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16 april 2024

I may be over-prepping, but in anticipation of bringing my horn to the repair shop this week I rented a back-up horn for the month. This worked out better than I thought because now I have a point of comparison. I've posted two recordings and here's my take on it after practising with the rental for the last few days:

So it's nice in a way to conclude that I do like my horn more than the rental. Some of it I'm sure is familiarity, but semi-objectively it does seem better as well. I'm looking forward to what the shop has to say.

No lessons for the last couple of weeks and practicing the same thing, feeling a little like I'm not progressing very much. (Another) reminder that it's a temporary state and if I reflect it does seem like some things are clicking a little more.

I didn't listen to much music for about a week. This seems to happen every so often, it's like my brain kind of puts it on pause for a minute. It feels natural, I wonder if it's a way of processing things. I'm realizing I've also gone a long stretch (months now) without playing any guitar. I think the routine of practice has something to do it, and also before I think I played guitar partly to fill time or just to chill out. Maybe the structure of the practice routine has replaced that.

Finished the Dolphy book, and halfway through the Hodges bio. Not the greatest books ever written but there's a lot to get out of them. I'll try to say more when I finish the Hodges, but I'll say a little while it's fresh. I liked reading about these two at the same time because of the difference in their personalities, and also their relationship to music seems fundamentally different though I can't quite put a finger on it. What drew both of them to music? It seems like Dolphy was more on a quest into music, to discover it and transform his own playing. Hodges seems to be more of a pure player. He wants to play, not necessarily innovate (though he did). I guess you could ask, did Dolphy want to 'innovate'? I'm not sure that's the right word.

Especially the Dolphy book has made clear the difference between the recording artifacts (records) and the business and practice of recording. I didn't realize how much editing went into producing records back then. Also just the sheer amount of recording these guys did -- they were trying to make a living for sure, and make a name for themselves and play music.

I have to say I'm not a big fan of typical music critic descriptions of music and recordings, but I like the anecdotes and stories a lot. I need to go back over the Dolphy and make a list of recordings to listen to.

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03 april 2024

Lessons are canceled today, and most of us here at home are sick, something is going around.

It seems one of my reeds might be giving out. I've settled on a system now with four reeds in the case. When I feel like a reed isn't playing well I make a hash mark on the end -- maybe it was just me that day. But if a reed gets multiple marks it's probably the reed. Anyway, that's the theory. You can go deep (maybe too deep) on reeds. One of the reeds now has three marks, and it happens to be an original 2.5 from the first set I bought last year, so it makes sense I guess. I'll see how the other reeds are doing.

I feel like the ha-ta-tas are a good exercise, they highlight some voicing and embouchure issues. I'm alternating them with the 'hairpin' (as S- called them) long tones. Scales at 108 and a little out of control but OK except for starting on notes below C#.

Speaking of which I should see about a tune-up soon, especially because I signed up for the Meter recital at the RR in June. It will be me and a hundred six year olds I guess. And it'll go off almost a year to the day that I started playing, so that's fitting I suppose. Anyway having the horn tuned up for it seems like a good idea.

I've been working on All the Things for a few weeks. It occurred to me the other day that some kind of interactive way to memorize the harmony would be nice. Running through the tune over and over is OK (I mean that's how it's been done forever) but maybe other approaches would be helpful?

I'm on a Johnny Hodges and Wild Bill Davis kick lately but haven't found much info on their collaboration beyond the usual. Got the Hodges bio from the library -- Douglass-Truth has a really good section of Black American music.

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23 march 2024

The RR had the Owen Broder Quintet playing from their new Johnny Hodges tribute album last night. I've never heard Broder and filling Hodges' shoes is a tall order. My impression of Broder was that he's more on the reserved side; in that sense he suited the Hodges sound. He took one solo in a more avant direction which was interesting and unexpected. The band was solid and Noah Simpson on trumpet not afraid to take risks, which the crowd (and I think the music) appreciated. It's true the RR is a good sounding room. I would have liked to hear Broder give some more back story on the songs in the set but maybe the musicians feel like overtalking is a thing. The crowd was decent, not great and not terrible. One thing I noticed was that there were no kids there. I guess it's not suprising exactly but the RR is all-ages until 10 PM in the dining area. I wonder how many kids they get there on average?

I uploaded two recordings here that are hard for me to listen to, but all the more reason to post them I suppose. It's more of an ego check when you get down to it. If I'm doing the work (which I am) feeling bad about how I sound now is not a thing I should concern myself with.

Starting to add Tarantino's ha-ta-ta's and whisper tones into my long tones routine -- the ha-ta-ta's really highlight the muscles in the embouchure (i.e. as of now they're lacking). Klose still a struggle, but I feel like I'm starting to inch uphill.

One of the recordings is off a Wikiloops track which I found on CS. I had glanced at that before but checking it out more now it's quite an impressive site so I made an account. I can't bring myself to post this remix though. Maybe the next one. Doing that recording was an impetus to try using Ardour, which had a bit of a learning curve, but reading the tutorial helped a lot. The R16 connects to it nicely though I haven't looked into getting the control surface to work yet -- it seems doable. I'm not sure I really need what Ardour provides, the R16 seems to work well enough on its own. But I feel it's good to have Ardour in the toolbox and it is a pretty nice piece of kit.

