Mr. Neff, I want to thank you for sharing your God-given talents through your on-line lessons. My husband, Michael, is blind, but he is a great sax player and he has been enjoying your lessons for quite some time now. It’s not unusual for me to hear “Hey, babe, listen to THIS!” – and he will cut loose on his sax, just thrilled at what he learned during his session with you. His excitement warms my heart! You have no idea how much you have poured into my husband. You have opened musical doors for him, and I am very grateful. He has always had a love for music, but his confidence with and expression through his horn have greatly improved since his lessons with you. I pray God’s continued blessings on you in all areas of your life. Thank you for impacting others! ~~Carole B
I am a music book junkie and I have to say that your books are the most clear, user friendly, and helpful books I own. They are my absolute favorites and I only wish I had them years ago. I wouldn’t change a thing about the experience I had in acquiring my degree at Berklee, but my playing has perhaps grown more in the time I’ve spent buried in your books and lessons. Keep up the great work!!!
Thanks,
John
Hi Steve, I can’t express just how much I appreciate your teaching. My playing has improved so much over the past year since I have been studying and practicing with your lessons. It is possible to teach an old dog new tricks, these lessons are proof! Thanks, Michael Byington
Your major diatonic patterns book is great. I”m studying the first twenty patterns (first twenty pages) each day with different articulation each day and slowly increasing the tempo each week or so. There is a noticeable improvement in finger coordination across all keys and its amazing how much more secure I feel on the difficult keys when attempting to play pieces with 5+ flats/sharps. I’m able to sort out the fingerings for these pieces now much more quickly than before, often in one or two sittings when in the past I would have been lost until I did a significant amount of slow practice on the piece.
Your going to do really well with this book. Keep up the good work. And the idea of putting patterns into single key also great. Thanks, Geoff
Thank you for the wealth of helpful lessons you’ve provided over the years. I truly feel as though it has improved my playing more than the 4 years I spent at Berklee… and that’s not a slight on the school as I loved my experience there.John
Hi Steve,
I have been shedding your materials for quite a while now and I love them! They are extremely well organized and presented and there are tons of ’em! I really appreciate your methodical approach and find myself referring students to your resources often. Thanks so much!
I’ve been downloading your lessons for 4 months now (20 lesson) and I have noticed tremendous growth in my playing thus far! I’m so happy that I stumbled upon your site!
I want to say something about Steve Neff’s series of lessons, Beginner Jazz Improvisation. For a couple of years I tried many beginner lessons and my problem was that there was a gap between lessons that were fairly simple and ones that I was not quite ready for and my progress stalled out. That problem was solved with the series Beginner Jazz Improvisation. He guides you step by step along the way and builds a foundation for learning jazz and blues. He leaves no question about what to practice and focus on and the material is very interesting. I think this is the best teaching series available and he continues to add more lessons to the series. I can’t thank him enough for it. May he go on for ever! Pete
I am enjoying your style of teaching, and you’ve done a great job with the videos….good sound quality and well constructed lessons. Balances the more guitaristic material found on the majority of guitar based programs. Jazz vocab is what I’m all about at this point in the journey. I especially dig the fact that you’ve studied with Bergonzi…helps me see his voluminous output in a more bite sized way.
Your lessons on playing the blues is so clear . I have been through many books on blues playing and not one of them explains as clear as your lessons . Most of them say “Play the same blues scale over all three chords of a 12 bar blues ” Its very misleading . Thanks
Just a brief note to compliment you on your teaching skills and in particular for the honesty of your lessons. I am a returning alto sax player in my 50’s and I was looking for a no nonsense, straight to the point kind of guidance. I had intended to email you with a few questions regarding the use of the bis key but then I noticed that there was a lesson on that specific topic and after viewing it, all my questions were answered.
I once took a group lesson with a well known professional sax player in London when I worked there. He was a great sax player but his teaching skills were so bad that the other students and I had to revert to teaching ourselves and exchanging information, knowledge and ideas. In fact, we had booked a total of 10 lessons with him and he was so bad that he didn’t even show up for half of them.
So I would like to compliment you on your knowledge and teaching skills and in particular for the honesty in which you impart that knowledge.
You will be pleased to know that I now have purchased all your books and that I have signed up for a 1 year subscription.
All I need now is the time to put all this knowledge and information to good use.
Well done to you Steve.
Best regards
Patrick (Dublin, Ireland)
Hello Steve,
I have not received my alto yet but have already gone through 14 lessons. I love your approach, style, knowledge and competence. I now regret so much to have stayed away from playing the sax for the past 45-50 years…(I am 65). But It is never too late to get back to your first love. After 23 years in compuer sciences and 22 years in finances…I am now back to music for the rest of my life.
