Last day of '09

hard to believe, eh? it's unfortunate that my camera is currently out of commission, or else i would have celebrated the new year by playing Auld Lang Syne for you. but what can you do? the camera miraculously worked until the end of my trip to germany, so really, i can't complain.

on to the music. practiced my scales G, C, D and F. they are sounding better as i'm getting used to the sharps and flats. then moved on to book two, and worked on the first couple pages. i've also gotten closer to mastering Be Thou My Vision, which makes for a beautiful melody on the saxophone (not to mention a wonderful song). in fact, as i repeated the song, i closed my eyes and simply let the words of the song be my prayer for the coming year:

be Thou my vision, oh Lord of my heart!
naught be all else to me, save that thou art!
Thou my best thought, by day or by night.
waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light!

be thou my Wisdom, thou my true Word
i ever with Thee, Thou with me, Lord
Thou my great Father, i thy true son
Thou in me dwelling, and i with Thee one.

riches i heed not, nor man's empty praise,
Thou mine inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
high King of heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of heaven, my victory won,
may i reach heaven's joys, oh bright heav'ns Son!
heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
still be my vision, oh Ruler of all.

that is all.

56 + 1.25 = 57.25 hours

A julie and julia knock off?

on the plane ride home, i watched the 2009 film featuring meryl streep and amy adams. i felt unoriginal for taking on this endeavor and blogging about it. and yet, i also know that keeping this public will help me to remain consistent with practicing.

i just assure you that i'm not trying to follow all the rage by blogging. like the character julie, this is a way i relax. both by playing music, as well as writing it all out.

more importantly, i'm glad to return so that i can practice again! i decided just to work through book one again, not knowing how much i needed for refresher. i'm sounding pretty good, so i'll move on for next practice. i will just need.. to catch.. my breath.. wow altitude. wow. :P

add another hour!!

You gotta get up

welp, we rocked it. sure, we could've done so much better, but still. my first performance in a long time, my first just with the saxophone. i'm content.

i'm just a little sad that i won't get to play for the next two weeks. a little sad because i mean, i'll be a bit busy across the pond. :)

one more hour added to the total.

and p.s. brian and kyle, you might as well become followers now.

Band practice

yep. just a little more today, about 1.75 hours.

honestly, the beginning of practice was pretty bad, but we got it by the end. the verse is still challenging, but it's also not mandatory, because it's two short riffs that you can do without. at least in my opinion.

my lips are so red right now, i must giggle a little about that. and then take a shower.

54 total hours. me gusta mucho!!

OHMANOHMANOHMAN

I'M SUPER EXCITED FOR THIS SUNDAY!!! IT'S MY FIRST PERFORMANCE, AND WE PRACTICED TODAY AND WE SOUND PRETTY GOOD!!

not to mention too, that justin was playing a streetlight song, and i was able to figure out the melody. this makes playing saxophone even more fun.

you can add 2 more hours to my practice time. :))))))))))

45 minutes

it's unfortunate that i couldn't complete my hour. the good news though, is that i have my part down for christmas spectacular, which is probably the most pressing. i just wish i had a bit more time to advance in my playing as a whole.

and i know it's partly my fault for trying to figure out christmas songs instead of looking at the book. :P nonetheless, i also think i'm at the point where it's going to take a LOT longer to get better at this. must focus on tone and eighth notes!

So much to do

and so little time.

i have much before next sunday/monday. sunday is a big day, because i will actually be performing (as is my dream) in front of the whole church playing ska music. it's exhilerating just to think of it. but i also leave the next morning for a two week vacation to germany.

the point is, i only practiced for an hour. i worked on a couple pieces from the book, i focused more so on christmas music (adding Greensleeves to the mix) and the song for sunday.

i need to clean, and semi-pack, as well as other work things that i can squeeze into today before the week starts. boy how time can fly!

Tone building

that's right! i spent about 20 minutes again on my scales, and other than going through the first of the book, i worked on tone. thankfully, the book provides warm-up routines for me to better establish said tone. it just takes time.

one more hour added to the total. i'm 15 min from hitting hour 50!!!!

We three kings

the cool thing about this is i figured out the song without sheet music. however, it is once again clear that i have a continuous battle with tone. i could get frustrated, or i could just remember that it comes with the territory.

i choose the latter.

the beginning pages of book two were also worked on by me (how do you like passive sentence?). as a lot more eighth notes are included in these songs, as well as more flats/sharps, it takes a little bit more time to perfect the music. fine by me. i still have 950 hours to go, right? hehe.

1.5 hour today. that's not counting the possible practice for christmas spectacular coming up. oh snap.

