by Lynden Blades | Aug 11, 2026 | Music Theory
by Lynden Blades | Jul 12, 2024 | Music Theory
Harmonic minors for saxophone – practice with me! The harmonic minor scale is so utterly beautiful and extremely useful. People often refer to it as the “snake charmer” scale as it has a strong middle eastern feel. It’s incredibly useful in all genres of...
by Lynden Blades | Jul 11, 2024 | Music Theory, Saxophones
Why are saxophones in a different key? When Adolph Sax first invented the saxophone, he was worried that it would be far too easy to play. So, he devised a mischievous and cunning plan to make the names of all the notes on a saxophone different from the names of the...
by Lynden Blades | Jul 11, 2024 | Music Theory
Cycle of Fifths When I first saw the circle, or cycle, of fifths diagram, I felt like I was back at school, looking at some impossible physics diagram that was, for me anyway, really hard to understand. It certainly didn’t make me think that it could in any way help...
by Lynden Blades | Mar 4, 2024 | Music Theory
Major scales – do we really need to learn them? Major scales are mind-bogglingly important. They truly form the fundamental foundation upon which you build a new musical world. The significance of them though can be easy to miss, especially as a beginner....
by Lynden Blades | Feb 24, 2024 | Music Theory
How to Improvise Over a Minor 251 (II-V-I) Minor 251’s are another musical structure that is incredibly common, and the vast majority of jazz chord charts are highly likely to contain one or a derivative of one. Because of this, it is essential that we first be...
by Lynden Blades | Feb 19, 2024 | Music Theory
‘251’ (II-V-I) Sax Licks When I first looked at chord charts, I felt as intimidated as I would have been if someone asked me to translate the hieroglyphics on the side of an Egyptian tomb. I was a reasonably good improviser, as long as I didn’t have to...