I got turned on to Dorothy Ashby recently, and that led to more Alice Coltrane and Yusuf Lateef (I had listened to Eastern Sounds before). An outro from a radio show clued me to Mal Waldron's The Quest (the beautiful Warm Canto with Dolphy on clarinet). Horace Silver's Sister Sadie has been on loop for the last week. His solo says everything and it's a great composition overall. Lastly the universe seems to be conspiring against my big band prejudice by leading me to Ella's Jerome Kern Songbook album (I'm working on All the Things You Are). I had never considered the Billie vs. Ella debate until now. I still don't really but I have a new appreciation for Ella.

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14 march 2024

It popped

Since I started playing, every so often I would try to do that little test where you suck the air out of the mouthpiece such that the reed seals to the table and then a short time later flexes off of it. Well, I could never make that work and I wasn't sure why, but I would just move on. There are long forum threads on this where people say they can do, they can't do, they can do it with certain MPs and not others, etcetera. So I wasn't bothered but I was always curious so I kept trying.

Well to my surprise, the other day I tried it again and it worked! And the next practice session, again with a different reed. The first time it was with an older reed so I thought maybe that was the reason, but anyway I have to admit it was quite pleasing. A few days ago I finally caved in to the siren song of reed DIY and ran the backs of the reeds about 15-20 times over a coarse Dia-sharp stone I use for sharpening chisels. The interesting thing is I did try the pop test the next practice session, and it didn't work. Now, two times in a row. Mysteries of the universe.

Tonight I skipped my lesson to go to a Fellowship show of Brittany Anjou, with Lurie, Mines and Matt Jorgensen on drums. Anjou channels lower East Side muppet energy, meaning that in a good way and I suspect they wouldn't take offense anyway because the first song was titled Snuffalapagus. The band had some great moments, and Lurie's solos especially. Anjou's compositions really stood out as well. Again, I felt like the drums washed out some of the piano. Maybe it's just me. The JNS shows are at the Royal Room the rest of this week, I should go tomorow night to check it out probably, though I don't know when the level 1 combos play.

Looking at their ensemble level chart (more than necessary honestly) I'll want to work in harmonic minor practice and more blues. Also I'd like to learn a few more songs, I haven't looked at anything after Blue Monk, which I'm still practicing every few days. Mostly it's still major scales, II-V-Is and Blue Devil in multiple keys. I made a tempo jump with major scales from 80 to 90+ really because I was getting impatient. They weren't totally clean at 80 frankly, and yes there is lots of advice to practice slow. But I would like to get that exercise at least to 120 just to do it, and then I can practice slow as much as I want. We'll see I guess. Klose still kicks my butt around 54 bpm, the first exercise. I don't think I can blame my glasses, it's just those continuous runs of eighth notes I don't totally have a handle on, so good to work on that.

I've also been seduced by the odes I've read to the Couesnon Monopole II, and it's not helping that there aren't many of them out there on the various marketplaces but there is one on CL right now for $1600 (has been there for weeks). I will let the GAS pass through me, and when it is gone only I will remain.

Listening to Jimmy McGriff the last week, among others.

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02 march 2024

I didn't keep notes on what's been on my mind this time so prepare for a rambling entry. Come to think of it, all these entries ramble, so I guess no disclaimer necessary! That's a relief.

After a few weeks of mouthpiece and neck exercises I got frustrated with how it was going and asked on CS about it, and I'm glad I did because I learned it was rather pointless to try to do a scale with the MP and neck. The next practice I tried the MP alone again (before it was difficult to sound a note) and almost immediately I could go from A to the B below. Needless to say it was a pleasant surprise. In the days since I've found it's not consistent, but I think I'm slowly finding the voicing to be able to do it. There's a noticeable difference in resonance on the note when I voice it right (it's much more full sounding, and not tinny/squeaky at all).

I've started doing breath exercises in the morning (the Sonny Rollins ones and then also trying Kapalbhati). When doing long tones lately I'm finding I'm running out of breath on the dimuendo on the low notes. I think I might look for a copy of the Breathing Gym again as well.

The Phillip Greenlief and Scott Amendola concert a couple of weeks ago was really good, even more so because their sound worked well in the Chapel space. James Falzone's opening piece on clarinet and Shruti was a great prelude. All three are great players. It made me feel better about missing the Shabaka show the next night (especially because I learned later Spalding played bass). Incidentally he's posted an interesting short film about (apparently) putting down the saxophone for the flute.

Still inching up the tempo incline with major scales, and working II-V-I in different major keys. At lesson this week we played the head of Blue Devil Blues in a few different keys and I learned the first part of On Green Dolphin Street by ear over the last couple weeks. Hearing the melody seems to be slowly improving but I'm not sure about harmony. I think I'd like to start adding hearing harmony into practice time, maybe just identifying different chords (with Solfege? Or perhaps an app).

Rubank and Klose (especially) are still kicking my butt around 60 bpm. I don't like to blame equipment (in this case, my eyes) but I think partly I really have trouble seeing the dots. The reading glasses are not up to the task. I may have to reprioritize getting that new prescription.

The JNS Spring performance is coming up and I should stop in just to stop speculating about what the level 1 combo is all about. W— said I should apply sooner rather than later in case there's a waitlist. Seems sensible.