A weird hour

but it still counts. i mainly just worked on figuring out a bunch of christmas songs. i got a hold of ariel, and so i should have the chance to play We Three Kings for her some time this week. i'm excited for that!

the reason it was a weird hour was because it was split in two between a conversation with my folks. that's okay though. always a pleasure chatting with them.

i need to finish some laundry and such before i leave for merge tonight. i'm so glad tuesday is december!!

Let's start at the very beginning.

a very good place to start.

that is, i've finished book one and moved on to the second! and in the transition time, i figured out part of Do-Re-Mi from the sound of music. that's why the title is so appropriate :)

working on the ska song for christmas spectacular. not easy, but not too hard either. gotta be very persistent with that sucker!

in other news, i was able to get book three for free from kendra's place, because her sister used to play. i hear kaci won't miss it. so hooray for that.

1.5 hours. 1000 hours seems far away, and yet i feel so accomplished so far. praise God for helping me with all of this!

Back home

it feels good to play in my room again. i know i was only gone for a few days, felt like i was intruding a little, playing in their house. it also meant that i got to practice the song for christmas spectacular. woot!

another hour of good scales and songs. hooray. 44.25 total hours.

Kenny G

so i just practiced another hour at the hansen's place. aka, the hansion. i was wondering how rory their cat would respond, and sure enough, she ran away. but thankfully, to my rescue was both cody and liz saying that i was pretty good. in fact, they called me kenny g. i laughed, but i'll take a compliment when i can get one.

decent practice. highly distracted, but i enjoyed playing for my friends very much!

Eine kleine nachtmusik

another hour is added to my total time. i have so many things to do before heading out to michigan tomorrow morning, so i needed to practice and do laundry at the same time. but northwestern is pretty savvy at teaching us to multitask, so all i have left is one load to go into the drier and folding.

neither here nor there..

i went through almost the entire book! i felt like reviewing what i've learned so as not to forget it. like with languages, sometimes you gotta get back to the basics and return to memorizing vocabulary.

any who, i ended on Mozart's piece, and it is sounding better and better. although, because i ended on it, i know that i was getting out of breath faster, and i was a little airy. more to work on!

Done with book one?

not quite. but ever ever so closer to finishing! i can taste it.

again, i worked on scales for the first twenty minutes and then proceeded to the final pages of the book. when i was done with those for the evening, i decided to work more on figuring out some songs:

1.) more of Somewhere over the Rainbow
2.) perfecting Come Thou Fount
3.) a new one--O Come All Ye Faithful

now i know for that final one that it's not yet thanksgiving. christmas music is technically illegal. but i figure it sounds so sweet on this instrument that you're bound to forgive me. am i right?

1.25 additional practice time.

Scales and arpeggio

i chose to focus on scales (G, C, D and F) for the first twenty minutes of practice today, and i swear it made such a difference. even the next time i played Hatikva, it sounded so much better! i can see how scales affect range and tone so much. it's like when i go to play basketball, i usually spend about fifteen minutes on the short bank shots before i shoot anything else. if i don't do that, i often struggle with making the threes.

note to self: small steps before taking on bigger projects!

1 more hour. Die Stunde.

More review

today's hour and a half was again just going over the final pieces in the book. to tell the truth, i snuck a peak at book two, but then decided i'd rather play some of the older songs some more. again, i'm at a point where i just have to go over the music until i'm sick of it. but i hear that's usually a good sign for a musician.

i did get the tab for the song i'm playing for christmas spectacular. i worked on it for a few minutes. it's very repetitive, so i think i can get it. i have a feeling i'll struggle with the chorus section, however..

39 hours. hot dog!

Hatikva and the A

here is your glimpse of me sorta getting that high A i keep complaining about.

a pretty great practice over all. i really am practically done with the book, but am determined to get the pieces down even better. it made me think though, do you think they make it so you finish book one quickly and are thus encouraged to continue on? they're pretty sneaky if that's true!!

nonetheless, 1.25 hours.

and.. so there have been a couple moments of me tilting the saxophone, or whilst i'm cleaning the mouthpiece and spit drops on me. it's funny that i get grossed out by this, considering that it's my spit in the first place. just a thought.

Teacher discount

so today i went to the music store to get book 2. you know, as something to look forward to. any way, over at music and arts (you would think they were sponsoring me for how much i mention them here), i perused the store for all sorts of future hard core saxophone solos.

when i finally just landed on book 2, i was asked whether i was a student or a teacher.

"well, i'm teaching myself?" i shrugged.

the man responded, "ahh, so you're the teacher AND the student."

i chuckled.

"in that case," he said. "you get the teacher discount."

aww shucks!

