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How To Play
Killer Blues And Rockin Sax Solos
With 7 Notes Or Less

A multi-media course for all intermediate and
advanced saxophonists who want to learn blues
& rock soloing



by Johnny Ferreira


If you want to learn how to solo along with blues, rock and pop music then this is
the course for you!



What People Are Saying About This Course:

" at first I thought that it might be too difficult for me when I
bought the book but boy oh boy am I enjoying this." Marqueritte
Clasquin




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" this training course is perfect for the sax player that wants to
take his playing to a place where they can perform with a band."
Hr Mayers

" his chatty style is a refreshing contrast to the other sax lessons
I have taken. Learning Sax has become fun again with a real
bluesy sax sound coming through almost straight away and
encouraging almost instantly noticeable progress."

after putting in huge amounts of commitment to learning the
Tenor Sax over the last 7 years and buying endless books that
promised the key to the craft, finally the one that lives up to its
promise. S.R Gibb

this is a delight to learn scales and exercises that help promote
improvised playing and understanding how it is done. This is
really fun and challenging. Etch

About the Author
Johnny Ferreira is a professional saxophonist, band leader, composer,
recording artist and saxophone educator who runs several websites
including: www.JohnnyFerreira.com and
www.HowToPlaySaxophone.org, a large membership site which you
can join for free and learn more about playing the saxophone through
videos and communicate with Johnny and other sax players on related
topics within the members forum.

Check www.HowToPlaySaxophone.org for other saxophone articles,
video lessons, and all upcoming courses by Johnny Ferreira
Table of contents

Introduction 5

A Little History 8
Two of the most famous and influential rock & blues saxophonists



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The Blues Scales 12
The three blues scales that are your key for killer solos

The Basic Blues Scale 14
Simple daily exercises to help you really learn these scales

Brown Sugar Sax Solo Revealed 23
A perfect example of the most basic blues scale in action and
sounding great

Let's Break It Down 29
Dissecting and analyzing this classic rock sax solo

7 Licks To Help Your Solo Off To a Good Start Every Time 35
Quick and easy 4 bar licks to learn and use

All Backing Tracks 39
All the backing tracks used for the exercises, solos and licks plus
two bonus tracks

You can order this complete course as a downloadable PDF at
http://howtoplaysaxophone.org/killer-blues-saxophone










Introduction




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All types of saxophones welcome! This is not intended for just alto sax
or tenor sax, all lessons are written out for Bb and Eb saxes. You dont
need to have a lot of musical knowledge because these lessons don't get
too technical, just enough very basic musical theory to understand
simple blues scales that will lay the solid foundation needed for the
soloist you want to become. Even though there is written notation for
all the examples, the primary focus is on listening and playing, and not
so much on reading. In fact, you can do this entire course without
reading a note if you wanted or had to. There is a lot here for you to
learn if you decide to consume it all:

Composition of blues scales and how to use them
Exercises guaranteed to ingrain the notes into your brain
Copy some of my favorite go-to licks
Develop your own style of soloing with play-along tracks
Take your soloing up a notch with a few sax tricks
Learn the sax solo from the classic song "Brown Sugar"


"The Blues are a simple music and I'm a simple man. But the Blues
aren't a science, the Blues can't be broken down like mathematics. The
Blues are a mystery, and mysteries are never as simple as they look!"
-BB King
I once read an interview from a famous musician who said, "If you can't
say it within a range of five notes then it's not worth saying". When you
consider that musician was a jazz player this can sound a bit surprising.

The truth is that most famous songs and even the best known classical
pieces are composed of a melodic idea or "riff" that encompasses a
small group of notes that come in at, or under an interval of a 5th. A
great lick or melody does not have to be complicated, in fact most of
the best ones are very simple consisting of only of a few notes.




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Just think of some well-known melodies and you'll notice that most fall
in this category of being within a 5th, except for the odd jump on
occasion. The classic Chuck Berry guitar riff that helped to put the
guitar in the forefront of rock & roll such as the intro to Johnny B.
Goode and many others of his.

A Blues Lesson From Beethoven?

One of the most recognizable intro riffs is Beethoven's 5th. Of course
the trick, or in this case his genius was how he developed a simple two
note riff. The point is that you can, and should start by implementing a
simple riff within an interval of a 5th, and even as small as a 3rd or
even less to start off with. Hey, thats how Beethoven did it!

Once the theme or main riff is established you can continue to play
around with it and of course expand on it as much, or as little as you
like. This is the beauty and freedom of improvisation.

Just What Are The Blues Anyway?

The blues mean different things to many people ranging from musical
styles to a way of life or philosophy. The blues do have musical
influences from Europe and Africa but it is truly an American musical
form and tradition fully rooted in the black experience of the post-war
southern United States. I want to be clear that when I talk about the
blues or the blues scale I'm not only referring to this type of musical
tradition and style but include all types of rock & roll, funk, R&B,
country, jazz and pop.

Like the old saying goes; The blues had a baby and they named it rock
& roll and from there came just about every form of pop music in
western history since that explosive time in the mid 1900's. So, I think
it's safe to say that the blues scale is easily one of the most used and
important scales for all types of western popular music.




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In these lessons we will focus on the most powerful and useful group of
notes we have available to us in modern western music for playing in
the rock and blues style, and that's the blues scale. From this basic and
very simple scale came not only blues but rock and roll and even jazz
so don't ever overlook it as something that is too simple or not
important enough. I truly believe that it can give you the solid
foundation needed to be the player you want to become, I know it did
for me.