Listening to Trio New York II as I write this. I'm starting to really like the horn and organ combos. Also recently:

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15 february 2024

The last week of practice has been a bit frustrating, just some minor issues all at once. It seems my initial progress with the mouthpiece and neck has stalled out, and I still can't bend below F most of the time. It's hard to describe but it feels like I hit a floor of pitch and can't go below it. Earlier in the week my right thumb started getting sore where it really hadn't before, and I wonder if it's from the ergonomics of my new strap? Starting to hold the saxophone closer to my body has seemed to alleviate that. I've heard different things in that respect, whether you're supposed to push the sax away from you or hold it closer in. I'm still not very smooth running major scales, they feel 90% memorized so sometimes I get a note wrong or have to think about it. Simple patterns like the II-V-I exercises are still sometimes challenging at 72 bpm. And improvising on Blue Monk is a hot mess more often than not. I can sing lines that make sense, but playing them is something else.

All that is to remind myself that a week or weeks is not a very long span of time.

Yesterday's lesson was interesting because W— was out sick and so I had a substitute. It was interesting in the sense of getting a different perspective on similar material, and also it felt more like a performance situation (to be honest my performance wasn't great as such but I felt pretty confident nevertheless, so that felt OK). The sub gave me some useful exercises and advice, and kind of reinforced the idea that seeking instruction outside the regular lesson schedule is worthwhile. They (politely I think) described my tone as "bright" and recommended long tones with dynamics, two bars crescendo and two bars diminuendo, focusing on starting the note as quietly as possible. Also recommended Klose (I have a pdf of the 25 exercises), a major scale exercise, some tips on playing patterns in different rhythms to help get them under the fingers and also advice on voicing.

I caught the Kate Olson show last Saturday at the Jazz Fellowship space -- the room sounds really good. The walls are all brick, and I don't know anything about room acoustics but I suppose the greater reflectance of brick adds to the sound? I guess it could still sound bad depending on the room, but anyway this room sounds good. Olson started the set solo with some looping and effects pedals, and there was a contrast between the dry horn sound (I'm not sure how much of what I was hearing was the raw sound vs. miked), and the wet processed sound. Basically the dry sound was a lot better, and it made me wish to hear just an unamplified set in that room, I think it could work, but maybe it would be too hard to get the mix right, especially with drums. Olson has a very good tone, but I was left wanting a little more out of the songs, I think because most of them were conventional jazz in the sense that most of the time everyone took a solo and then the song was over. I wonder who out there are presenting arrangements in an unconventional way? Anyway, the crowd was decent but one thing that got to me was the (mostly just polite) clapping after every solo. Maybe I'm not a real jazz fan, but it seemed inauthentic (maybe I'm projecting...). The musicians probably appreciate the applause regardless, it must be hard to try to project energy into a listless audience, so even polite clapping is better than none at all. That said I liked Olson's compositions overall and there was shoutout for Sonny Sharrock and Monk so I'm on board with that.

Perhaps for the contrast I went out to a set of (I think) mostly improvised free music tonight at the Chapel. The draw was a trio with Kelsey Mines, a bassist I saw with D'Vonne Lewis at Simply Soulful. Mines had a very agile and fluid musicality in that first show and showed more of that tonight. Neil Welch was also in the group and I've wanted to see him play for a while. As it goes though between the general cacophony and his rather subtle playing I couldn't hear him very well. He had two pedalboards and at least two expressions pedals that I could see. Something was happening but I'm not exactly sure what. As a bonus there was an alto player, I didn't quite catch his name but I couldn't hear him very well either. The problem with the Chapel is drums can really drown out the band. I think the space amplifies those bassy tones. It's great for cello though, which featured in the second group, Threshold, and luckily their drummer had a lighter touch. It was described as a chamber quartet but with two guitars. The quartet did reach some really nice moments.

I know it's a bit cliche but I guess what I really like is something in between the Olson show of songs and the Chapel set of free music. I listened to the first Trio New York album the other day and it kind of has that quality. Also I heard Matana Roberts' music for the first time (the Memphis album). I feel like that had a composed quality, not necessarily songs, but an intent -- similar to the Trio New York record. Is that why I like those long grooves on albums like Bitches Brew? It's almost like they're not songs, but they have intention. It's harder to read intention in free music I've heard -- perhaps because I'm not musically aware enough.

Speaking of listening, I've been trying to save what I'm liking so here they are in no particular order:

I also probably should get my horn looked at, it seems like I'm having more issues than usual with the B/Bb keys and the sub thought one of the pads might be uneven. I was planning to do it when I would be on vacation not playing anyway -- maybe I can wait until May if V— visits.

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04 february 2024

I had to make a list during the past week about what I wanted to journal about. Not sure what that means, I guess I'm really journaling now! Anyway it's a lazy Sunday morning and I'm listening to Sam Newsome, Global Unity (1997) which I found off a list from All About Jazz favorite living saxophonists. I like this jazz groove thing. I have a lot more lined up based on that list to go through.

From a thread on CS I discovered Mingus Live at Antibes with Eric Dolphy and Booker Ervine. I love how Dolphy and Ervine go back and forth on some of the solos. Ervine the straight man, Dolphy the jester. I finally listened to The Bridge by Rollins, and East Broadway Rundown. I have to get a hold of the Rollins books I've heard about. Dug a little deeper into Lurie's recordings with La Buya (which Chris also played on).

