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<\/p>\nHere is a short two chorus transcription of the young tenor saxophonist Adam Larson playing a tenor saxophone solo over a blues progression that I saw on Instagram the other day.\u00a0 Adam is mostly just using chord tones on this tenor sax solo with a few tritone substitutions here and there.\u00a0 It is not overly complicated but Adam makes it interesting with his choice of intervals and anticipations of chords. I always tell my students that they should be able to play a pretty good improvised sax solo with just chord tones and this is a great example for them to check out (hint, hint).<\/p>\n
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Adam Larson-Tenor Saxophone<\/strong><\/p>\n The most important element of playing a saxophone solo like this is the connections of the melodic ideas and lines across the barlines. Most students have trouble making smooth connections over the barlines where the chords change because they are not anticipating the next chord nor able to readily recall the chord in order to choose where to direct the line.\u00a0 Getting great at just soloing with chord tones and then expanding and deepening your solos by adding extensions and other concepts is a great way to progress in your improvisational solos.\u00a0 Check out the great example by Adam Larson below (another hint)\u00a0 and see if you can play as interesting of a sax solo as he does on a 12 bar blues.\u00a0 Now, during this pandemic, while we are all quarantined at home, is the perfect time to get your saxophone out and work on it!<\/p>\n If you want to check out more from Adam Larson, you can find out more about him here on his website<\/a>.\u00a0 \u00a0He has a great bio<\/a> there that compares him to Mark Turner and Donny McCaslin which is super impressive all by itself.\u00a0 He has also released five albums to date that you should check out. You can also find Adam on his Adam Larson Instagram page<\/a>\u00a0 as well as on his Twitter page<\/a>.\u00a0 \u00a0Thanks for the great tenor saxophone blues solo Adam!!<\/p>\n