unlinkedstudent
Senior Member
- Messages
- 41
- Locality
- Shetland Islands
Hi peeps
Thought I'd better introduce myself.
I'm a 46 year old smoker, self-employed Virtual PA (glorified Secretary working from home typing all day via sound files), and I moved to the Shetland Islands from London in June 2009.
Well, everyone is so damn musical up here so I thought I'd better learn to play an instrument. I could just about manage Rise of the Rising Sun on a guitar yonks ago but a few years ago I got psoriatic arthritis so can no longer play stringed instruments. The psoriasis is "pustular" and affects my hands and feet where I get tiny blisters that burst and then the skin grows back really thin which is why I can no longer play the guitar. The arthritis is in my hip and knee.
Well, most peeps up here play folk stuff such as the fiddle, drums or the like. Oooh, we got a jazz club up here - not that I think I'm into jazz, preferring more Uriah Heep/Led Zeppelin (yep, I'm an old headbanger).
Live in small 1 bed flat so that rules out the piano. Ah, the joys of getting NME/Sounds as a teenager and playing by ear the charts on my dad's electronic organ.
Right, so how could I annoy the neighbours and compete with my neighbour (who moved up here a couple of weeks after me) who is learning the fiddle and the African drums. I know, me thinks, I could play the recorder at school so mmm, what about a sax?
So I set about scanning the web, nearly fainting at the prices and thinking, God, I'm 200 miles from Aberdeen and 200 miles from Bergen, Norway - how on earth will I get a teacher? I proceeded to watch youtube and starting walking around doing O shapes with me gob and trying to breathe through my nose.
As fate would have it, I'm assisting a pensioner who is moving back to England and I'm listing her household objects for sale on a local community website. After it took me an hour to do that, I spotted a new advert ... Boosey & Hawkes Alto Sax - £80.
So yes, I have committed the deadly sin of buying a second-hand sax which is approximately 15 years old and has barely been used at all. It is a B&H 400 Alto (I reckon it should be nicknamed Boozy & Squawk in my case) but has the plastic thingy bit broken off the back (octave cover?). Apart from that, it lurvellllllllllyyyyyyyy.
So off I drive in me old Chugger (Peugeot 306 DL1.9) to Lerwick to meet said seller. I tried blowing through the mouthpiece - zilch. She played it. I had a look; blow it, I thought, I'll have it. Proceeded to go into our only music shop to buy some new reeds and asked owner to have a look for me who thought it was in pretty good nick. Bought some 1 1/2" Rico reeds and an Abracadabra book with 2 CDs.
E-mailed jazz club and got number of a female sax player up the road (oooh, I hope she says yes to lessons) but in the meantime ...
... got home after putting said Boozy Squawk in its case in dog cage in back of Chugger, drove 25 miles in fog, packed hubby off to work and seen as we have had no electricity all day (they doing repairs to substation and overhead cables) there was only one thing for it ...
... Very gingerly took Boozy Squawks out of case. Blew into mouthpiece - nothing. Ah, remember to warm up reed, whack tongue/lip in right place; remember O. Good grief, I made a sound!
Err now how does this mouthpiece thingy fit on? Err is it lined up right? Well, I don't have a clue but whacked it on (haven't changed the reed yet), breathed in and WHOOOSH!
I swear my two Shar Pei dogs didn't know what had hit them. Tried again - ooooh another noise. Proceeded for next 10 minutes and managed to sustain a 'sound' for 5-6 seconds, occasionally with gob spitting everywhere (I have washable paint on the walls).
So there you have it; another mad woman deciding to give it a go. I didn't think I'd be able to blow into it as years ago I had a neighbour (I think her name was Annie) who played saxophone as a backing musician for (I think) Joe Jackson. Anyway, I think I may have tried to blow into her sax but I really can't remember. Perhaps it was a tenor LOL.
I'm dead chuffed so now will have to persevere, sort out some lessons and hope that the puffins and other birds don't leave Shetland for good when they hear my squawks.
Hoping for lots of tips and friendship through my mad learning curve. Mmm, I'm going to attempt to change the reed tomorrow.