Phew

this was a hard practice as these pieces get complicated. funny enough though, i enjoy the 3/4 better than the 4/4 time, even if i mess up on it more. i don't really know why, it's just my preference.

particularly with Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky's Capriccio Italien. a.) that guy is a stud (maybe because he's russian, but mostly because he is the reason for the amazing soundtrack in disney's "sleeping beauty") and b.) it reminds me of floating down a river. maybe this is me recalling Barcarolle, i dunno. it's just the way i roll.

additionally, the band arrangements are hard because they do not always allow me to play the melody. while every inkling of my heart desires to figure it out any way (and sometimes do :P), i have to really force myself to play what's written out for me.

and finally, there are many moments where i understand what Adolphe Sax was talking about when having this instrument be a go between of the brass and woodwinds--there are definitely moments it sounds like a flute!!

1.5 hours + 34.75 = 36.25 hours.

Final touches

right now i'm just going through the final pieces. i end up marking the places i need to work on, but don't linger too long on something because i don't want to get sick of it. there are several pieces and a great variety at that--from America the Beautiful, to La Cucaracha to Theme from 1812 Overture. let's just say i've got my work cut out for me, but it's exciting to be working on more complicated pieces!

i also went through almost every other song i've learned thus far in the book. it's weird to remember how hard these earlier pieces were for me, and yet now i get them just fine. in other words, God is good.

another 1.25 hours added to my total. hip hip..

Nearly done

a little practice.. a little phone call to germany.. a little more practice.

i'm seriously almost done with the book now. i have gotten to the end which just has pieces of all sorts. the bummer is that they are band arrangements, so i don't get the full effect. and i miss out on some of the melody, so i think i'll work to figure those out on my own. nonetheless, it also feels pretty sweet to get this far.

1.5 hours and i'm getting sleepy. quick nap before merge?

Stupid high A

yeah. worked on that note a lot. mainly transferring high to low, high to low, low to high, low to high and so on and so forth. i can imagine it was just as annoying to my host family as it was for me. :P i'm trying though. and i'll keep doing so. (when you write things down it makes them more real after all!)

got interrupted by an invitation to dinner. so peace out folks!

1.25 hours!

Just an hour

i've learned to bring a cup of water with me while i play, so my mouth doesn't dry out. i've noticed that i squeak a lot less when this is the case.

just reviewed some of my stuff, and practiced my Eflat/Dsharp and Bflat/Asharp notes. i'm still struggling with high A though. mainly when it comes to hitting a low note before it and transferring to the high one. kind of a bummer when i'm trying to play Hatikva. keep truckin!

peace.

Have you ever thought..?

..about how complicated musical instruments are? as i learn alternative ways to play the same note, i can't help but think of the maker of this instrument. how did he (Aldophe Sax) know? why arrange the keys the way he did? and the creator of the french horn? wow!!

the piccolo.. the trumpet.. or going to the stringed instruments, the mandolin!!!

it's insane. and crazy cool. crazy cool that God has given the gift of music to people (see the sons of Korah), simply to help people bring praise to God in another way.

i practiced another 1.5 hours today. fully figured out the main riff in Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and worked on O Canada even more. my only real cause of stress (though not much at that) was playing high A. sometimes i've got it, and then it's like it just disappears. weird, but something i look forward to working on!

Parched

i have found myself parched after this past hour of practice. i turned the pages further back and worked on each piece until it was perfect (twice) before moving on. what was encouraging is that it didn't take to long to do so for most of the songs!

when i got closer to where i really am in the book though, i was definitely having a harder time. mainly with breathing. and then the instrument would squeak seemingly out of nowhere. that was frustrating. and so i turned my instrument upside down only to have a bunch of spit come out. my frustrations quickly turned to laughter. as well as, "gross!" lol

any way, my total thus far is 28.75 hours! not bad for just barely three months.

2:30-4:15 minus 30 min..

how long is that? that's how long i practiced.

i just can't do the math (and/or refuse to :P). i'll figure it out later.

the point is i played a few for my parents via skype as they are in germany now (talked with pops for a little afterward). then i played some of the songs i'm learning, and then i just messed around. i figured out most of Somewhere Over the Rainbow which also sounds pretty sweet on the sax. then i worked on tone, since the stupid D kept squeaking on me. argggg.

twas an average practice. i was distracted by a conversation on gchat with a friend from college, so i don't think i played as well as i could have.

So musical

..or something.

i practiced the piano for an hour before i came to the sax. i already notice a difference in my ability to sight read.

this time, i worked on the israeli national anthem, Hatikva, as well as some of the pieces that come before it. seriously. i am pages away from finishing book one which is cool. but i'm determined to take things slow. in part, i'll have to, because i'm not good enough. in part, i want to get the music down as perfect as possible.

today's hour(ish) was very fun!

