I'll put these two together as they focus on similar stuff - ideas/exercises/drills for improvising musicians to work on together as a group (rather than focus on individual practice like so many other resources on the market). John Stevens: Search and Reflect - A Music Workshop Handbook Tom Hall: Free Improvisation - A Practical Guide Even for non-saxophonists there is a lot of valuable information. There's a lot of information - technical and improvisation exercises/concepts - in this book for ALL saxophonists (regardless of the title). Steve Lacy: Findings - My Experience with the Soprano Saxophone. None of this books alone will teach you to become good at improvisation but each one can give you an idea to work on this or that topic you maybe have not thought about yet. It always depends on the view, what you want to learn and how good your abilities in improvising already are.įrom the books you mentioned i did like the most the books of Walt Weiskopf, Bergonzi and David Baker as also the Parker Omnibook (although there are some mistakes in it). But a more experienced player maybe could find something for example in the augmented scale from Weiskopf. A Beginner will learn more about improvisation from Hal Crooks How to improvise than from Expansions. I would call none of these books "the most influential or effective". Some books would be better to someone with more experience than a beginner. I think for a beginner the books of Bert Ligon, David Baker, Jerry Coker, some of the Bergonzi books and the 2 books from Hal Crook as several others are not bad but the question is: what is it what you want to achieve from a book? Some deal more with techniques, others with mainly one specific topic etc. Especially beginners will not know for example how to get something out of the Slonimsky. Some of them are better, some are not that good, others are more for an experienced player. I have every one of them and i think that in many of them there are always one or two interesting things you can learn from them but are they necessary or essential? No. The web page has links to several excerpts.Click to expand.I think you can become a great player without owning a single book of these. The 100-page book is available as a print book, $25, and an ebook, $12.99, from Bee Boy Press in Boston. Although the book is meant for ensembles, the last chapter offers several solo exercises. The book feels careful, gentle, and methodical as it encourages listening and cooperation.Ĭhapters include Advanced Groove Exercises, Textures, Creating Space–Playing Silence, and Groups Within the Group. Many of the exercises have several steps with suggestions for building a musical structure and letting it settle or evolve. I love the spiritual and meditative quality he invokes. His book covers a beautiful philosophy of improvisation and continues with exercises for groups of sound-makers to learn to relate to one another. Tom Hall is an improvising saxophonist and teacher at Brandeis in Massachusetts. Free Improvisation: A Practical Guide by Tom Hall Read more of Jeff’s creative ideas, course material, and resources in his Improv Insights blog. At GIA, you’ll find other books that offer subsets of his “big” book, for duos and 3 or more. The One Player games are $15.95 from GIA Music. He recommends that musicians carry this with them and improvise at every opportunity. Improv Games for One Player by Jeffrey Agrellġ5 chapters and 49 pages, and 50% overlap with Agrell’s big book, listed above. The book is $40.95 from the publisher GIA Music. These may be “games” but when you start playing, you’ll be exercising all the skills any musician has to practice - scales, phrasing, ear-training, music theory. If you are leading a workshop or a regularly scheduled class, you’ll find plenty of ideas for your lesson plans. But, you just need to dip your toe in the pond, pick a game and try it. His comprehensive book of games may seem overwhelming at first. Jeff Agrell teaches horn at the University of Iowa. It was musician’s gold! The games offered me techniques for working with with fellow musicians who were reluctant to improvise. I got this book right after a horn player’s workshop with Jeff. The subtitle offers “500+ Non-jazz Games for Performers, Educators, and Everyone Else”. If you’re interested in improv and you like to read as well as play the music, like me, check out these improvisation guide books: Improvisation Games for Classical Musicians by Jeffrey Agrellģ6 chapters and more than 350 pages, including an extensive list of resources, techniques, and an index.
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