Made it to the Royal Room for their Monday night show/jam, to hear Tefesse, who I had heard with Lurie's new (?) group a couple months back. I really liked his compositions, and his quartet was solid, especially Greg Feingold on upright. Tefesse seemed slightly nervous on stage leading the band, a contrast to when I saw him before. Afterward was the jam, the first one I've seen actually. The scene beforehand was interesting, a loose crowd of young musos shuffling around looking slightly suspicious. I imagine it can be difficult, you start playing around 10 or 11, you're the biggest fish in the pond and you go to music school, the competition, you practice like your life depends on it, you graduate, and then....it could be hard to deal with what's next (if anything).

I've been scoping out the level 1 combo performances that JNS does at the Royal Room to get an idea of the level I would need to be at. It's a bit hard to read, it seems like the players might have a good deal of experience, or maybe not? I might see about signing up around six months from now -- maybe their Fall quarter?

Jazz Fellowship has opened a new performance space downtown and I'm going to try to catch a show there this weekend (there's no advance tickets). I thought about buying a $50 ticket at Town Hall for Shabaka later this month but I think I'm going to spend my budget on local shows for now. Speaking of budget, thanks to a nice tax refund I caved and got a new strap from Just Joe's. It's a bit funny that it costs almost 1/3 of what I paid for my saxophone (then again my saxophone was not much relatively). Anyway the strap is awesome! I had some second thoughts after I ordered it whether I would like the hook (it's a closed look unlike my old strap) and the wide adjustment bar (whether it would be too clunky). Not an issue for either one, and it's way more comfortable than my old strap. The wide bar definitely is a big improvement, keeping the sides of the strap from pressing on my neck.

I admit I also was curious about the acoustic effect of the brass hook, and I did notice a change in tone using the strap the first time. Unfortunately I added a few variables at the same time -- went to Ted Brown yesterday and got new reeds. I'm sticking with Vandoren blue 2.5s for now, the setup is working for me so I've decided I'm just going to let the reed experimentation thing sit on the back burner for now. I did pick up a new reed case though. The container I had been using (what my swab came in) was starting to break down a bit. I've been keeping reeds in their original plastic sleeves and it hasn't seemed to be an issue, but the reed case does keep things a little more organized. I got a good six months out of my previous reeds -- I may not know any better about what's a good or bad reed I'd guess. But anyway long story short, the tone did seem better with new reeds, and new strap....like I said, variables.

One more variable. After a week of MP and neck practice, I finally can bend down to an E! For the first week I only got from Ab to F (sometimes only to F#). It was a bit frustrating, and I remembered a thread in CS about mouthpiece exercises where someone talked about tongue position, and lowering the back of the tongue. Well, this worked for me, and I almost immediately got the E. I may be lowering my jaw a little too though, I'm not sure. I probably should ask W— about this next lesson.

I'm still in the swamp of scales and scale patterns. Sometimes it wears on my brain honestly but I'm pushing through it. Going through some not complex II-V-I patterns at 72bpm was surprisingly difficult. There's reading the dots, thinking of scale degrees, thinking of fingering, keeping in time....maybe I should prioritize getting the occupational lenses. The reading glasses don't really work that well.

Fabrizio posted a video on improvising over a blues, combining a pentatonic and bebop scale/phrasing. He's a better teacher in Italian than a lot of people are in English (granted the subtitles on his videos are good). It made me wonder though, the theoretical language used to describe the music adds a lot of overhead to learning the material. Would it be better for the student to just learn the music first by ear? I guess this is the basis of pedagogy like the Suzuki method (not really sure about that). If you're going to talk about it you have to use words of some kind I suppose. I just wonder what's appropriate for where the student is at in their learning arc. This is a more general issue with the amount of educational material available, like on YT. A video can give the impression that the average student should be able to do what's demonstrated in the video (playing a scale with just the mouthpiece for example). It's implied that this actually takes a lot of practice (the YTuber is a music school graduate, etc.), but when the student tries to duplicate what's demonstrated, or just understand the concept, they're left in the woods. It's important to understand when you're ready to understand something. Maybe a bit circular? That's life I guess.

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26 january 2024

After a week of five minutes of MP practice a day I got a little farther to consistently producing an A, maybe half the time. In any case at lesson W— said it'd be better to do MP+neck, so I'm shifting to that.

For the last week or so I've been running through the major scales via the circle of 5ths/4ths, and they're nearly all well memorized; yesterday though I played with the metronome at 80 and I think that was a good external guideline. It's interesting when you're playing with the metronome, since you're kind of forced to proceed at an arbitrary pace, sometimes your fingers have to move before your mind thinks. Not using the metronome it's easy to get into the habit of thinking what the next fingering in the scale is, which is probably not what you want to do (eventually). When learning the scale/pattern/etc. you probably do want to think about the next note.

Thinking about notes. I think this can be related to improv as well. I'm practicing Blue Monk and I really want to think about the notes when improvising. Ultimately the goal is to translate sound in my head to the horn, so I need that note to exist in a continuum from my head to the horn without interruption.

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17 january 2024

After some discussion on CS I've changed my long tones practice so I'm doing it in time, chromatically in two note phrases (6 beats, then 4, then rest for two beats, at 60 bpm). Also for the time being I'm keeping the tuner turned off. I figure my intonation is probably OK at this point and I can check it later, for the moment I'm concentrating on the tone.