Snow day 2

yolanda had surgery this morning, which led to just noah and i chillin in the house as it continued (and continues) to snow. that put me in charge of making sure he did his school work, as he is homeschooled, and chores.

so i decided to practice upstairs this time. the accoustics in the living room are so different from in my room, but i still sounded pretty good. for an amateur. i walked through a lot of my old, but more challenging songs, and even learned Auld Lang Syne in the meantime. that song is boss on the saxophone (pardon me for watching too much "Juno." jk). i'm planning on playing it to bring in the new year!!

que mas? an hour and ten today. very minimal squeaking, so that was nice.

Snow day

i just got word that it was a snow day at work in the middle of my practice time this morning. that allowed for me to practice for an hour and 20, as opposed to just an hour this morning. and who knows? maybe i'll practice s'more later.

my only problem is i have a little somethin-somethin in my throat, and i feel it's affecting my playing. oh well. New World Symphony is sounding pretty good. and i figured out Amazing Grace.

O can a duh

that's right. i continued to perfect the canadian nat'l anthem. i still need help, but as the pieces get longer i realize so will my amount of practice time for them. that's life. (wow, so many lessons realized from the metaphor of learning an instrument!)

i recorded this for you, and it's all right. my struggle comes from breathing, which i really need to work on if i'm supposed to play for christmas spectacular in less than fifty days. which reminds me, we've picked out the song--Gotta Get Up by five iron frenzy. it's the ska version of rich mullins' song. you can look it up!

so yes. breathing. my flat and sharp notes. and i need to work on my tone. what else? this is so fun! um.. i've learned two scales! now i'm just rambling.

1.5 more hours.

duhn-na-na-na-na-na-duhn-na-duhn-na-na-na-na-na-na...

not every day that you see batman playing the sax. say hello to my less than 10 dollar find at the thrift store. thank God for little boy costumes--lol! i just practiced for 20 min. i got lots more to do today before the all-nighter starts!

oh, and i squeaked a lot. which is a bummer. the suit made up for it ;)

21.5 hours have been reached.

Good company

i practiced for 1.5 hours. from perfecting Scarborough Fair, to learning the beginning of O Canada, i just kept working on everything in order to get it down. near the end i think my lungs were getting tired, because i was running out of breath faster. and since i was squeaking on certain notes again, i made sure to thoroughly clean my instrument in the end.

at the end of practice i was working on my low notes when i realized i was playing a familiar song. it's called You and Me, and comes from Disney's "Oliver and Company." that was one of my favorites growing up. so i youtubed (new verb) the song and figured out the chorus. kinda cute.

definitely have surpassed the 20 hour mark!! ole!

5 intentional hours

no, i didn't practice for 5 hours. but i did practice for one. it's just that i didn't get started on my day till 12 (spent 2 hours blogging before that--yikes), and my goal was to get things done till dinnertime at the nelson's. so far so good:

• dishes. done
• letter to Lexi. done.
• laundry. done.
• car. clean.
• room. clean.
• practice sax. done.
• beat rojas at scrabble. done and done. :P

to go:

• return and re-check out german audio cds at the library.
• go for a walk.
• start a new book ("your God is too small").
• put together ideas for fusion tomorrow night.

so let me go take care of those things now! oh, and i think i'm at 19ish hours. saweeeeeet!!

For bajanna

i got in a quick thirty minute practice. i need to get food before i leave for merge, but i just wanted to mention that i did play today! it was fun, mainly just going over the stuff that i worked really hard on yesterday, as well as a couple older pieces.

janna got on skype and i played for her real quick. she also showed me her apartment and we chatted a little about life. she's the best!

The greats

i feel like since i've started learning the sax, i've come to appreciate more music. i've always enjoyed classical music, but i've never really known of what that consisted. i know the famous names: mozart (even been to his home town!), tchaikovsky, rachmaninoff, etc.

i mention this because i just learned Minuet by Bach, and i'm working on March Militaire by Schubert (hehe, that rhymes). as i turned the page to see what was ahead, other than learning Scarborough Fair :), there was a piece from Antonin Dvorak's New World Symphony. i checked it out on youtube, and you should click here to hear it for yourself. beautiful, no?

any way, today i practiced for an hour and it was really good. in general, i'm on a music kick or something because yesterday i played my guitar, and the day before that, i learned four notes on kendra's trumpet. it's hard for me not to want to become a jill of all trades with musical instruments once i get started. that's kind of like me and languages. hmmm...

Patience and endurance

this video took several takes (and still is far from perfect), as i was struggling with the B flat. it's okay though, i'm slowly learning that lesson that i just gotta keep practicing. i have every motivation to keep at this instrument, which is comforting. the thousand hour challenge really makes me desire discipline.

discipline just so happens to be a funny thing though. because sometimes it means that when i practice, i only play a few measures over and over and over and over. the hope is the payoff. for me that means not only hitting my notes with great tone, but hitting those little half and eighth notes with ease. it's tough stuff!

