Beginners' Diary - Chris

[Chris98]

Nick Cook wrote:
I agree with Sharon there - 5 tunes in a week - impressive! I've got 2 short tunes this week plus a bit more of 'Strangers in the Night' which I'm working on. That'll be more than enough for me!!!

Great diary - keep it up!!!

Hi Sharon & Nick,


All the best,

Chris.

 

[Chris98]

FrankB wrote:
Hi Chris,

My teacher's doing the exact opposite (the b******)!

I have a knack for hacking a tune out by ear, but my sight reading is utter pants! Once I've heard something I can usually get fairly close to it, but until then I suffer.

He's therefore handing me music for tunes I've never heard of and getting me to learn them purely from the music. As a method, it fits my needs pretty well... ...although my head may explode at any moment from sheer frustration! 8|

Hi Frank,

I hope you enjoy your holiday.



All the best,

Chris

 

[Chris98]

Week of 5th August

I have been using a Vandoren 2 all week and feel comfortable with it, there is enough resistance but not too much, so hopefully, for the moment I can leave the reed thing alone and just concentrate on my playing.






All the best,

Chris.

 

[nosaxyet]

Chris

What a great read! Once I have decidied on which to buy I hope to have an alto sax in the next couple of weeks so it's interesting to see how well you've progressed - especilly with site reading and playing along.

I had a brief encounter with an alto about 10 years ago and I don't recall doing half as well as you have done.

Maybe this time will be better! :S

cheers

Ian

 

[Chris98]

nosaxyet wrote:
Chris

What a great read! Once I have decidied on which to buy I hope to have an alto sax in the next couple of weeks so it's interesting to see how well you've progressed - especilly with site reading and playing along.

I had a brief encounter with an alto about 10 years ago and I don't recall doing half as well as you have done.

Maybe this time will be better! :S

cheers

Ian

Hi Ian,

Nice to know you are enjoying my diary, I had thought I would have bored most people by now!


All the best,

Chris

 

[Chris98]

The Week of 12th August






All the best,

Chris

 

[Chris98]

[No message]

 

[Linky Lee]

Out of interest, what mouthpiece did you buy? And which one were you thinking of buying at a later date?

Keep up the diary, the latest installment was hilarious as it's so realistic and down to earth. I love it!

 

[Rogerb]

Brilliant, Chris.... I have been through far too many mouthpieces in the short time I've been playing, but it's part of the fun of it, innit? 😀

As Lee asks, what is it?

 

[Chris98]

Hi Lee & Roger

My original intention was to get a Vandoren V16 but I would have been so easily talked into a Vandoren Java, so I guess deep down that was actually the one I wanted, this of course based entirely on the marketing blurb and stuff I had picked up on forums, after all, why do the sensible thing and potentially have my dreams dash by either trying one or seeking advice from my teacher.



All the best,

Chris.

 

[frankb]

Most interesting, Chris! I'll confess that I am eyeing up that very mouthpiece!

At the moment however my tone is as wobbly as a wobbly thing after ten days off in France (despite taking over my mpc and a tuner and doing a few practices on that. God knows what I would have been like without!).

I'm going to be in the vicinity of Sax.co.uk at the start of October and plan to darken their door and try out a few options (the JJ HR* 5 highly placed amongst them) while I'm there. I'm playing a Yamaha 4C at the moment, so I'd be very interested in your comparison of the two once you find your chops with the JJ.

All the best,

Frank

 

[Rogerb]

And she's got an 'expressive and soulful' tone, even using a Jumbo Java ?

I'm sure Pete would agree they aren't the first adjectives one would expect to hear with that mpc (of which I have one, an A45 I got cheaply, for fun and comparison, from another sax person here in Spain) 😀

LOUD was the first impression I had of mine 😉 But I haven't had time to try it properly...my teacher has it to try at the moment.
As he plays Lakeys he should feel at home with it...they have a rep for being bright and loud, I think 🙂
But he doesn't sound that way, to me..... very 'Stan Getz'!

But it does show how much the *player* contributes to the overall quality of the sound.

 

[Chris98]

Rogerb wrote:
And she's got an 'expressive and soulful' tone, even using a Jumbo Java ?

I'm sure Pete would agree they aren't the first adjectives one would expect to hear with that mpc (of which I have one, an A45 I got cheaply, for fun and comparison, from another sax person here in Spain) 😀

LOUD was the first impression I had of mine 😉 But I haven't had time to try it properly...my teacher has it to try at the moment.
As he plays Lakeys he should feel at home with it...they have a rep for being bright and loud, I think 🙂
But he doesn't sound that way, to me..... very 'Stan Getz'!

But it does show how much the *player* contributes to the overall quality of the sound.

All the best,

Chris.

 

[Linky Lee]

I pulled out an unbranded plastic mouthpiece that I somehow acquired (I think with the Walstein).

I hate to say it, but I prefer it to my Otto Link STM 6*!!!

I get an almost identical tone from both, though the plastic one seems to have a bit more grit to it. It's a tad raunchier, yet still has the mellow and husky tone of the Link.

It also feels nicer as it has a bit of a bigger beak, which I like. And isn't cold like the metal Link as it's plastic of all things!

I've never noticed *my own* tone coming through a mouthpiece as much, ever. The two are incredibly similar, yet in pedigree I guess, Worlds apart!

It gave me quite a motivator realising how much my tone had came on since the last time I played a bog standard mouthpiece on tenor and loathed the sound. I truly believe at least 95% of the tone is the player! Though I would like to test this out buy getting a few other mouthpieces 😉 Especially the RPC. