Exploring Jazz Saxophone: Part 2 - Soloing on Songs and Chord Sequences
CourseAlto SaxophoneJazzIntermediate
Part ofAlto Saxophone

Exploring Jazz Saxophone: Part 2 - Soloing on Songs and Chord Sequences

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Duration1h 47m
Modules47
LevelIntermediate
LanguageEnglish

Lesson Plan (1h 47m)

About this course

Ollie Weston is a saxophonist and educator who has played live and in the studio with artists as varied as Amy Winehouse, Tim Minchin, Bonobo, Frank Turner and the London Jazz Orchestra. This is the second course based on his best-selling book Exploring Jazz Saxophone, published by Schott Music. Here Ollie helps advancing players solo over harder progressions and richer harmony, working through classic standards from the Great American Songbook. Recorded at the 606 Jazz Club in Chelsea, the course opens with the major and minor II-V-I and shows you how to handle it both harmonically and melodically, with plenty of exercises and practice songs to make it your own. From there Ollie moves into standards in different styles, the language of bebop, and how to build lines in the tradition of Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley. The course includes a PDF of the Schott Music book, 9 practice songs, interactive sheet music you can slow down and loop, and play-along backing tracks recorded with a live band.

Who it's for

  • Intermediate jazz players ready for richer harmony
  • Returning saxophonists rebuilding their improvisation toolkit
  • Self-taught players who want fluency over standards

What you'll learn

  • Solo confidently over major and minor II-V-I changes
  • Play bebop lines in the style of Parker and Coltrane
  • Improvise through full standards with backing tracks

What you'll need

  • An alto or tenor saxophone in working order
  • Comfort reading sheet music and basic chord symbols
  • A few minutes most days, regularity matters more than length

Meet the Guru

Ollie Weston

Ollie Weston

Since graduating from the Leeds College of Music (BA Hons) and the Guildhall School of Music (Post Graduate Diploma in Performance), Ollie has built a busy and varied career in music. As a saxophonist he has performed in live and studio settings with artists as diverse as Amy Winehouse, Tim Minchin, Bonobo, Frank Turner, the London Jazz Orchestra, the Hackney Colliery Band, the Ambient Jazz Ensemble and the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. He is also the co-leader of the jazz quartet 'Time Is Of The Essence', and composes and arranges material for this and other ensembles.

Ollie is active in music education, currently as course leader for the jazz department at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (junior school), where he runs jazz ensembles, big band and theory classes. He has written a series of 'Exploring Jazz' books for Schott Music that are published worldwide and feature on exam syllabuses in the UK. Ollie has also run workshops for Oxford University, Pro Corda Strings and BABSWE, as well as the Guildhall School of Music summer schools.

In his Exploring Jazz Saxophone courses, Ollie takes you from getting started right through to soloing confidently over songs and chord sequences, building the improvising skills that put a real jazz player's vocabulary at your fingertips.

Published with

Schott Music

Founded by Bernhard Schott in Mainz in 1770, Schott Music is one of Europe's oldest and largest music publishers, with a catalogue of more than 30,000 titles. Over its 250-year history Schott has issued first editions of Mozart, Beethoven and Wagner, championed 20th-century voices from Hindemith and Schoenberg to Ligeti and Henze, and today publishes sheet music, books and educational materials from offices in Mainz, London, New York, Tokyo and beyond.
Schott Music

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