40 more minutes.

Una mas

i just completed another hour of practice. i learned the B flat (hmm.. i should figure out how to type the flat and sharp signs), and took time practicing the different simple songs that includes said note. i am struggling with it because it is so similar to the A, so sometimes i confuse B, A, and B flat. if that makes sense.

any way, i'm also coming along slowly now, as i was mainly on two pages, just working to get the different songs down pat. patience is a virtue after all!

now to grab some dinner before church!

Day off

i got a text saying they wouldn't need me at work today after all. i was rather bummed, but i suppose i can do my best to have a day of rest that doesn't have to do with sickness recovery.

i practiced for an hour, starting again from the beginning of the book and working my way close to where i actually am. it was good to work on tone even more (i don't think that can be worked on enough), as well as breathing technique. i noticed during my practice the other day that a lot of air was escaping, so obviously i'm doing something wrong. right now i think it has to do with the chap-ness of my lips, but i'll keep working to figure it out.

nonetheless, still a decent practice. it's exciting to know that i'm nearing hour number twenty!

15.5 hours total.

Still got it

i just practiced for an hour. it wasn't so amazing, because it's very apparent that i have a long way to go. but it is also a lot of fun. it's relaxing for me to play and to goof off, as i did today. after all, why should anyone play a simple version of Ode to Joy? exactly. so i worked for about half an hour spicing it up a little. i still gotta perfect it, but it's so jazzy and cool!!

as i looked ahead to the next pages i noticed that there is more music theory for me to focus on. while i'm not excited about that, i know it's necessary, so i pray for patience.

i also have added the Pink Panther Theme Song to my list that i would like to learn someday.

Sick

in case you were wondering about my lack of practice time, it's cause i'm sick. if i were at my house, i would include pictures or something, but i'm also house-sitting for the week at a student's place.

so.. i got nothin'. but i'm not too sorry because i'm much more concerned about getting better. as well as not putting germs into my beautiful instrument!

All right

yeah, today was all right. i actually went in thinking, 'you know, not every day is going to be as fun as yesterday, but that's part of the growth right?' the point of this blog is to recognize that there are good days as much as there are bad, but sometimes you just got to pull through them.

any way. it was average. i squeaked a bit more than usual, but still played a majority of my songs well. i noticed places where i need to focus more on the notes, or tone.. and i've circled a particular song that i'm struggling with and hope to get nailed down by next week. goals goals goals.

so yeah. 40 minutes before a meeting at the church. ole!

New record

i just practiced for 1.5 hours!! it was so fun. i learned a couple variations to Twinkle, Twinkle and i also learned the song Banana Boat which is their title for the song where you sing:

DEYYYYY-OOOHHHHHH
ME SAY DEYYYYYY-OOOOOHHHHH
DAYLIGHT COME AND ME WANT TO GO HOME!

i don't know why i just caps locked that, but there you go. since i am getting ahead of myself, i went back to the beginning of the book and worked through all those songs for a good 4o min of the time. practiced tone as well as half notes.

and in between there, got a skype call from rojas, so i got to play the two new songs for him real quick. that was sweet! hopefully i can keep this amount of time for practicing up, then i might catch up to my dad. nah, probably not. but it's still good to keep it up if i want to play ska by christmas. i've already voted that my goal of playing on street corners will have to wait for the warmer spring air of 2010.

Barcarolle

tonight i practiced for 40 minutes. when i came upstairs to watch heroes with my host family, they said, "thanks for serenading us with your saxophone tonight! we loved listening while we ate dinner!"

i think they were specifically talking about Barcarolle. i had started playing this song from my beginner book (meaning it's a very easy version of it) realizing that it sounded so familiar. i finally went to google to check it out. sure enough, it's the song from the opera that the main characters in "Life is Beautiful" go see. and when you wikipedia the word barcarolle, it refers to the rhythm of the songs sung by gondoliers in venice. how cool is that?

i've also officially figured out all of Come thou Fount, so that's fun.

tonight was a good one. 11.33 hours total.

Attack of the sax! (twinkle, twinkle)

over friday and sunday, i practiced a total of 60 min. i was going to do more today, but i got hungry. :P

i'm getting better, although i obviously need more practice. it has simply been encouraging to turn the pages and learn more songs. nonetheless, i will try to be more patient and stick to really getting the easier sections down perfect. if i write it down, that will help me be better at it, right?

thanks for reading! have a happy week.

Gooooooood

maybe it's the weather, maybe it's the thought of going to a baseball game tonight. whatever it is, today's 40 min practice was great! started off a little squeaky, but then it just clicked. i had super tone, and ended up moving on to several pages just because of how excited i was to learn new notes and new songs.

maybe it was listening to the song Tequila yesterday and thinking, 'wouldn't it be awesome to be able to rock that solo?!'

i dunno. but i now know part of the Mexican Clapping Song, When the Saints, and Ode to Joy. holler!