Doing some research on the net, I found this:
http://forum.saxontheweb.net/showthread.php?154873-Steve-Neff-s-music-books-the-missing-link
I can now say that I am very glad I found your site.
I don’t know how long it will take me to go through most of your lessons, but I have the feeling it will go fast.
Thanks for building NeffMusic.com
A la prochaine!
Claude
I just started looking at my lessons and I have to say, dude you are awesome. I ABSOLUTELY will learn from you! I started the tenor about 1 ½ yrs ago and have since picked up an alto, and more recently a soprano. I spend most of the time on the tenor, followed by soprano, and have only gotten to the alto a few times. I think I’ll be sticking with tenor. I’m having a great time and hope one day to play well enough to get regular gigs. I’ve been playing keys for about 35 years (gospel), and so I’m following you perfectly with the theory and stuff. Just awesome. Keep up the great work.
After reading your story I will never feel quite right about complaining about any of my MINOR health issues!! God bless Steve and I really hope that your health doesn’t stop you from fulfilling your calling. These books have been such a help to open up my jazz vocabulary… Thanks so much for sharing your story and for providing these great teaching tools… John Leclerc Saxophonist / composer/ EWI player and professional working musician of 35 years….
Steve’s monthly lessons are entirely valuable. Without brow beating, he tells you all the stuff you deep down know you really should be working on, instead of just relying on the same old patterns. In spite of the fact that you’re taking a video lesson, Steve’s presentation is comfortable and “real”. In a little more than a year, he’s developed a library of lessons that seem to offer any player a lifetime’s worth of practice material. I’m just glad I stumbled upon it.
By the way, BIG COMPLIMENTS to you, Steve!
Not only are you a great player, you are also a great teacher!I, too, am a woodwinds player/teacher. I have new inspiration to play and teach because of you.
The concepts and “thinking” is similar to what I already learned in College,
but hearing you explain and PLAY the concepts REALLY MAKES THE DIFFERENCE!Also, your written patterns are more interesting than other books I have seen!
Keep up the good work.
I will be recommending your site to others!
Just wanted to send you a quick note to say thank you for being you, your playing, your website and your desire to help others. I’m a professional musician in the US Army and I’ve visited your website almost every day since discovering it a couple of months ago. Your lessons are profound and easy to use. I’ve purchased most of your PDF books and now am starting to delve more into the video and audio lessons. Thank you for being a great resource!
Love your lessons! I have been using your lesson packages for many months now, and am learning a lot. It is so perfect for me with a very busy adult schedule and difficulty in taking jazz/improv music lessons from reputable instructors who live and hour or more away from me.
I have NEVER seen material like yours. Amazing!!
Thank You Steve. I think that I will be busy for years. Thank You for your great contribution to jazz music. Your books, more than teaching “how to play jazz”, actually teach “how to speak jazz”. I wish I found your methods years ago.
It is so refreshing to have a great player, who can provide lessons and examples in a manner which is understandable to most any enthusiastic saxophonist who is ready to improve. not just the, do this, do that, memorize this, memorize that… while all that is absolutely necessary, you go on to give reasons and examples to explain and validate why you have to do all of these things, the benefits, if you will… that is the key for me, you tell, explain, demonstrate, explain some more, you give personal experience and stories, it all comes together, a complete picture. so many “self-proclaimed ” saxophone teachers believe because they are a professional player, they are automatically a teacher, absolutely not the case. you must have the ability to transfer what you know, and most importantly, in my mind, the DESIRE to teach, and the need to know that your instruction is getting through, the constant search for more and better ways to deliver the instruction. the PASSION to teach. YOU have all these qualities, that is why i am a Neffaholic 🙂
I want to thank you again, because, not only are you an inspiration to listen to, you are a fine teacher!
I have been teaching sax and other winds for over 20 years, and you give me that “push” to give my students more!
Mark Peotter
I just joined Neff Music last month. I can’t tell you how excited I’ve been to be able to pick back up on lessons. I’ve been in a rut and you got me out! I’ve especially appreciated the Lesson Path section. It was so clear I knew exactly where to jump in and start. Many many thanks!
I’ve been a member of Steve’s site for about six months now and the difference it has made to my playing is immeasurable. The (many) benefits of this membership are that you can have lessons at time convenient to you, they work out A LOT cheaper than face-to-face lessons with a teacher of the same calibre and you can replay them ad infinitum. I don’t know how many times have I had lessons in the past where I’ve ended up covering the same concepts when really a ‘replay’ of the last lesson would have been fine! I’m not on commission here – just wanted to write a review to encourage people to do this. Without doubt the most time and cost effective investment I’ve made in taking my playing to where it should be…Cheers Steve.
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