Yes, I'm one of the people what tends to get overtraumised by the sight of more than 4 sharps or flats! Playing in Big Bands, I've learned that the notes I actually need to play are usually far fewer than all the ones in the scale. So I tend to read through beforehand and pencil in any "new" sharps/flats (for me) that I'm likely to forget about until 'muscle memory kicks in.
Two things I learned from this one-off 'gig' was that I don't practice 'playing by ear' enough - certainly not in keys that I don't normally play. The other thing was that I quickly found it easier to do than I'd ever imagined it would be. Once I got playing, I soon stopped worrying about the keys and their sharps and flats. Having a quick practice at home beforehand did help me a lot in having a 'reference' of notes in the blues keys of B, E, F# and - to a lesser extent - C#. This at least gave me some 'safe notes' to start off on and fall back on.
But I also found that - being reasonably familiar with how any notes on the sax were going to sound before I actually played them, it wasn't too difficult to find my way around based on the 'intervals' that I sensed (in my head) would fit in what I wanted to play. Whenever I played an interval that turned out to be just above or below the one I'd intended, I could make a quick 'passing note' of it to get to the one that I'd intended.
This is a very long-winded way of saying that having a 'mental map' of how sax notes are going to sound helped me enormously. I played guitar for many more years, much more often and from a much younger age than sax. So my 'mental map' of notes, scales and intervals on guitar is still very strong even though I've not played for many years. At this gig, I was pleasantly surprised that my 'mental map' of the sax had become much stronger than I'd expected. And not just in the keys that I was familiar with.
In Big Bands, I play exclusively from sheet music with the exception of a few solos that I deliberately try not to rehearse or repeat to keep them interesting and 'fresh' (for better or worse on the day
). There always discussions about learning to playing from sheet music versus learning to play by ear. I've always encouraged beginners to learn to read music because they then have so many more resources available. Now I would also encourage them to incorporate playing by ear in their practice schedule too. Simply because I believe that playing by ear in different keys is the fastest way of developing a 'mental map' of how each note/interval is going to sound on the sax before you play it. And the stronger your 'mental map' is, the easier is it to adjust to playing tunes and in scales that you don't know (jam sessions, open podiums, etc.).
I live and learn
.
Mike
Weird - I went to edit the above and it declined the offer saying too long had elapsed....
This is what I was adding..
People do tend to get over traumatised by the sight of key signatures with 5, 6, 7 sharps/flats. They can look intimidating and it can be a chore remembering to play B# or perhaps E#, or a Cb. If you can see past that, they're not that hard.... I do find some of them more challenging on cello, but that's because flat notes can end up on a different string, which messes up your fingering plans....