Buster Birch

Rhythm Changes Soloing for Saxophone & Clarinet Buster Birch

Learn to improvise on saxophone and clarinet over the most recognised tune in jazz




Once you have learnt some simple strategies to improvise over jazz chord changes, the next step is chord tone soloing. Targeting the important notes of every chord in a sequence will give you a solid foundation from which you can build engaging, melodic improvised solos.

This book teaches how to do it, step-by-step, and takes an in-depth look at one of the most famous chord progressions in jazz: George Gershwin's I Got Rhythm - known as "Rhythm Changes".




Rhythm Changes Soloing for Saxophone & Clarinet will guide you through this essential jazz standard, while teaching you fundamental soloing techniques and improvisational skills. This practical method, devised by Buster Birch (visiting jazz professor at Trinity Conservatoire) has been road tested at hundreds of workshops. But don't just take our word for it...

Professor approved jazz saxophone & clarinet soloing

"Buster is not only a great musician, he also presents such an accessible and well-rounded teaching approach. This is nothing short of jazz learning gold!"




Julian Nicholas - Jazz Course Leader Chichester College. (Loose Tubes, Harry "Sweets" Edison, Dudu Pukwana, Kirk Lightsey, Jimmy Witherspoon)




"I wish there had been more books like this when I started out, a clear and informative springboard into jazz improvising. A great addition to the library."




Stan Sulzmann - Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, Fellow of Birmingham Conservatoire. Professor of jazz saxophone at the Guildhall School of Music and Trinity Laban conservatoire of music. (ECM recording artist, Kenny Wheeler, Larry Grenadier, John Taylor, Jim Mullen, Nikki Iles, Mike Gibbs, Marc Copland, Allan Botchinksy, European Jazz Ensemble, Kit Downes, Michael Brecker and Gil Evans)




Learn to improvise jazz on saxophone & clarinet with this systematic approach




The Rhythm Changes is one of the most important progressions to learn to solo over in jazz, because it contains chord sequences that feature in all jazz standard tunes. Master this, and you'll have learnt how to navigate dozens more popular tunes.