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Absolute Beginner.

Hi Alice,
Tom and Jerry is as good an inspiration as any for taking up the sax I'd say.
I went through 3 instruments before settling on this one... Wise choice.
I'm a recent beginner too. Look forward to following your progress!

Nick
 
nickh said:
Hi Alice,
Tom and Jerry is as good an inspiration as any for taking up the sax I'd say.
I went through 3 instruments before settling on this one... Wise choice.
I'm a recent beginner too. Look forward to following your progress!

Nick
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Well, I tried to think back at what sort of influences i've had and I think that background music was a good place to start because even though I didn't know it then of course, I recognize it now as being very much of its time and with complex scores that combined elements of jazz, classical, and pop music. I loved the swinging jazz!
 
Update on my progress.
Well.... I've cut my lessons down to once a fortnight which is far from ideal and only done because of absolute necessity on my part. I would have a lesson every day if I could afford it. My teacher isn't cheap but he appears to have made himself the most expensive too. He is a brilliant player, he name drops all the time, he's obviously a really big deal in the music biz and to be honest sometimes I feel really overawed and I mess up scales which I can manage perfectly well and then end up spending half of my precious lesson trying to get them perfect and tensing up in the process :(
He asked me if I wanted to go through the grades, officially and at first I thought "yes, why not?" but now i'm wondering if that is best for me or not? Will that essentially kill the lessons and make them plod along like a chore? I chose this teacher because he advertised himself as a Jazz and Blues man. Will going through the grades help me to achieve my goals which are to play both of those genres but also other fusions of the same as well as Ska, rock n' roll, "pop", rock etc?
I am also in real need of stimuli and inspiration which would come from playing with others.
 
Thank you for sharing this real-life experience and sorry that you feel at a bit if an impasse. Being no more that a beginner myself I will look forward to what the more experienced ones have to say. You ask pertinent questions that all of us relatively newcomers wonder about.

If I may offer anything at all it would be this. From your writing and your intrinsic love for the instrument you will be fine. Maybe one trick would be to see in this time of a bit of wobble how your innate love for the horn will ratchet up and support you till the next step becomes clearer. Trust that where you are right now is exactly where you ought to be. Allow that acceptance to slowly quell the clamouring voices in your head and see what happens.

When I taught meditation and the like I always encouraged new 'students' to listen to their own inner talk. Allow that voice to come up and be a guide.

You have done wonderfully well so far. This is the next step. All the best.

saxendd
 
Alice said:
...Well.... I've cut my lessons down to once a fortnight which is far from ideal...

...Will going through the grades help me to achieve my goals...
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Not necessarily. My lessons are fortnightly and it gives me time to do any 'homework' before my next lesson, even if it's just practicing stuff that I did in that lesson. Once a week sounds fine if you're orbiting the rest of your life around your sax activities but can put the pressure on if, like me, you're threading your sax activities into and around the other things going on in your life.

You will get frustrating weeks where the other aspects/activities going on in your life seem to be getting in the way of your sax progress but if you think about it, that's pretty much as it should be unless you're a musician/performer.

Why do you want to do your grades? I want to do them to chart my development, certified confirmation of progress if you like. I don't think it will make me a better player than if I didn't do my grades.
 
Alice said:
I would have a lesson every day if I could afford it.
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No point. IMO. You need to absorb each lesson (to some extent at least) before you can benefit from the next one. We really have to teach ourselves. The "teacher" can only try to point you in the right direction and help you avoid the bear traps
Alice said:
My teacher isn't cheap but he appears to have made himself the most expensive too. He is a brilliant player, he name drops all the time, he's obviously a really big deal in the music biz and to be honest sometimes I feel really overawed
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To be honest, I don't much like the sound of some of that. A big part of his job is top make you feel comfortable, rather than show you how brilliant he is.
Alice said:
He asked me if I wanted to go through the grades, officially and at first I thought "yes, why not?" but now I'm wondering if that is best for me or not?
Click to expand...
only you can answer that. If you're not sure why not try one and see how it feels?
 
Thank you all so much for your replies! I really appreciate your opinions and advice.
Thank you Saxendd for your words of encouragement.
I suppose I was exaggerating a bit when I said that I would have a lesson every day if I could afford to do so. It's just that i'm so keen to learn as much as I can before I die or can't play because of a health deterioration or something.
I don't get given a great deal of homework. It will be scales, tunes from the book and whatever we've covered in the last lesson, so I pad that out with online tutorials here and there. I would relish being given more homework.
I set up backing tracks to play to as well.

I realise that i'm probably rushing myself because until I can perfect my tone and keep it consistent, surely that should be telling me that what I need to do isn't necessarily what I want.. If that makes any sense?

I think I will follow that advice Martin and try one grade to see what is entailed.
Colin, that is true about charting development and partly why i'm considering it.
 
Alice said:
I would relish being given more homework.
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Better to learn an few things thoroughly...
Alice said:
I realise that i'm probably rushing myself because until I can perfect my tone and keep it consistent, surely that should be telling me that what I need to do isn't necessarily what I want.. If that makes any sense?
Click to expand...
Complete sense. It's always tempting to run before you can walk and I'm sure we all do it. It's a matter of finding a balance. The more I get into it the more enjoyable the basic work becomes, because I can feel myself getting better and everything else gets so much easier.
 
Hello Alice
You seem to be getting into a bit of a pickle!

I was paying £16/half an hour lesson, I am now paying £25/hr with a new teacher if that helps as a guide?

I have joined in with his sax jazz group (£7 for two hours) which covers various genres and I am well out of my depth, but it is fun. I nearly did not go back after the first session, but I am sticking at it. It's so good being part of a group listening and following along where I cannot.

If you were in Essex I would say come along to a session, all are made welcome. Check out his webpage www.johnseeleyjazz.com I strongly recommend him to anyone on this forum.
 

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