Also I've started five minutes of just mouthpiece practice, which was a bit of a surprise (not counting the members of the household saying "what is that noise!?" when I started playing....). A surprise because half the time I can't make a sound at all! I'm guessing with the very short chamber length I need to make the reed vibrate a lot faster, which needs better air support and/or embouchure than I'm used to? But sometimes everything comes together and I can make a typical sound (a concert A). Anyway I kind of like it as a start to the practice session, hopefully I won't get kicked out of the house in the next few days.

I would like to start doing more sight reading of short pieces at an appropriate difficulty. I can't sight read most of the pieces I practice so I have a feeling my actual sight reading ability doesn't improve as much as it could, if I were practicing some 'easier' pieces that I can sight read at a reasonable tempo. For example I have Ode to Joy this week, which at lesson I was able to sight read up to the last few bars which had a few phrases of eighth notes (nothing that complicated) I couldn't manage. But it seems like that piece is the right difficulty level (for sight reading). It would be nice to find some progressive book of pieces, that I don't necessarily practice a lot but just use for sight reading.

I need to get off to work but one last thing. W— had mentioned Albert Ayler at lesson and I watched the documentary made on him (unfortunately difficult to find online). It was quite good. I'm not really a big fan of noise/free jazz but I would like to keep my mind open. But aside from that it's a compelling portrait of Ayler as an artist and person. So guessing that Eskelin would have made reference to Ayler I looked that up and of course he did in more than a few interesting posts. One of those posts led me to an interview with Alex Ross on Ethan Iverson's site, which was about Classical music instead of Jazz, and now I have a long list of music to look up. But I guess I can't put all that in a saxophone journal.

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15 january 2024

Now practicing all 12 major keys, I've had this question in the back of my mind about how you're actually supposed to learn the scales. Pure memorization? Somehow related to tone patterns? If you learn via the patterns it seems it would be harder to play from an arbitray scale degree, vs. pure memorization (which is what I've been doing). But pure memorization itself seems like it would be the least efficient versus learning a pattern common to all 12 keys. I guess after you play them enough times you just internalize it and it's not an issue? We'll see how I feel about this in another six months.

I uploaded a recording of my long tone practice, and I have to say it sounds pretty bad to my ears. I think it needs to be fuller/rounder, which maybe relates to a weak embouchure? My intonation is OK, but I haven't been playing to a drone as much lately so I think I should get back to that -- or play with headphones from the tuner, but I like playing to a drone from the speaker more.

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08 january 2024

Back after the holiday, no playing for a few weeks but I did happen to find a six hole flute in the house (that I think A— sent me from the Congo 10+ years ago?)

It was easy to get back into the practice habit for the last few days, just working on the same material as I was doing before the holiday. Wanting to do more on the spot recording I've started using my field recorder again, and some of those I'll upload into the recordings directory linked in the header to look back on. These will be less polished than anything I would upload to CS.

I also added an email link in the header, not that I expect anyone is reading this....I guess adding RSS is next!

Anyway, what to look toward in this new year, and considering I've been playing now for six months more or less? I'm keeping lessons for this month and if the budget allows I think I'll stay with it for the rest of the Winter for sure. I feel like I need more practice time. I have doubts on how to phrase that -- I don't want to say "I should practice more", because that's not really what I mean -- just that objectively speaking I think more practice is necessary.

I would like to be more fluent with chord tones, and playing by ear. I want to develop a good tone -- currently I think my sound is pinched, not focused and somewhat shrill. I want to get more dexterity with the left table keys playing in the lower register. I could go on, there's a lot to do. Also I probably should get some occupational lenses at some point because my reading glasses aren't great for reading the dots.

Listening to Chris Potter today (Vertigo and Imaginary Cities), and it left me wondering why some players grab you and others don't. My knee-jerk impression was that, like with some virtuosic rock and metal bands, the music itself just isn't to my taste. Some of Imaginary Cities was interesting but, and maybe it was the recording or my stereo, I wasn't really feeling it like I do with some other recordings.

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10 december 2023

I still haven't decided what to do about lessons. Asking for advice on CS helped a little as I realized the pros of lessons in general outweigh the con of going to lessons weekly. So, I don't know what I'll do, but I'm leaning toward at least keeping them in January.

While I've been listening to a lot of music I'd like to make more of an effort to record thoughts on it, at least for looking back on (the whole point of this journal really). So some brief thoughts -- some of these are new listens and some just writing it down for the first time. No real rhyme or reason to this yet but maybe some consistency will develop over time.

There are a lot more that I'll add in later entries. I listened to Idle Moments all day yesterday, and Wikipedia says Grant Green based a lot of his style on saxophonists (I think because he listened to a lot of Charlie Parker). In any case, amazing record. Nomad kills me every time.

I'm feeling that I want to do a morning practice session as well as evening, but for domestic harmony it'll have to be silent, so I'm going to give just playing the keys a try. Maybe with visualization and some listening/counting?

I'm working on the Rubank lesson 12 (review lesson of the first part of the book) and the second exercise is challenging to get to 80bpm. It's just a C major scale pattern but I don't think I've fully internalized moving up and down the horn like that. The hands, eyes, airway and brain aren't fully connected. Getting there.

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25 november 2023

No problems moving to the blue package 2.5s, a little harder to blow but I think that's sorting itself out and to my ears at least I like the tone. Long tone dimiuendo also is working and the high E.