Thought I'd better introduce myself.
I'm a 46 year old smoker, self-employed Virtual PA (glorified Secretary working from home typing all day via sound files), and I moved to the Shetland Islands from London in June 2009.
Well, everyone is so damn musical up here so I thought I'd better learn to play an instrument. I could just about manage Rise of the Rising Sun on a guitar yonks ago but a few years ago I got psoriatic arthritis so can no longer play stringed instruments. The psoriasis is "pustular" and affects my hands and feet where I get tiny blisters that burst and then the skin grows back really thin which is why I can no longer play the guitar. The arthritis is in my hip and knee.
Well, most peeps up here play folk stuff such as the fiddle, drums or the like. Oooh, we got a jazz club up here - not that I think I'm into jazz, preferring more Uriah Heep/Led Zeppelin (yep, I'm an old headbanger).
Live in small 1 bed flat so that rules out the piano. Ah, the joys of getting NME/Sounds as a teenager and playing by ear the charts on my dad's electronic organ.
Right, so how could I annoy the neighbours and compete with my neighbour (who moved up here a couple of weeks after me) who is learning the fiddle and the African drums. I know, me thinks, I could play the recorder at school so mmm, what about a sax?
So I set about scanning the web, nearly fainting at the prices and thinking, God, I'm 200 miles from Aberdeen and 200 miles from Bergen, Norway - how on earth will I get a teacher? I proceeded to watch youtube and starting walking around doing O shapes with me gob and trying to breathe through my nose.
As fate would have it, I'm assisting a pensioner who is moving back to England and I'm listing her household objects for sale on a local community website. After it took me an hour to do that, I spotted a new advert ... Boosey & Hawkes Alto Sax - £80.
So yes, I have committed the deadly sin of buying a second-hand sax which is approximately 15 years old and has barely been used at all. It is a B&H 400 Alto (I reckon it should be nicknamed Boozy & Squawk in my case) but has the plastic thingy bit broken off the back (octave cover?). Apart from that, it lurvellllllllllyyyyyyyy.
So off I drive in me old Chugger (Peugeot 306 DL1.9) to Lerwick to meet said seller. I tried blowing through the mouthpiece - zilch. She played it. I had a look; blow it, I thought, I'll have it. Proceeded to go into our only music shop to buy some new reeds and asked owner to have a look for me who thought it was in pretty good nick. Bought some 1 1/2" Rico reeds and an Abracadabra book with 2 CDs.
E-mailed jazz club and got number of a female sax player up the road (oooh, I hope she says yes to lessons) but in the meantime ...
... got home after putting said Boozy Squawk in its case in dog cage in back of Chugger, drove 25 miles in fog, packed hubby off to work and seen as we have had no electricity all day (they doing repairs to substation and overhead cables) there was only one thing for it ...
... Very gingerly took Boozy Squawks out of case. Blew into mouthpiece - nothing. Ah, remember to warm up reed, whack tongue/lip in right place; remember O. Good grief, I made a sound!
Err now how does this mouthpiece thingy fit on? Err is it lined up right? Well, I don't have a clue but whacked it on (haven't changed the reed yet), breathed in and WHOOOSH!
I swear my two Shar Pei dogs didn't know what had hit them. Tried again - ooooh another noise. Proceeded for next 10 minutes and managed to sustain a 'sound' for 5-6 seconds, occasionally with gob spitting everywhere (I have washable paint on the walls).
So there you have it; another mad woman deciding to give it a go. I didn't think I'd be able to blow into it as years ago I had a neighbour (I think her name was Annie) who played saxophone as a backing musician for (I think) Joe Jackson. Anyway, I think I may have tried to blow into her sax but I really can't remember. Perhaps it was a tenor LOL.
I'm dead chuffed so now will have to persevere, sort out some lessons and hope that the puffins and other birds don't leave Shetland for good when they hear my squawks.
Hoping for lots of tips and friendship through my mad learning curve. Mmm, I'm going to attempt to change the reed tomorrow.