I have recently bought a Soprano Sax and thought I might explore jazz this summer. I am a classical musician by background although have had one jazz session.

Can anyone recommend any books that outline the basics? I will get a teacher if I get into it but wanted to start somewhere first. I have looked at the AB book but am not sure if this is a bit advanced for me.

What sort of jazz do you like to listen to? CDs (and other recording formats) tend to be a better place to start with jazz than books.

Not sure is the honest and rather unhelpful answer! I am not very good at playing by ear or improvising generally so was looking for something basic that I could start from. The one session I did mentioned using the notes of chords to base the improvisation on, so I was looking for something like that as a starting point.

Apologies for not having a clearer idea!

Completely unhelpful answer (and not sax) but this guy could probably give you some inspiration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMBHkntOMtk

From the people I know who play jazz at a sort of reasonable amateur level there tends to be one of two ways into it. Either it's something you're introduced to by a teacher in a one-to-one or group situation and then you continue being guided through the process. Or, it comes out of a deep passion for the music a desire to play "like Charlie Parker" and copying and transcribing from CDs (or vinyl, given the age of some of them!). As a horn player you need to start playing with other people as soon as possible (in fact it's only really pianists who can get away with not for very long). Backing tracks are great practice tools used the right way, but they're no substitute for real people.

My route in was one-to-one lessons until I felt brave enough to join a group class, then various summer schools and jam sessions. I've also been doing a lot of listening to both recorded and live jazz along the way - a real necessity if you want to start sounding "proper".

I'd recommend finding a class if you can. My daughter got into much of her music making as a result of being inspired by a saxophonist at Cheltenham Jazz Festival at age about 6. Several years and several instruments on, however, and still not having started sax, she found herself terrified at the prospect of playing without the dots. She just completed a term of Saturday morning jazz workshops (playing clarinet), and to my amazement (and hers) played several improvised solos at the end of term concert. She still has to work on looking as though she enjoys it though!

Having dismissed saxophone, in favour of clarinet, for the last 4 years she is now feeling confident enough to return to plan A and she will have an alto sax for her birthday later this month.

We had tried buying various books - jazz scales, introduction to improvisation, etc., but nothing beats a sympathetic teacher and other people to play with. Good luck!

I agree entirely with this. I'm glad your daughter's enjoying improvisation Halka, once you get over the initial fear it's fantastic.

I'm not sure I'm the best person to answer this, since I'm only just a beginner on improvisation myself, but based on my very limited experience, it can be helpful to get familiar with the basics of jazz chord notation first, and then practise arpeggios of the chord sequence that you are going to be improvising over. (I found a Wikipedia article on chord notation that helped demystify it for me, but I'm sure there are probably books out there which would do the same thing.) After a while, you start getting a feel for what notes will sound best, and then you can start playing around with how you combine them.

My teacher has suggested learning by heart some very basic riffs based on the arpeggios, so that I can fall back on those when inspiration fails to strike. This seems to work provided that I remember that they are just a back-up / framework, rather than being a pre-prepared solo, which rather misses the point Another practising tip he has given me is putting together a basic rhythm for the solo, which then means that I'm only having to select the pitches.

Frankly, though, nothing beats volume of practice. I'm having to make do with CD backing tracks except in lessons (though I agree with TSax that live accompaniment is better), and if I'm having problems, I tend to set the "solo" section of the track on repeat and just keep trying out different things until I relax into it and find something which sounds good. Sorry if that's not very scientific

Thanks for all your replies they are very helpful. I did try one jazz class and found out about the various scales and the notes of the chord improvisation should be based on. I was just looking for something to experiment with over the summer but agree that playing with others be it a teacher or a group is the best way forward.

I have not explored jazz to the extent of knowing specific players and thinking about who I would like to emulate but was interested in it as something different to my usual playing of following the dots.

There is a series of books called 'By Special Arrangement'. They are very good playalong books where the tunes are based on the traditional Head-Solo-Head form, but unlike a lot of books on the market, the written solos are very authentic with lots jazz vocabulary used to good effect. The chord changes are over the top so you can improvise your own solo if desired. The CD has a demo and minus one track too.

Check 'em out here:

http://www.musicroom.com/Search/gsearch.as...gement+clarinet

They don't do them specifically for Sop, but the clarinet books would be just as good.