in one of my recent sax lessons, i was asked to practice going up and down the arpeggios while going up the sax chromatically from low C major up to mid C major through the 12 major scales. I didn’t realise how hard that is to do.
Then to repeat the same exercise going through the cycle of 5ths, starting on low C major.
Hey, sxpoet. I do a similar exercise, but rather than use the 5ths, I cycle through the I,IV,V minor chords in a 12 bar blues format.
That way, I’m effectively playing a tune! with a start and end point, which adds interest for me. I even write the music in the Crescendo music editor, which helps me learn about note values etc.
Hi Andrew – good stuff (I IV V).
My instructor has been teaching me improvisation since January.
The reason for doing the above exercises, is so i can look at any music book
that has the chords and be able to rattle off the arpeggios for the chords.
But it’s a slow process for me – probably due to my age.
.
