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.