At lesson we cleared out some Rubank and added some new ones. While I could sight read most of the old stuff pretty well I stumbled on a duet, also in practice one of the passages which looks easy was difficult to play, so good to spend time on that. With scales I've dialed back the speed, I think it's better to focus on sound right now, so everything at 80, practicing 8-9 major keys (a range because one I'm not 'officially' practicing but it's the key of Tune Up).

I had a couple of thoughts this week, first quite basic, that I realized I'm running a kind of experiment in music making, where I generally only play the saxophone during my defined practice, and I only play other instruments at kind of random times with no practice plan. Maybe not much of a thought I guess but I thought it was interesting I hadn't considered it that way before.

Second, that I sense right now I'm in the "practice valley". The initial excitement of starting back in June has mostly worn off, and it's not clear what lies ahead. The horizons are hard to see down here in the valley. There is just the reality of daily practice, and it's not easy to see big improvement. But I'm being consistent (which is abnormal for me) and I like the sound.

We've returned a little to improvising which I had been neglecting. Somehow I will get to playing what I hear though admittedly it's not obvious how or when.

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19 november 2023

It feels good to be back on the daily practice train, but I can't help think that even the time I put into it is not enough to really play well. I guess over a long period of time this may change, and it's a bit useless to compare against what a very young learner might do, but nevertheless I can't help it. A school age player who's serious about it will really put the time in. Or a professional at anything will be doing 4+ hours a day on their craft likely at a minimum. Practicing an hour every evening doesn't compare. I don't know what the answer (if there's even a question) should be. Enjoying something every day is worth it in itself isn't it? Perhaps it's a mix of healthy desire and unhealthy attachment to a notion of improvement.

I'm trying out the first set of reeds I bought, the Vandoren blue package 2.5s. They're noticeably harder to blow but I hear a better tone, maybe it's my imagination but I'll give them more time.

Whether to continue with lessons in January is up in the air. I would rather go twice a month than every week as it seems like a better value and perhaps makes more sense for where I'm at. On the other hand the school is convenient to get to. I don't know if I would get a better teacher either, maybe I should look into a one-time lesson with someone though I don't know how useful that would be really. Also I could consider taking ensemble lessons instead.

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08 november 2023

Well it's been an upside down month. Since October 5th I've practiced four times. Covid, then a family trip, then sadly C— passed away and I flew back for a long weekend.

Practicing last night intonation was quite a struggle. Everything else felt normal so I'm wondering if it was the reed, which is one of three I've been using since early July. I guess after four months it could be worn out? I've mostly ignored reed advice up to now. In any case I've marked the reed with an x so I'll see how the other reeds do.

Working on Sunny Side and Hey Jude, which I realized had a much faster tempo than I was imagining, but still keeping it around 80 for now.

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20 october 2023

This journaling is more a brief experiment, as I'm on the road and writing on my phone with the on screen keyboard and ConnectBot. A little portable keyboard would be nice because CB doesnt seem to use Gboard, maybe that's configurable. Anyway, this entry is only notable because I haven't played in almost two weeks. I finally punched my Covid ticket, and with perfect timing tested negative right before this trip of two weeks. We'll see how it goes when I get back.

I'm also wondering what to do with all my lesson credits, I'll have to reschedule some way. Wéekly lessons aren't ideal in that sense...I might need to change teachers if I want biweekly though.

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02 october 2023

The other day I was feeling frustrated that I've been working on the first two A parts of Scrapple for over a month, and only tonight do I really feel close to getting it (at 80 bpm that is, I think the tempo is 240). It's easy to be frustrated. On the other hand when I first looked at the music I couldn't even count it at 40 bpm.

Tonight I got my scales practice sheet (this includes some arpeggios and moving in thirds) including chromatic up to 100, but they're still not 100%. Some are more tricky than others, especially D seems to give me trouble. Outlining chords in the G blues also doesn't feel totally natural yet, or improvising what I hear.

Ear training is getting a little better with the random major practice. Every so often I can really hear the degree (though having the root chord as a reference definitely is a crutch there).

I'm going on a trip later this month and was stressing a little that I wouldn't practice for 10 days, but I'm relaxing a little more about it now. I can always listen to music, do ear training, visualization and what not, and I think with my current practice routine (I've missed one day, and I even 'played' scales on the horn a little that evening when I got home) I have a fairly good base to return to when I get back home.

And oh yeah, Coleman's album Science Fiction is the real deal.

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15 september 2023

Well the call to journal hasn't gone away so I might as well answer it.

First off, I can play exercises and scales faster, though I seem to have hit a plateau with scales around 90 bpm for the past few days. Perhaps a few days is not a plateau. But they're not quite solid at 90 so best to dial them in there before I move on.

I feel like I'm pretty close to playing a fluid two bars of Scrapple. The notes are there, just not totally connected yet.

At yesterday's lesson we improvised for a quite a while, and I still have trouble with playing extended patterns (like 1-3-5-7) over the changes. It just occurred to me that I'm not really thinking of those notes as outlining a chord.

Also at the lesson I mentioned I want to improve at playing the notes I hear while improvising, so I'm going to work on that -- sing a measure, then play a measure over the backing track.

When the student is ready, a teacher appears?

