Never giving up

whew.

yes. it's been awhile. and you thought the last time "it's been awhile" was awhile. it was.

but enough of that. the house was practically empty, and it was beautiful outside. and i've been thinking a lot about how cool zooey deschanel is, and part of her coolness is that she hangs out with people like joseph gordon-levitt and just plays music. not that i need to hang out with great actors, but i do need to be better with music. or maybe it's just creating that i like.

surprisingly, i didn't sound like someone for whom "it's been awhile" on a woodwind should sound. i had decent tone. and could play for several measures without needing a breath. even the entertainer was sounding better than it has.

so here's hoping the new year means much, MUCH more saxophone.

here's hoping that my 50 odd minutes today won't be for naught in the present future. one obstacle: i'm gone all january to northern and southern argentina. what can a girl do?

but it is at least certain that i will be playing more. creating in general more. and trying not to watch too much of the new girl for fear of making myself too jealous or something. well, at least i have a couple more years on her at northwestern. haha. definitely just kidding!

I missed May

but i found june. i think mentioning the saxophone with mom on skype helped me to remember to take my next free moment in the house to play. i've been struggling to find a time with little to no people in the house since it's so loud. somehow, everything worked out tonight.

it felt really good to play, even if i'm still not very good, and won't be for a long time. what's lovely though is that i can just pick it up again. what i think i need is some good sheet music, and that's hard to find, for free, online. hmm..

oh well, i'll just work out the entertainer till it's perfect.

add 35 minutes!

Desiring perfection

it's the first time i concentrated on a piece for an entire session. perhaps that explains why i could only put in 45 minutes of practice (with a few distractions in practicing other songs). i just kept telling myself how much i do desire to get a song down perfect. and of all the songs, it's the Entertainer. because it just sounds so sick on the sax - let's be honest here.

i shall keep my dream of playing in a big band group. and it will start with joplin.

45min as previously stated.

Excuses, excuses

i played the guitar this week. my fingers have the callouses on them again. ouch. and all in the name of playing for a wednesday meeting that i didn't really want to do. it went okay though. the problem is i can't sing and i foolishly introduced two new songs. that's all right though. it was fun to strum again. can't wait to get back to the sax though!

probably a total of 2 hours practicing + playing.

Octave key love

so.. i can finally make the switch. i breathed in deep, from the diaphragm and not the upper chest of course, and made headway on Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer." i can say that because it was the first time practicing it without changing the embouchure for higher pitch, but rather switching the thumb to another button also known as the octave key.

additionally, i practiced the same two pages from the week before. this time with much better air control and much better rhythm. still want to take my time with those so that i get them close to perfect.

40 precious minutes. i like tuesday nights :)

Keeping up the habit

that's right folks. i did it. i was able to remember the block of time in the tuesday evening hours at the house are more or less free to practice! oh, it's so good.

i felt myself losing air more this time. when i figured out "vengo a adorarte" (here i am to worship), i was blasting through the mouth more than through the lungs. bad, bad. i had a glass of water with me to help me to pace myself, but it was still hard.

by the end of practice time my tone was improving. if i could practice each day i'm sure it would be close to perfect.

practiced hitting the high notes with the octave key instead of changing my embouchure which i hear is a good thing.

aaand... stayed on page 14 and 15 to work on my rhythm. darn you 16th notes!

35 minutes to be added!

Por fin

one of my resolutions this year is getting back into the groove of playing the sax. how does this happen when I have no schedule? it doesn't. so i enter week three of life with a schedule again (thank God), and found a little pocket of time in my tuesday evenings for a little practice.

i honestly don't know if i will be able to practice more than once a week. but better than nothing after all.

i also praise God for muscle memory, because my lungs didn't fail me, nor my lips (they aren't even buzzing). i am in need of working on the long notes, but after a review of most of what i've already learned, i find myself doing much better than i thought i would be after not one, two, three, but for or even five months of practice.

fea actitud, yo sé. pero bueno. aqui estoy.
37 minutes!