Practising Grade 1 Scales, Dorian on G, Mixolydian on D, C Major, F Major and Minor Pentatonic on A. Argpeggios, Gmajor Dminor, 30mins

Playing Las Vegas Tango, 15mins

Learning ‘Knowbody knows the trouble ive seen’ and ‘Sonnymoon for two. 30mins

Practising improvisation and solos in Keys Cmajor, Fmajor and Gmajor - 30min

Total time 1hr:45 min

Today I practised everything I have learned previously and since Jazz sax is mostly improvisation all of the tunes have breaks for your own solos in a certain key. So I have started practicing improvisations and soloing in Cmajor, Fmajor and Gmajor. In my next 2 Blogs I will record the 2 songs and also record myself improvising in certain keys.

Mixolydian on D scale and Dminor Arpeggio and Las Vagas tango (click here to listen)

Practising Grade 1 Scales and Arpeggios, 20mins
Leaning and recording Mixolydian on D scale and Dminor Arpeggio. 40mins
Practising and recording Las Vegas Tango 45min
Started to Learning Sonnymoon for two 20min
Total time 2hr 05min.
After Practising for a while and learning Las Vegas tango i realised i can now play low D, this could be because of my breathing excersizes or simply because im progressing. I can now play all of the grade one scales and Arpeggios. I have also started Learning Sonnymoon for 2, whch i hope to record by the end of next week.

1st Tune, Las vegas tango

Blog For Saturday the 13th, my internet was down so i couldnt write the blog.
Practicing grade one scales and arpeggios- 20mins
Learning Las Vegas Tango 1hr
Total time- 1hr20 min.
I am aiming to learn at least 1 tune a week from the Grade one Jazz Sax book. Today i learnt Las Vegas Tango from the score, by listening to the included cd and playing by ear. I Have learnt the tune but not perfected the playing. For every practice i will also run through all the Scales, arpeggios and tunes i have learned befor i try anything new.

Breathing Exercises

Researching breathing exersises- 30min
Practising exersises- 20min
Learning G major Arpeggio and practicing all Grade one scales- 30min
Total time- 1hr 20min
I researched beathing exersises online becasue, as i mentioned in the previous post, i was getting out out breath quite quickly, i have found some exersises that i can do with or without the saxaphone which will help me control my breathing and build my diaphragm.
I also learned The Gmajor arpeggio and practises my grade one scales.
Another problem i have encountered is that i cannot hit low D on my sax, it just jumps stright to the octave above, i dont know if if is me or my sax which is causing this so i will have to do some research into that or even take my sax into a music shop to be looed at.
From my next practise i will start to learn the grade one tunes.

Grade 1 Scales (click to play)

Click on the Title above to hear me practising Dorian on G, C Major, F Major and Minor Pentatonic on A

Practising Dorian on G, C Major, F Major and Minor Pentatonic on A. 1 Hr.

Today i practised the grade 1 Scales i learnt in my lst practise, i played them to a metronome at 80bpm.
I found it hard to regulate my breathing and was getting out of breath quite quickly, duing my next practise i will research and practise breathing techniques, re-practise the grade one scales and learn the grade 1 Arpeggios.

First Practice, notation and Grade 1 scales.

Learning basic notes, A-G and sharps and flats and drawing diagrams of each notes and how it corresponds to finger pssitions on sax. 1hr

Practising Notes and scales 45min

Total time for 03/12/08 1hr45min

I used a beginners guide book on sax to learn the basic notes and co
pied the diagrams out in my own way to correspond them to finger possitions. I also wrote the notes under the scales in my jazz books until i can sight read.

I can now play scales Dorian on G, Mixolydian on D and C major from memory.

Garage Band recording (click to play)

Practicing Sax, recording into garageband and adding backing track - 1hr 20mins

Working out how to add links to audio files through blogger converting audio files and subscribing to Box.net. - 1hr

total duration for Monday 1st Dec 08- 2hrs20min

My Saxaphone is a Prelude by Conn-selmer (bottom-left), not the highest quality sax but a good starting point. I will be working through the 2 Books shown in the pictures (left).

I have decided to record all my progression using photographs and by recording onto 'Garage band' As shown in the pic (second to bottom).
Using the Garage band program i can add a click track, drums and even other instrument samples to help me practice improvisation or just to record my set tunes from the work books. Click on the title of this blog to hear a recording i made into garage band today.

Complementary Studies Proposal

My Proposal is to teach myself saxophone. I will work my way through "Jazz Alto Sax" grade books for arpeggios and tunes starting from grade 1. My final goal is to play sax at an open mic night in town. I will be using pictures and sound recordings using garage band to document my progression.
My current level of ability is only being able to play basic notes and work out simple tunes by ear, as of yet I do not know any scales or arpeggios and I have a very limited ability at reading music.
I plan to post 3 blog’s a week documenting at least 3 hours of practising time with at least one sound recording of this. For the first month of practice I will be mainly learning how to read music, and play some basic scales and arpeggios. The Following months I will be learning the grade one tunes, scales and arpeggios. A more structured schedule will be implemented after I gauge my progression in the first month and realise my ability.