Or perhaps, if you spend enough time on the Internet you find something that interests you. Or more unnerving, the Internet creates what interests you? Best not go there. Anyway, in a 'Free Jazz' topic on Cafe Saxophone someone posted a track from the record Kulak 29, 30 and that led me to the blog of the NYC musician Ellery Eskelin, which hit on multiple levels. His attitude toward improvising, jazz, music, NYC, life -- great reading, and inspiring. The record is also great. I need to listen to more of his music.

Speaking of music, specificially saxophone, I've been listening to a lot of it. Lately it's been Phil Woods, Alexa Tarantino (who led me to Woods), Jaleel Shaw, and Ornette Coleman -- just the beginning there with Shape of Jazz to Come. Tom Skinner's Voices of Bishara has Hutchings on it from Sons of Kemet. Bobby Watson...

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03 september 2023

Getting tempo up is a slow process, as I remind myself daily, while crashing on some phrase at 70bpm. I had a couple of moments today though where my fingers just did their thing without thinking about it. Is that good? Who knows, it felt cool though.

Last night I played for the first time in a jam, (very quietly) along with ER on the trumpet. Figuring out the tune by ear and also the transpositions was a little mind bending but fun and I think a really good, different kind of practice.

Finally learned the first phrase of Scrapple -- at first counting it seemed almost impossible, but with practice it happens.

It was a bit frustrating for a few days where I had some discomfort in my embouchure and just couldn't practice very long, so I didn't push it. I was also just really tired for a couple of days -- maybe it was all related, but anyway I feel better now, and practice today was a lot better.

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24 august 2023

So soon after the last journal entry, am I going to get into the journaling habit? Don't hold your breath, but I've been feeling like getting some thoughts down again.

Today was my fourth lesson and also marks about two months of playing. I don't think I've missed a day of practice, usually a half hour to an hour or so. Today was also my first 45 minute lesson, which goes by fast. There's only time really for a couple of exercises. We spent a fair bit of time on improv today as well.

I don't want to stress too much on the amount of time I've been playing. This seems to be a common theme on the forums, how long a beginner has been playing. I'm not sure why, but it seems linked to a desire for progress. Of course I want progress, but it seems to arrive almost imperceptibly. Flashes when I'm in the middle of sight reading, or my fingers do something semi-consciously. Like I had a mini-epiphany the other day sight reading when my brain connected the ascending and descending 2nds with what my fingers were doing, but the feeling lasted for about two seconds.

At last week's lessons I played the exercises way too fast and made a lot of mistakes. Typically I'm practicing them around 50-60 bpm. A goal for the next couple of weeks (no lesson next week because of school break) is to bring the target tempo up for the exercises and scales I already know. I've covered almost all the first part of Rubank so it seems like a good time to drill down some on that. With the amount of material I'm practicing (a few Rubank exercises, warm up long tones, scales, some improv and some songs) there isn't enough time in a hour to go deep on any of it, and I usually don't even practice everything in one session. I can see now why musicians practice a lot! There's just a lot to practice.

At lessons we haven't focused much on the quality of tone. I'm not sure how much to focus on this (other than trying to produce a good tone when I'm playing). I wonder if it all goes back to the fact that I really haven't been playing that long, and don't worry about it right now. I'm reminded of that essay, Teach yourself programming in ten years.

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13 august 2023

I wanted to journal a little about my saxophone and found that tt has a nice little program ttbp, so let's give this a try. I'm writing this in Nano and fullscreen Konsole so it might take getting used to the shortcuts, but so far it's not bad.

How did it start?

I'm terrible at remembering these kinds of things. Why did I want to play the saxophone? From somewhere came the desire to play wind instruments. Up to now I've played drums, piano and guitar -- basically, percussion instruments if you think of guitar and piano as percussion which I do most of the time. Anyway, I think the saxophone presented itself as an accessible choice to play a wind instrument. I learned that ER has been playing trumpet and maybe that reinforced the thought that this was something I could/should do.

Back in June I was traveling through NYC and walked around for a day, which I love, before my flight. Searching "wind instruments" listed a few shops in Manhattan and I stopped in at Roberto's. A few minutes of a nice chat with a person there and some humbling browsing (in terms of the sticker prices on the instruments) added fuel to the fire (or GAS in the tank as it were), so when I got home the research/obsession began. Looking at the calendar it didn't take very long, because I got home the week of the 18th, and on the 24th I was driving to a garage sale in Tukwila after messaging with someone on CL. Crucially the saxophone was:

The seller, Matt, did play it for me (it sounded good). It's funny, this was very similar to how I bought my first guitar. I replied to a CL ad and went to the guy's apartment, in some kind of public housing up around 65th by the highway. When he opened the door I saw there was several feet of books stacked on the stove in the kitchen, and I said he must not like to cook, which he took with a bemused expression. He played the guitar, it sounded good and I bought it.

So Matt played and told me a little about the saxophone. He was flipping it from eBay (some later searching found a very similar sold listing for an eBay price of $100) and had taken it to his friend Ted Dortch (a known local player) for a look over. I hefted it a bit (I didn't try to play it). Matt was a good salesman. He gave me some general saxophone advice. His parting words were "take good care of it".

I had a saxophone, now what?

In 2023 not only am I living in a time of basically limitless ways to learn something on my own, but there's also the factor of already having tried to learn many things on my own. Inevitably you get a little better at learning every time (obviously the results aren't guaranteed). For music specifically I had tried a couple years of piano lessons with no real self study (eventually my piano practice faded out) and some guitar self study with no lessons, and I guess a couple years of learning electronic music most recently. So I had some specific ideas on how I would approach the saxophone.