It's the altitude

thirty minutes of very few rests in between means sharayah is out of breath!

i worked a lot on that blasted G again, because it likes to make the sound an octave higher. to which i say, no me gusta! however, it was a good practice. i spent quality time on the first couple of pages this morning, and then played a couple of the basic songs on the other pages until i could play them without making a mistake. repetition is the mother of learning, after all!

welp, now i'm off to lunch with lexie--you'll get to read about that in my other blog!

Skip to my lou

can you guess what song i learned today? that's right, i practiced more of my half notes. i also learned what a fermata is. or relearned. i mean, i did study music a long time ago..

today included 30 minutes of minimal squeaking, and decent tone. i can also add F# to my list of known notes!

and as a side note, i'm working on adding a couple pictures on here. i just get a little lazy sometimes. but after cleaning not only the inside, but the outside of my sax today, i got excited on showing it off s'more. all in time, all in time. for now, just words and pics kept for my 2 favorite followers.

With an audience

it gives me great pleasure to post today. i played all the way through to page ten, which meant utilizing the half note. the half note is a challenge when it comes to breathing instruments, because the tendency, at least for me, is to slur. however, i know the importance of distinguishing notes, particularly for overly simplified versions of William Tell's Overture!!

and, ladies and gents, my host brother came in. he said, "i heard you from upstairs, and i was wondering if i could watch."

aww shucks!

so i played a little diddy for him. "that was great!" he said.

thirty precious minutes. i think wednesdays are good days.

Not so great

today's practice was cut short because it just wasn't pretty. i know i'm allowed to have these days, but they can still be annoying. i was at least able to practice all of my notes--going back to old school long notes for the sake of tone. however, i just kept squeaking. particularly on the D which is usually my best note. what can you do?

i chose to cut short the practice to a mere 15 min, which at the very least puts my total to an even number, which is good for all of those symmetrical type folks. (maybe next time i will torture you with a 17 min practice or something :P )

any way. tonight is going to be a long one, so maybe it's best for me to take a quick nap any way.
shalom.

7.25

two days in a row of practicing? yessir! love it. and love that i'm past page six.

i mainly replay everything leading up to page seven until it sounds all pretty and such. i still squeak every now and then, but learning how to clean my sax really helps take care of that.

my friend said that the sax is the easiest woodwind to pick up. but that doesn't stop it from sounding so cool! and besides, the flight of the bumblebee will be the ultimate, it'snotaseasyasitlooks moment. once i get there of course. you'll have to excuse me for dreaming, as i was perusing the music store the other day and saw that crazy solo in the 130 songs for the alto sax book.

6.75 hours in

the neck strap makes all the difference. have i mentioned that? i am now able to play many more basic songs, though i'm finding entertainment out of figuring out some hymns (more of come thou fount as well as be thou my vision--i stick to songs with the word thou in them). good stuff.

practiced for thirty minutes yesterday in between a game or two of scrabble, work at the warehouse, and high point's messy games. i'm becoming more confident of that eventual ska night.

my lips turn really red after practicing. makes me chuckle on the inside. it is also simply a joy to do something i didn't think i'd get around to this year. praise the Lord. oh, how continued visions of playing on the street corners and perhaps using that as a way to a) earn small amounts of cash and b) share my faith is rather stimulating!

Tejas practice

i played for an hour on saturday, in between all sorts of texas shenanigans, as one of my new friends likes to call it. i only squeaked a little, and it came as soon as mom came into the room. fascinating.

both mom and pops said i sound pretty good for a self-starter. for only having played a few weeks too!

i officially learned the new note, E, and was then able to play "twinkle twinkle." you know you love it. :D

on top of all of this, i have a neck strap. thanks to dad. thanks to music and arts, provider of all of my saxophone equipment (practice book, reeds, cork grease, care kit, etc.). the only bummer to music and arts in my dad's opinion is that it's really just music supply.

"music IS art," the cashier said.

"so why don't they call it that?" was my dad's reply.

6.25 total hours practiced.

Squeakish

today's practice involved a lot of squeaking. it was weird. i changed reeds, and was reminded of the funny taste of wood. idk, i guess i got used to my last one. that helped a little bit, but it looks like it might have something to do with my embouchure. it might also have something to do with my instrument.

and i still need to get a neck strap.

near the end, i was sounding all right, and even started figuring out "come thou fount." i guessed on a couple of the higher notes, which was a little confidence booster, mainly bc this song is presently my favorite hymn.

30 minutes more. i'm excited to practice when i get to texas!

