improvise over a 1/2 diminished chord
- Improvise over altered chords
- Figure out tonal centers
- Weave your way through chords
- Recognize & improvise over major 2, 5, 1s
- Recognize & improvise over minor 2, 5, 1s
- Have a basic understanding of voice leading
- Express yourself musically through an improvised solo
This is an intermediate level course. Before starting this course, It is very important that you are really comfortable ad libbing on melodies, are able to play your major scales, and have been studying the Chop Shop technique series. All of the material covered in this course will be taught at an intermediate level with the assumption that you already have a strong foundation of the basic saxophone skills covered in the earlier Pathways.
Prerequisite – You should take the ad lib course before starting this course