The same weekend I took the instrument home I was looking for a new mouthpiece (assuming the one it came with wouldn't be worth much -- it's not too bad really). Coincidentally while browsing local repair shops I found one that was selling used mouthpieces, and with some recommendations from forums in hand I soon had a Selmer s80 C* for $100. A visit to Ted Brown furnished other basic accessories -- cleaning swab, cork grease, tuner, reeds, around $40. Online resources already had provided plenty of beginner learning exercises. Videos and forums, basic techniques. I printed off some exercises and set up a notebook/folder (unreasonably satisfying).

I did want to take lessons -- but not right away. Lessons are a lot more expensive than they were 10 years ago! At least at the rates I've found. There probably are many private teachers here I'm not aware of (and lots online of course, though I'm biased toward in person at the moment), but conveniantly located by me I have basically three options. Two of the three I know the players by name and reputation. More on this later.

So for the month of July I practiced on my own, every day for around 30 minutes. It's hard to forget the first time I tried to play a note. My first try, I left the mouthpiece cap on. The second try, I had the mouthpiece upside down. Wow, I must not be a natural! Finally I figured it out.

I read a forum comment that said learning to play a wind instrument is like finding your voice, and the whole engagement of your voice and body with the instrument I find really fascinating. Is this like the physical connection with a drum? Is it like dancing, where the music is the player and you're the instrument? That analogy doesn't quite make sense, regardless there's a physical connection. I wonder if you could say the same for playing an electronic instrument. The easy answer is "no" but of course I'm typically suspicious of easy answers (not always in a good way I suppose).

After a month of practicing my direction was starting to feel a little aimless, and also I felt I may be reaching a point where I should make sure my fundamentals were sound, so I signed up for lessons. As I mentioned there are two known options. The third is the local music school, which friends recommended, but I didn't know the teacher at all. Fortunately we got on nicely and the lessons (so far I've had two) provide a good structure.

I suppose a lot of what you're paying for is that kind of structure, since I could use the same materials for self learning. And feedback of course. I guess this may depend on a person's teaching style, but it seems a weekly lesson doesn't really provide a lot of time for instruction per se. You go in and do some exercises and the teacher provides a little feedback. If the teacher is constantly lecturing I don't think it would be easy to assimilate all that information, and for feedback to actually happen the student needs to provide input. So it's my impression that most of the responsibilty for learning is still on the student, whether it's lessons or self-study.

Initially I thought I would only take a month of lessons (the school is the most affordable of the three options, but it's still about $250/month, with no biweekly option at this point). However I think I might extend it another month, or perhaps do half hour lessons instead of 45 minutes.

We're using Rubank, which I like, long tone practice, and other materials the teacher has like simple key exercises, and doing basic improvising. I also bought Abersold's volume one play-along book which is good.

In the second lesson the teacher realized I wasn't exactly using the standard embouchure -- my top teeth weren't resting on the mouthpiece. He had noticed that the mouthpiece was moving around a bit as I played. When I started playing I didn't like the sensation of the mouthpiece buzzing against the teeth (I still haven't tried a pad, maybe I should) and since online opinions were all over the place about embouchure it didn't seem like a huge mistake to just use lip pressure top and bottom.

Now after a few days of resting the teeth on top, it's mostly fine -- as in I mostly remember to do it and it sounds roughly the same as before (I probably should try a pad, as I don't want to mark up the mouthpiece too much). One thing I wasn't expecting is that with the mouthpiece more fixed in place I'm much more aware of the rest of my mouth and tongue -- maybe by moving the mouthpiece even just a little bit before it made it more difficult to get sense feedback of the rest of the mouth? Interesting to think about. But the result is that I feel like I have more control than before, which makes sense I guess.

While the first few exercises of Rubank weren't hard to get through, the next few (lots of quarter notes and different intervals) are more difficult. I think the teacher is still gauging how much work to give. I can see why musicians need to practice so much, especially in the beginning.

Miscellany

I have a long list of alto players I'm listening to. I have to say that not bothering with the usual byzantine network audio configuration I've done in the past and just plugging my laptop into the stereo has done wonders for listening to more music. Konitz, Marsh, Cannonball, Dolphy, Hodges, Desmond, Mclean, Bostic, Stitt -- lots of catching up to do. For contemporary players so far I like Jaleel Shaw and Jessica Lurie.

I couldn't resist and bought a fancy in-bell stand (a K&G) because I liked the design -- $100. Also currently using Vandoren Juno 2's, after trying Vandoren blue 2.5's (which also seem fine). I've been told the Selmer S80 likes French-cut reeds (not really sure if I have that or regular cut) so I may look for that next.

The website Taming the Saxophone is very good and its forum Cafe Saxophone my preferred one at the moment. I look at /r/saxophone/ics as well but CS is better. I'm trying to give their ballad of the month a shot too, but my first one (Sad Ones, a very nice recording by Buck Hill) is challenging with the high notes.

Still taking the train to lessons, as I'm a little scared to hurt my saxophone on the bike. Hopefully the anxiety will ease (and biking won't hurt it!).

Well, that's all for now. Let's see how ttbp does publishing this post.

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