Hi Johnny,
No sax for two weeks, so took up reading again.
Then i realised it could be useful to have a forum, that just
talks about or querries peoples experiences with various music books on sale and what they are getting when they buy them, or to stuff they dont understand in them.
Could be useful for anyone wanting more info of whats in the book, without slandering the book.

So ex, i’ve recently bought Aebersold Vol 1, and this gives a small idea of whats in the book.

For someone new to music theory, this book can be a scary, however you can get into playing stuff in it, if you follow the learning steps in the order it describes.
Then you realise you can step back from the theory and get on with practicing,
as the main idea is more about playing from memory and not just staring at a sheet while playing.

1 – Learn the 12 Major Scales, 12 Minor Scales ‘Dorian’ and the 12 Dominant 7 Scales ‘Mixolydian’ from the 1st up to the 9th note.
The Minor ‘Dorian’ scale has the same notes as the Major Scale whose 2nd note is the same as the Root of the Dorian Scale (ex notes in Bb Major = notes in C Minor ‘Dorian’, Playing wise it can be faster to just think you are playing in Bb major.
The Dominant 7 ‘Mixolydian’ Scale has the same notes as the Major Scale whose 5th note is the same as the Root note of the Mixolydian Scale (ex notes in F Major = notes in C Dominant 7 ‘Mixolydian’),
Playing wise it can be faster to just think you are playing in F major.

2 – Learn the terminology used for abbreviating Chords and Scales, so you can recognise in music sheets, what Chord/Scales they stand for.
ex C = C major chord, C7= Dominant 7th Chord ‘Mixolydian’, C- = C Minor 7th Chord ‘Dorian’ etc

3 – This book then gives you 8 exercises to play, so that you can master all 36 Scales.
By the end of the 8 exercises (learn a scale a Month?) you should be able to play up to the 9th note, and be familiar with all the odd numbered notes (ie 3, 7 or 9th chords) etc.

4 – It then has a backing track to play 20 examples, which can be played in Concert C, Eb and Bb instruments. So for the Altos, the 20 examples are just use the same three D Minor Dorian, C Minor Dorian and B Minor Dorian scales.

5 – tracks 2 to 11, are for practicing specific chord scales, which implies you should be familiar in all 36 scales, rather than a few of them. Track 12 gives verbal instructions, and tracks 13 to 17 demo the 20 examples in step 4.

Browsing further through this great book, theres lots of theory references about scales, chords, and lots of tips on practicing from how to learn a tune, improvising, to lists of songs to listen to.

I like this book, as it’s got a lot of useful reference stuff to come back to over the years,
the 8 exercises in step 3 for learning any scale is very thorough and useful for a student. The sheet music for tracks 2 to 11 is great for doing improvisation of various types (look in the book for more details, to see if it is relevant to what you need).
Also if you have other Aebersold books, getting this book will make you more familiar with the style of the other books – there are references in this book, to other books, that go more in depth to certain topics. ex if you want to practice in Major Minor keys, then get vol 24 etc..

In the three years of playing, this is a book that i kept putting off buying as i thought it was too difficult to grasp just by glancing at it in the shop, but when took it home and started reading it, a lot of light bulbs came on – oh i know that, i’ve done before, oh thats why they do that.

Obviously i can’t cover the whole book, but there is stuff of use to me.
If anyone else has or uses this book, it would be interesting to hear what they have found it useful for, or if there is a section they don’t understand.

cheers
sxpoet