If you're a saxophone player interested in playing any type of blues
based music like rock & roll, swing, funk, R&B, pop, punk and even
jazz then you need to use these blues scales as your main tools to make
things sound right.






























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A Little History

The Blues - To investigate back to the beginnings of the blues as it
came about in America, we start with W.C. Handy, who was a black
composer and musician active in the early 1900's when the blues form
began to get popularized because of his instrumental compositions
"Memphis Blues" (1912) and "St. Louis Blues" (1914). Of course the
blues oral tradition can be traced back to the mid 1800's. W.C. Handy is
credited for taking that raw folk style that was being sung during the
1800's and nationalized and popularized it into the form we have today.
The Saxophone - Although the saxophone had already been invented
in Belgium by Adophe Sax, it had not made its way to America yet at
this time early in the 1900s. Several years later when it did arrive, it
wasnt too long before it became a popular instrument, most notably on
the jazz scene where it became synonymous with that style of music.
As the swingin big band era was losing steam, a new sound was
gaining it. During the 1940s you probably couldnt find a jump blues
or R&B group that didnt feature a sax, and it was usually a tenor that
was front and center. As the forties came to an end, rock & roll was in
full swing, regardless of what and when the DJ Allen Freed said it,
since he announced rock & roll to the world in the mid 50s. There
are rock and roll records from 1948 and 49 that sing about the term
rockin and rollin which at this time was often used as slang for having
sex.

Rock is what the pounding of the piano and the strumming of the
electric guitars were doing and roll was the rolling, almost swinging
feel created by the drummers which together created that groove rock
and roll.




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Important Early Blues and Rock & Roll
Saxophonists Worth Listening to
If youre a jazz fan there are plenty of famous names for saxophonists.
Guys like Coleman Hawkins, Charlie Parker, and John Coltrane were
not only great saxophonists but were innovators of the jazz musical art
form as well.

Although there aren't a lot of really famous blues and rock saxophonists
that are household names recognized by everyone, there are quite a few
that you may, or should know about.

Just prior to the big commercialization of the style called rock and roll,
there was a group of players that were instrumental in the formation of
this style, and some of these were saxophone players, which in those
days were usually the main soloists in the band.

Honkers and screamers as some were called because of the raw, early
rockin style of screaming in the highest possible range of the sax and
then instantly over-blowing the lowest notes, making a honking sound.
Although you dont hear it too much now, in those days it was new and
exciting and was what rock and roll was all about. Personally Ive
always loved this style and it remains a big part of how I approach the
instrument.

Some of the most important early rockers, honkers and screamers were
Joe Houston, Illinois Jacquet, Lee Allen, Red Prysock, Sam the man
Taylor, Arnett Cobb, Earl Bostic, Wild Bill Moore, and Big Jay
McNeely.



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McNeely was probably the wildest and craziest of them all, taking the
honking and screaming aspect of it to the fullest extend possible with
some parts of his solos having nothing but high piercing screams,
interrupted with only a thunderous low honk. It was extreme but he
wanted to make a point.
Earl Bostic, interestingly enough was an alto sax player. His tone was
very close to that of a tenor, and sometimes when listening to him you
think youre hearing a tenor sax instead of an alto. A young alto player
named John Coltrane was asked to join Bostics band and since the
leader Bostic was the alto player, Coltrane was forced to make the
switch to tenor if he was to keep the job, and the rest is history.
Sam the man Taylor had a big beautiful tone which got him on to
many recording sessions of big hit records of the day. Likewise with
Lee Allen, who was also the main sax man for years with two of the
biggest stars of the early rock & roll era; Fats Domino and Little
Richard.
One of the most famous, because he was also a singer and composer
was Louis Jordan.
Louis Jordan - King of the juke box, jump blues, and early rock &
roller. Jordan came on the scene in the late 30's and early 40's when it
was all about the big bands. He quickly found his own voice leading a
small 5 piece combo consisting of himself playing alto sax and singing,
a trumpet, drums, bass, and piano. The guitar wasn't added till much
later in the 50's. when rock and roll was all the rage and hitting the main
stream. Since the sound of the electric guitar was starting to be the focal
point in rock & roll Jordan re-cut many of his earlier hits just to
modernize his sound and cash in on this popular sound.



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Louis Jordan was nick named "the jukebox king" because at one time
he had more hits than anyone else around him. Although adding the
guitar didn't really do much to boost his career in the later 50's, he is
still recognized by many well known artists who have sited him as a
major influence. Such diverse musicians as Van Morrison, Robert
Plant, Ray Charles, BB King, James Brown, and Chuck Berry who
eventually was responsible for solidifying the electric guitar as the lead
instrument in rock and roll, not to mention his clever song writing
abilities.

King Curtis - Born Curtis Ousley in Texas 1934, he grew up listening
to Louis Jordan during his formative young sax playing years. King
Curtis said that alto players Earl Bostic, Louis Jordan, and two fellow
Texan tenors, Illinois Jacquet, and Arnett Cobb were his main
influences on the saxophone. Making his move from Texas to New
York in the early 50's he landed a gig with Lionel Hampton's band.
This was the same band that Illinois Jacquet played with about 10
years earlier. Jacquet of course had rocked the sax world with his
screaming sax solo on Flying Home with this same band. That solo has
been called the birth of modern day rock & roll saxophone soloing by
many music historians.

I can tell you that while learning the sax and spending hours copying
some of these guys solos, you can boil most of it down to what we'll be
studying here, these few simple little blues scales
Check it out at HowToPlaySaxophone.org









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