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!