At the sonnenberg's

officially moved in, i have time to practice! today it was after a lovely dinner with the nelson family, although i'm about to at least join (just not eat with) the sonnenberg's for dinner as well.

today i worked s'more on the G. i know, i feel so weak at not being able to get it down. but it also lends to that small perfectionist part of me. i want to get it right every time!

practiced breathing at the right time, as well as a couple more short and simple songs. "march steps" is my current favorite (outta the way, hcb ;).

30 minutos.

Rough day

i practiced my thirty minutes, but it was at the end of a very very very very very long day. i'm tired. so that didn't help my G, though i think it might've gotten better. i guess that's the optimistic side of me.

any way. i practiced sight reading. it's a whole lot easier when you only know 4 notes well ;)

i also practiced my breathing. page 6 (gasp) has breathing marks about every two measures. it looks like this:

'

i know. it blows your mind. haha.

HCB

today i again had a small window in which to practice. i intended, actually, to practice more a little later. God always has His plans though. i ended up talking with an amazing gal about youth ministry for 4ish hours, which means i didn't come home till late and now i'm super tired.. thus, 30 minutes of practicing that stupid G again.

and i learned a few more higher notes. it's fun to play part of a scale now.

i just keep squeaking on the G.. grrrrr.. haha.

the good news is, i successfully played "hot crossed buns" for my parents. after, i figured out "mary had a little lamb," as well as a smidge of "tale as old as time." you know, from beauty and the beast. don't get your hopes up though for anything.

and a side note. all the animals i'm house-sitting definitely leave the area while i play. i don't blame them :P

1 hour at the pace's place

i have successfully completed a straight hour of practice. :)

this includes continuing the long note, focusing on the G and the A since they are my hardest so far, as well as practicing a g-a-b-a-g sequence. the book offers a little 4 measure sequence that i worked on. over and over. as the russian saying goes, "repetition is the mother of learning!"

and well.. to be honest, i looked over at page 6 (gasp). there it was, "hot crossed buns." the elementary school days came back to me so quickly. haha. soon i will be page 6 worthy, but i just have to keep reminding myself that i just started playing this instrument last week.

total hours thus far: 3.25.
total to go: 996.75

No practice, but i did dream

today i had a 7 hour shift at the warehouse, followed by finishing up at the bowman's, followed by a few hours doing more renovation work at the church, followed by a "relaxing" movie (xxx: state of the union) with the banichs. in other words, i didn't get to practice.

boo.

but. i did talk with justin about the possibility of a ska worship night by december (by december!?!). we were inspired because i tuned into some five iron, some streetlight, and some ska recommended by justin via grooveshark.com while a small group of us renovated.

this means i really need to step it up. that's a good thing i suppose. just a little nerve-wrecking. and yet, how sweet would a ska night be? answer: very sweet. :)

30 mo minutes

i had a small window of opportunity to practice today, so i took advantage. i practiced my quarter notes, doing a 4 quarter note + whole note sequence, followed by a 4 count rest. over and over and over.. probably for about 10 minutes straight. all of my known notes were used, and i noticed how much i need to work on the G.

small victory: no more issues with putting on the reed. :)

Learning some notes

so.. other than practicing holding notes, i've also decided to work on my d, c, b, a and g. they are all included on pages 4 and 5 of my practice book--two pages i plan on spending a lot of time on before moving ahead.

as you can hear, i have a long way to go. however, i thought documenting this would make me feel much better later on in life, Lord willing.

45 minutes today. means my mouth is very sore and very dry. it's worth it. in the mean time, i'm off to hang out with some folks for the evening!

The long note

"practice long tones each day to develop your sound."

this is one of the first commands from my alto saxophone book one. so that's what i've done today for about thirty minutes. it has been quite tiring, but i suppose that's part of the package deal--learning to play well will take time and consistency. hopefully, i can try again a little more after college group tonight.

but so far, these are the thoughts that go inside my head whilst i play.. if that's what you want to call it:

--my lips are buzzing from the vibrating reed and it tickles!
--an essential to playing this instrument well will be developing my lung muscles.
--and my lip muscles. boy, how tight they get!
--the taste of the reed is growing on me.

mental note. i learned from one of the youtube videos that when i breathe, i shouldn't raise my shoulders. i remember this from a long time ago when learning the flute. time to put it back into practice!

