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You are here: Home / Jazz Lessons / Ear Training / Developing Relative Pitch-Hearing the Key
Developing Relative Pitch-Hearing the Key

Developing Relative Pitch-Hearing the Key

$9.99

SKU: 106 Category: Ear Training Tags: ear training, hearing, intervals, jazz improvisation, video lesson
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Description

Learning to play by ear is one of the most important aspects to jazz improvisation.  When I was a young student in junior high school, I was taught from a few great method books.  The main books I worked out of were the Charlie Parker Omnibook and Patterns for Jazz by Jerry Coker.   For  a couple of years all I did was work out of these books but there was a missing ingredient………………I wasn’t learning to play by ear!  Everything I learned was from a book.  Luckily, during this time, I discovered the local library.  I would go there every Saturday and checkout a bunch of jazz albums.  I would go home and listen to them in awe of what I was hearing.  I wanted to play like that!  Somehow  my books didn’t seem like they were taking me there.  There was one album specifically that was a breakthrough for me.  It was Dave Sanborn’s album “Voyeur”.  I got it home and put it on and was amazed.  I had never heard an alto saxophone sound so cool and funky.  I remember taking my sax out and trying to play with the recording.  I must have played to that album at least 1000 times in that week.

The big moment came when I discovered that the notes that fit the song I was playing over fit a blues scale that my teacher had given me. (even though it was 30 years ago, I can still remember that it was the C# blues scale)   It was like a light bulb went off in my head.  I soon discovered that there was a blues scale that fit every song on that album.  I also realized that Dave Sanborn was mostly playing notes from that blues scale.  As I played more and more to music, I realized that this held true to most songs I heard.  Of course, many of the jazz albums had harder changes than a blues scale would fit but the other 90% of music I heard was perfect for the blues scale.

It was during this time,that I learned how to hear what key a song was in.  I was playing by ear.  I didn’t realize it then, and didn’t know if songs were major or minor.  All I realized was that for each song, there was a blues scale that fit the best.  Later in my development, I learned about major,minor and dominant tonalities.  Thanks to my early work with those blues scales it was easy for me to figure out those sounds and keys when I played with a song.

It was also during this time that I developed a blues scale vocabulary.  Practicing a scale from a page of music will only get you so far.  Hearing the blues scale played by a legend and copying that legends best ideas is a totally different learning experience.  You are learning from that persons learning.  All the years they have spent studying and perfecting their playing  is summed up in the choices they make on  that album.  When you copy their best ideas then you are learning from there learning…………much better than starting from scratch!

In this lesson on relative pitch, I take what we’ve worked on so far and apply it to figuring out the keys of a tune.  I demonstrate how to use your saxophone to figure out what key the song is in and give you many helpful hints. I take you through how you can use the Aebersold play alongs to practice this skill, hear the key of a song, play by ear and also to test yourself.  I take you through  many major and minor tonalities and show you how to start working on hearing the key yourself.  Hearing the key of a song is a fundamental building block to playing by ear.  Playing by ear, is of course what jazz improvisation is all about………..Enjoy! (29 Minute Video & Audio)

 

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Lesson Sample

https://public.neffmusic.com/Developing%20Relative%20Pitch-Hearing%20the%20Key%20clip.mp4

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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 (… Read more
Wil

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?1… Read more

Claude

Never really had lessons before just kinda worked things out on my own. Was in a rut but your lessons are really helpful in opening melodic possibilities. Ur an awesome resource to the saxophone community. Thanks for sharing. 

Anthony
I want to let you know that your instructional material is transforming my playing.  It is an immense pleasure to learn and play now, and I can’t tell you how grateful I am. The instructional material I got from you is by far the best of any I own (and I have over 100 books, DVDs, and what not). I literally can’t thank you enough! Deric
Deric
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 sit… Read more
I will be recommending your site to others!
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.
Milton
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
Michael Byington

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.  

Jean-Eric
For anyone living in remote areas away from live jazz sax teachers, Neff is the way to go. In fact this is a great resource for anyone seriously interested in mastering the sax. I’ve never been disappointed in a lesson.
Oliver
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 … Read more
Pete

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