My 11yo started playing bari sax in September. It's going well. His teacher at school has him working in a book by Rubank. I think he's about halfway through or so. I'd like to ask for help choosing a fun play-along book. Recently I bought "the Alfred jazz easy play-along series, vol. 1: easy standards," in a variety of clefs and transpositions (all in one volume). It's working great for trombone (which he studied in fourth grade and still enjoys playing from time to time), but not for bari. He says the tunes are too high for him. He's not ready to make the leap of playing one octave below what's written. He has enough trouble keeping all his clefs straight as it is. He plays piano and viola also. Viola involves jumping around between two clefs. He gets confused easily with his clefs.
I ordered the last third of the Real Book for E flat instruments, but I'm afraid it may have the same problem. Can anyone give me some guidance? He enjoys improvising with a CD, but finds it helpful to have the melody written out, this helps him get started with a new tune.
I ordered the last third of the Real Book for E flat instruments, but I'm afraid it may have the same problem. Can anyone give me some guidance? He enjoys improvising with a CD, but finds it helpful to have the melody written out, this helps him get started with a new tune.