30 minute intro

on the way to buying the bundy alto sax, i was shaking a little. 'this is about to be real!' i thought.

i met ben at the denver diner, where i asked him brief questions about why he was selling the sax. he said that his mom has been diagnosed with cancer, and that he is saving up to pay for his truck and then move out to be with and take care of her. i thought that was precious, and wanted to share so that you could be praying for ben's mother.

oh, the ride home was glorious. i got a phone call from mom as i was nearing the bowman's house (where i'm house sitting). i took care of the dog and rabbit first. that is after all, what i'm getting paid to do. besides, i had to let the mouthpiece soak in antibacterial soap before i could even touch it--to be on the safe side.
and so.. naive sharayah began assembling her very own $200 saxophone.. only to realize she didn't know how. haha. returning to first person, i retreated to youtube to answer all of my questions. and after one broken reed (oops), it was ready for action!

i made a sound on my first try! (take that middle school band teacher!) granted, i couldn't make a sound after that, but i decided to learn proper finger placement first any way. i realized there is more i need to invest in, such as a neck strap, and s'more reeds. i've already bought a cleaning kit and a basic how-to book (that includes dvds) from the local music and arts store, but i also need to replace one of the pads, which i hear is not too expensive.

then of course, i had to try to make the sound again. it's been so long since i've had to make an embouchoure for an instrument. i forgot how tense the mouth muscles have to be. and on top of all this, i've never played a reed instrument before. perseverence is key, and i did make the sound again! i felt so powerful--like the time i had made fire for the first time while camping (also for the first time) at the end of high school. 'LOOK AT ME! I CAN MAKE SOUND!' (pound the chest)

any way, i practiced holding the note for awhile. up to a ten count. then learned my first official note--D. 30 minutes is a long time when learning an instrument without any instruction!

History of instrumentation

i felt like a brief review of my past explorations with music might be fun to write about. so here i go..

i began with the kazoo. i'm still a pro. haha. then of course, there was the recorder that most everyone learns in elementary school. but "hot crossed buns" only goes so far. i was proud of myself for learning the snake charmer's song by ear, however.

at the end of elementary school, i took up the piano, taking lessons from my music teacher at college street elementary. i don't remember being very good, mainly because practice time was invaded by sports or just playing outside in general. i do remember performing beethoven's "fur elise" for the 5th grade talent show--my pinnacle of piano playing, as after that year i was done.

i went on to play the flute. ahh.. the story of the flute. the band teacher from my middle school came into offer us a wide variety of instruments to play. she brought in all of the mouth pieces, and set us down, one by one, to figure out what we should play.

i came into that meeting with every intention of playing the sax. my mom played the sax. my dad played the sax. it was my turn in that extensive line of saxophone playing family members (wink), to play the sax. i explained this to her, and she gave me one glance before she said,

"hm.. well you see, we have a lot saxophone players all ready. how about you play the flute?"

"i don't want to play the flute."

she literally forced the flute's mouth piece to my face and asked me to breathe. a weak, deep tone was made.

"look at that, you even made a sound on your first try!"

i looked at her. there was no winning this one.

thankfully, and perhaps out of my subconscious desire for revenge, i ended up having a better quality flute than that band teacher. it was a pure silver gemeinhardt that i was borrowing from my aunt. i also frustrated her because i refused to challenge the first chair flautist (gotta love that word). i wasn't the nicest person in middle school. and i still have my moments. oops.

so i played the flute. for about a year and a half. the band teacher's mantra was that band was greater than life, and i just couldn't agree.

fast forward to sophomore year of high school and it was time to take up the guitar. i mean, who wasn't taking up the guitar? i got lessons from a dear high school friend, and ended up doing fairly well. i haven't improved much, but i can pick up most songs i want to play, with a little time.

and there you have it. you could say with this blog, i'm attempting to go back to my true calling. to the way nature, maybe even God, intended. i mean, i love music. i love jazz especially (though you wouldn't tell from looking at my cd collection/itunes), because of the way it conveys the mood. donald miller puts it well.

The journey continues

like frodo, i'm on a journey. thankfully it has nothing to do with dropping a ring into an active volcano while being sought after by probably the most evil creature in all of middle earth, and having a schizophrenic as one of my side kicks (at least there was sam).

no, my journey is different, and i'm saying that it continues because it's not like i started today. besides, how weird would it be to start blogging after exiting the womb? that's not how it works, silly.

my journey is continuing this day (although perhaps more correctly tomorrow) with my choice to take up the saxophone!

why the sax? well, my friend, i'm so glad you asked. i've been wanting to play for quite awhile now, and this past new year's resolution included finding the time to learn. that has been a helpful motivation, along with craigslist offering fairly reasonably priced beginner's alto saxophones. i've been looking for a month or two, and finally found one within my price range. i am to look at it, perhaps even buy it, tomorrow.

as for the title of the blog, this comes from a recent conversation with pops about the truism, "if you do something for 1000 hours, you'll get good at it." so as an additional motivation for me, i hope to keep this blog as a way to be faithful to 1000 hours of learning the saxophone. so get ready for the joys, frustrations, etc. of my continuing journey!