Welcome to the Saxophone section
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In January 2008 after many years of "not quite getting around to it", Andy started learning the alto saxophone. He has weekly lessons With Kate Johnson, his experienced and very knowledgable music teacher of Grrr's World of Music.
After initially using a hire instrument, in April 2008 Andy dug deep and bought a John Packer 141 Blues Alto Saxophone with Yamaha mouthpiece and Selmer crook. Thanks go in no small part to Kate for her advice and for picking up the instrument during a trip to John Packer's in Taunton.
In September 2008 Andy joined a saxophone ensemble called "Sax Pak" who practice weekly in Wimborne, Dorset. He's made lots of new friends here and is thoroughly enjoying being part of a band. Find out more information by following the link opposite.
You can find information about the various books Andy has used to learn from, see the link opposite.
Progress
Andy blogs about his progress so far. The most recent entry is shown first.
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 Sax Pak, 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. They're a cracking bunch of people and I'm pleased to be a part of the group.
Kate is now suggesting Easter 2009 for a Grade 5 test. She's going to get some bits and pieces ready for me to work on so early 2009 will be hard (but hopefully rewarding) work!
November 2008
Had a confidence dip early in the month following some Sax Pak 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 Kate quickly spotted the cause of the problem and suggested that I change my reed. I'd only recently put a new one in and hadn't though that this was the issue, but it turned out I'd had a duff one. You can't bottle professional tuition, if you're reading this, play a musical instrument and don't have lessons then think about starting tomorrow!
The following week (with my new reed in place) I actually had a complete Sax Pak 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 Kate had delibrately picked some easier pieces, but I'm still pretty chuffed that I'm starting to make a contribution to the band.
I've asked Kate whether she thinks I'd be good enough to take a Sax grade test and she says that 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 Sax Pak. 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. Kate has offered for us to cover Sax Pak pieces in our lessons and I may take her up on that if I continue to struggle.
September 2008
Completed 70's hits book and have started being able to add in grace notes. Have also started in one of Kate's bands called "Sax Pak". 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 from Kate 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". Kate says that 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.