Studies tenor saxophone beginners book

[johnyp]

hi all ive had my tenor saxophone for nearly a year now and since then i have bought the 'a tune a day' book which was great to start off with but soon got boring then i bought the famous 'the jazz method' tuition book by john o' neill which was good but got far to difficult early on and i soon lost interest as i still wernt learning and playing the music i wanted to.
The point is i think the most important thing when playing an instrument is that you play the music you like and im more into the funk type of saxophone music not the classical or blues type of jazz music and was just wondering if anyone knows a good funk type of beginners book? ive seen one called 'ultimate funk grooves' by ben tompsett but its classed at a intermediate level and maybe to complicated for me.
It would be great if anyone could help thanks john.

 

[AndyB]

Hi John, I would suggest Bob Minzters or Snidero's easy jazz, funk and blues books but that material is going to be no less challenging than O'Neil. Even though funk is melodically simpler, it sometimes uses extremely complex rhythms. It seems that the only two formal teaching methods for sax are either jazz or classical. Other than that, its learning straight from a teacher or teach yourself. So it seemed that the jazz route was the only way for me to work toward achieving the basic skills. I can't think of anything better than the O'Neill book for a jazz-oriented method. Maybe you can post some questions here about any problems you're hitting but keep on working that method until you get it. If I don't get to practice for a week or two, I may just play that method book cover to cover to get back into it. I like the way its organized in small digestible chunks.