Playing in cordoba

hey hey! i'm a back!

i got to play in our backyard area for 30 minutes today, and i wasn't half bad. and now that the saxophone is fixed, i can play so many more notes! it's crazy. and i love it. but now i'm tired, and i know i should have written in here much earlier, but i failed and now you get a weak post about playing in a new country. oh well.

Jammin

yesterday i took part in a jam session. i brought my instrument, only to realize that my horn overpowers the sound of non-amplified guitars. what to do? well, i would play between songs some, but mainly i just listened. it was nice to at least touch the instrument again, as it has been so long. oy, how travels will affect the ability of anyone trying to improve! praise God though for getting me through a year of saxophon-ing.

add 15 minutes.

Buzzing

my lips buzzed after the 20ish minutes of practicing with just the mouthpiece of the trumpet. i was asked to practice making the siren sounds as a way to control not only airflow, but pitch as well. let me tell you that i'm not very good, so i gave up after 20 minutes. i am determined though, so you'll probably hear more about it this week, especially since i don't have my saxophone right now. awww..

Saying goodbye

thankfully, it's only for a short time. but i said goodbye to my precious saxophone so that it could be repaired. ever since i got it, the neck has been broken. that is, the octave key won't work. i was fearful it would be expensive, however when i took it into music and arts today, they said it probably won't be more than 65 dollars. what a relief!

i did make sure to practice for 30 minutes before turning it in, since i won't be seeing it for another week and a half. sad.

i guess it's a good thing i have the trumpet now :)

Something new

how do i explain this?

i've got a fever, and i'm gonna need more cowbell.

something like that. that is, once you learn how to play one instrument, you kind of want to learn how to play others. i'm not done with the saxophone, by any means, but i've added another. the trumpet!!!

a friend from colorado didn't use hers anymore, so i asked if i could have it. i was thinking of selling it originally, but i also was thinking i could send it off to argentina and see if someone there could play it, or would want to learn. then i met heather, and she is a trumpet major. as soon as she found out i had gotten one, she asked if i would like lessons. the offer was too good to be true, so we had our first one today.

she taught me the basics: from how to hold the instrument correctly, to how to create the right embouchure, to the math behind the sounds, to valve and slide oils. and of course, how to play the classic, Hot Cross Buns. i can now play this song on 5 different instruments, if you count the kazoo!


so i think i'm going to count the 1.5 hour lesson in my total. and maybe going between the two (maybe i should count the times i play the piano too?), i'll hit 1000 at a better pace, and be encouraged to practice even more!

With a vengeance

came back to play (finally) for an hour. if i do the math correctly, which i seldom do, i'm at a total of 109.25 hours.

while i'm a bit disappointed with my number, i've only myself to blame. nonetheless, today was a surprisingly great practice. my tone was still good, and i even added What a Wonderful World to my repertoire. i love this song, as it always reminds me of walking the streets of krasnodar late at night.

also, someone is donating to me their trumpet! i'm going to see if i can send it ahead of me to my team in argentina. maybe someone there can play it, or maybe i can also learn that one! yay for all these instruments! the only thing i'm currently contemplating is getting my sax fixed. i think i can afford it, but i'm going to wait a little bit longer.

Yikes

it's been too long. two weeks in fact. and change.

i could tell because of how much the embouchure struggled to hold while i played notes. but that's okay. gotta start back up, and start somewhere. if i keep pushing it aside (which is tempting when you're on break), then it'll only get worse.

worked on songs i already knew from the book, as well as some disney stuff. oh, and hymns! :)

30 more minutes.