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Andy is a Grade 5 saxophonist who plays a John Packer 141 Blues Alto Saxophone with Yamaha mouthpiece and Selmer crook. You can find information about the various books he has used to learn from, see the link opposite.
Progress
Andy blogs about his progress so far. The most recent entry is shown first.
October 2009-January 2010
I've gone back to one of my favourite books during the latter part of 2009: Classic Blues. I've worked through the pieces I hadn't quite got to yet as well as continuing to polish the performance of those that I had. This lead to my first "family performance" on Christmas Day when I provided the background music during the evening snack (let's face it everyone was stuffed). This was to about 16 people and went pretty well.
I had some new books with backing CDs for Christmas and started to work on these in early January. There's enough there to keep me suitably challenged!
September 2009
It's really nice to be playing different pieces again after solidly concentrating on exam music for what seems like forever. During September I worked through the remainder of Jazzin' It Up and at the end of the month moved on to Robbie William's Swing When You're Winning. This book appears to be a step up from my more recent efforts. Lots of sharps and flats and changes of key part-way through the score. I'm finding it a challenge (not least because their's no sample tracks with the sax part on the CD) but it's just the challenge I need to keep my skills developing.
July 2009
After 6 months of practising the pieces over and over, it was finally time to take the Trinity Guildhall Grade 5 Saxophone exam. I passed, achieving a merit (missing out on a distinction by just 3 marks). Very pleased to have made the grade and delighted that I can now start playing other pieces of music again!
May-June 2009
Getting closer to the Grade 5 exam that will be held on July 10. I've ditched the scales for 2 pieces of music instead (although these are very "scale-like" in their composition). I seem to do OK with all this at home but fall apart in my lessons which leaves me wondering how I'll fair under exam conditions when I'll probably have trouble remembering my own name let alone any of the music.
As well as the music, I'm also going to be doing sight reading and an aural test.
February-April 2009
I've been gradually starting on the various pieces I need to master for my Grade 5. I also have to memorise some scales (although I could learn an additional piece instead of this if I want to). I feel scales will be useful in the long run so am trying to tackle these. I need to know 10 for the exam along with 10 arpeggios. I could go for a summer exam (July) as if I miss that I'll have to wait until Christmas. With a bit of effort I may be ready (he said). Although the pieces for Grade 5 aren't bad, they're not really my cup of tea with the exception of Don't Count On Me which I'm really enjoying.
I've been working through more pieces in Classic Blues and this is proving to be one of my favourite books to play from having mastered Fever and Cry Me A River amongst others. I'm also working on tunes from Jazzin' It Up with varying degrees of success; although I'm sure I'll get it in the end!
January 2009
This month has been pretty hectic for all sorts of reasons and has left me with precious little time to practice, although I've made the most of the opportunities I could grab. There's no doubt that not practising every day has a negative effect on my performance and I'll try to get back to daily sessions as soon as I can. Luckily the Grade 5 won't be happening just yet so there's plenty of time to get to grips with the pieces.
December 2008
I feel like I'm continuing to make progress. I used to feel (right up until recently) that a bunch of quavers was a no-go area for me; give me crochets or minims every time! However, I'm starting to be able to get my brain to read the music and transform that into notes a little quicker as time goes on. Still plenty of work to do here, of course, and some pieces go better than others but I'm very pleased with how it's all gone this year.
December has seen my first public performance with other saxophonists at the Wimborne Christmas Carnival. This went well and even though some members of the band were feeling under the weather, they still turned up to the event which is very much to their credit.
November 2008
Had a confidence dip early in the month following some band practices that I didn't feel I did particularly well at and perhaps I'm also suffering from the "Seal affect" (see October's blog entry). I don't think it helped when I was "squeaking" quite a bit and couldn't figure out why, but a new reed quickly fixed the problem.
The following week (with my new reed in place) I actually had a complete band session where I hardly played any wrong notes and kept good time. These were all new pieces so I'm still getting over the shock as I was having to sight read every note. I later learned that these had been easier pieces than normal, but I'm still pretty chuffed that I'm starting to make a contribution to the band.
I'm making enquiries about whether I'd be good enough to take a Sax grade test. Apparently there's no reason why I can't work towards taking either a Grade 4 or Grade 5 exam next summer. Bring it on!
October 2008
Been working through a book of "Film Songs". This includes one particular piece that I'm finding quite challenging: "Kiss From A Rose" originally performed by Seal. practice required here!
I'm finding it a little tricky to practice pieces for band. I think this is because I'm (obviously) not playing the melody. Having sung harmony in choirs as alto, tenor and even bass over the years it's not the fact that I'm playing an alto part that's the problem.
September 2008
Completed 70's hits book and have started being able to add in grace notes. Have also attended a local Sax band. I'm a little out of my depth here, but it's really going to push me to the next level; and I like a challenge!
Incidently, I had another go at the "fast piece" I mentioned in a previous entry in this mini-blog from the book "Feeling Good" and I found this really easy to play now so I must be making some kind of progress?!
August 2008
Finished "Romantic Latin" and borrowed a book with more latin pieces in it such as La Bamba, La Isla Bonita and Livin' La Vida Loca. All good stuff. Thoroughly enjoyed playing these pieces but was all "latined out" so moved on to a book of 1970's hits at the end of the month. This has some great tunes in it from the likes of Chicago, Elton John and Neil Diamond amongst others.
July 2008
Completed "Feeling Good" although there's a particularly fast piece at the end of the book that I'll keep practicing from time to time to get smoother with. Started a new book called "Romantic Latin". I'm going to try to samba round the room while I'm playing pieces from it ;-) The music in this book has lots of sharps in it but I'm pretty pleased with how it's going so far.
May and June 2008
Completed "Kids Play Blues" and started on a new book called "Feeling Good". This is moving on a level and it'll certainly need me to keep my full concentration while I play! I've increased my reed strength from 2.5 to 3
March 2008 - 30 April 2008
Moved on to a new book called "Kids Play Blues". OK, so I'm not a kid anymore, but this book has some really nice tunes in it and helped me move on a stage. During this time I increased my reed strength from 2 to 2.5 and bought my own saxophone.
16 January 2008 - March 2008
First lessons. This started with a taster session during which I picked up a hire sax and bought a training book. I used this book over the first few weeks, learning new notes and practising playing techniques. I quickly moved from a reed strength of 1.5 to 2.