Mouth. hurts.

i confess. the music obsession has re-gotten a hold of me. and so today, i bought my first harmonica. learned some of the basics before going to the saxophone. boy did it affect the tightness of my embouchure. for the better, but ouch!

and so there i was playing the saxophone. hitting up the scales, a couple arpeggios (man i sound so caradura right now. haha), and all the classic pieces i have printed out.. even worked on Take 5 finally and got somewhere (before i kind of was so overwhelmed by the pace of the piece that i didn't get anything!).

All of Me is sounding very clean these days, gracias a Dios.

1 hour more.
180 hours, 5 minutes!

Musical

tonight was a musical night. i could only squeeze in 45 minutes on the saxo, due to a meeting going on in the house. so i sat in the front of the house with the ole gee-tar while my friend laura worked on the bible study for tomorrow morning. and i strummed.

next thing i knew.. almost two hours had passed!! and i was improv-ing and it was coming out pretty sweet too. weird! i dunno, maybe it's playing en seguido.. that is.. more consistently. but what do i know?

that it's fun.

45 min to the grand total.

Distraction

i haven't been feeling well all day, and i assume it has to do with all the burritos we ate last night. in part, it's kind of funny, but it will be more so once the stomach pain is gone.

so.. i used the saxophone to distract me from it all. recorded All of Me, a first take, that is. and then this, an improv:

indeed, the sound is very airy, due to the sickness. but also it has to do with not having any music in front of me and just figuring things out as they go. translation.. the embouchure gets a little lazy while the brain is focused on something else.

1.25 hours to add to the grand total. yippee!

All of me

adding to the compilation of songs, i find myself learning the tune by which this post is titled. i chose to listen to Billie Holiday's version for reference, and am using sheet music i found through google images.

of course, went through the scales for about 15-20 min beforehand.

also, and i feel so dumb, but it's proof that i'm not much of a musician still.. i tuned the sax this time and am realizing more and more why some of my recordings don't sound right. all better now! i might want to invest in a tuner after all. (so i don't have to use a youtube video, that is).

i'm also seriously considering buying a harmonica.. hmmm...

1.5 hours = 177 hours and 5 min

Still practicing

..just not logging in the hours as well. 1. 5 hours on tuesday. couldn't make it on thursday due to chaos in the house (not a bad chaos, just a lot of people..)

working on a song, and needing to get better. enjoying the process :)

like i said. 1.5 hours. sorry for the boring post!

Flip flops, Messi and ice cream

i guess you can say we wrote a song. but it's not very good because it's made for people who don't know english very well. the main thing is i got to contribute the line about messi. all is right in the world. haha

and today, we recorded the music video. oh man. they made me exaggerate how i play the saxophone. a regular lisa simpson if you will. and i just improv-ed the whole time because i didn't know what would sound best.

so i guess that's another 2 hours to the grand total. 200 hour mark, i'm coming to get you!!!!

Beginning note found

the "lio" of figuring out how to play with a piano is almost cured. it will be best tested in the next song, but for now, i needed to start with C# to match the What a Wonderful tune.

but first, came about half an our of scales and arpeggios. i can't help that i actually find those kind of fun. oh, and there was Pink Panther and Entertainer. the "oldie but a goodie" in my short lineup.

1 hour, 5 minutes. more or less. and coooooooollllllllddddddd!!!!!