Más adelante

practiced for 2 and a half hours this week. i have been a bit distracted by the fact that my knee is not in the best of shape. in fact it was kind of funny: 

that's what i call dedication, folks! haha

but i have still been practicing! so there. while i skipped the weekend due to a cold, i worked on a couple songs this week. could use some patience, but at the very least, moving forward.

like i said, 2.5 hours.

Moonriver

welp. i got a lot of practice time in, but a lot of it was spent on trying to figure out what key to play in with What a Wonderful World in order to match the piano part that was sent to me. once again, the difficulty of an instrument that is in another key.

i am hopeful. but sometimes for a good result you have to work hard.

i worked hard to a point and then gave up for now. recorded myself playing Moonriver and it made me glad. haha. perhaps i am too easy to please.

1.25 hours today. :)

Beautiful day

today has been a day of getting 'er done:

finances: check
steph and joy's english talk treatise: check (minus a feeeew details)
bike ride to wal-mart for groceries: check
house laundry: check
couple episodes of walking dead: check
threading the bracelets i've already sold: halfway check

and of course, the saxophone.

one hour of music on this very lovely autumn day. i felt myself able to get a lot of notes in on one breath, which was a neat realization. and i am advancing in book 2. don't know if i'll make it to book three by the 6 month mark in the year, but that's okay. just keep a-practicin...

1 hour. 144.2 hours total.

Everywhere

played songs of every genre tonight it seems. from Entertainer to Be Thou My Vision to Cielito Lindo (that's right!!) to much much more. i used a different reed, and this affected the sound a bit, but by the end i had a clear tone.

can i just say i am very thankful for a printer with which i can print the music that i find and can play?

1 hour.

Easter sunday

finally got around to playing at church here. we had practice on friday morning, where i just fiddled around... what would be the saxophone version of this word? haha... until i was able to hit the right note. it's hard when no one understands this instrument. and they all have such high hopes for me, which is even funnier. i remind them that if they don't give me time with the song, i won't be able to play as well.

and then they play a song once through and i have no chance. ohhhhhh well... again i laugh because it's important to have a sense of humor when it comes to things like this.

on sunday, i arrived to practice at 6pm, as requested. we don't start actually playing until 7pm. so i just fiddle around again for an hour, practicing what i do know, until 8pm rolls around and it's time for church. did what i could. had more fun saying hi to all the kids from escuelita who came. i let them press the buttons, while i blew on the mouthpiece. we had a good laugh!

let's calculate... 1 hour practice friday morning
30 min practice friday night
2.5 hour practice/playing sunday evening

4 hours total to add to my time. not bad. i can feel the mark on my lower lip from the embouchure. :)

Fruit of the labor

welp, officially recorded a song with my friend. he played the piano part of Autumn Leaves and then left some space for me to play the sax. for this reason i was practicing the song so much. and in the end, it's not too shabby. obviously not ready for concerts or anything, but i had a lot of fun putting it together.

so that was my hours' worth of practice yesterday.

today i practiced another hour and ten minutes on all sorts of songs. i'm thinking the next step will be a compilation of What a Wonderful World and Over the Rainbow.

i am also hoping to play for church this sunday a compilation of Be Thou My Vision, Come Thou Fount, Amazing Grace, and Solo Cristo.

good times. grand total of 2.16 hours between yesterday and today :)

Improvement

sigo mejorando. i dunno. i have more music, and i was able to sightread quite a bit of it. the issue is they are band pieces, so sometimes it doesn't make sense what i am playing. at the same time, it's fun to play something new.

and now that we have a working printer, i will be able to print out more partituras (spanish word for sheet music) and not just go off what i have on my computer.

good tone except for a few notes. i think i will have to change reeds again soon!

135.03 hours plus 50 minutes puts me at... 135.86