Bass Transcription Analysis: “I Start With The Blues” Bob Mintzer Sax Solo, Part 2

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For our second installment focusing on Bob Mintzer’s solo from “I Start With The Blues,” we’ll be focusing mainly on transposing a line through different keys and why we do that.

This is really important and something I touched upon in part one, too. It goes without saying that jazz standards and indeed tunes from all genres are in different keys, so learning vocabulary in all keys increases your flexibility and knowledge of the fingerboard, too, so you get enormous benefits from this!

I demonstrate the opening phrase from Letter A again, and this time, take it through a new solo and also through the cycle of 4ths. I go into more detail about that ii-V lick Bob plays in Bar 4 with a discussion of how that functions. We will also go over different fingering possibilities for the lick while I play through the blues in a new key and show you how I use Bob’s opening phrase as a springboard for my own improvisation.

Follow along with the video and this transcription with notes.