Garzone’s thing…
The practice strategies outlined here are derived from accounts of various students’ lessons with the great American saxophonist George Garzone. At first glance, Garzone appears to offer a different approach to the prescriptions of the 4 note groupings and transpositions. Some students stress his emphasis on intuition explaining that he has “listened and played so much tonal music, he does utilizes tonal scales and triads, but he doesn’t approach the music with any kind of systematic ways. It’s all intuitive for him”. However, a great deal of practice is required!
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Note that the information in this hand-out is based entirely upon recollections from students, posted on the internet. A DVD of George Garzone’s “Triadic Chromatic Approach to Improvisation” is now available – so buy it – click here.
- George Garzone Concept – Worksheet – click here.
- Plenty of info about George Garzone here, inlcuding exercises based on his Triadic Chromatic concept – click here.
Simon Purcell 
After graduating from Berklee/George I realized I never really was able to practice this adequately because my setup prevented me from executing long lines slowly – I was out of breath by the fourth or fifth triad. You really need to be able to “wander” through the lines which is why this is great for guitar. So horn players, dig out that old classical mouthpiece when you practice this. You can’t be like George all at once…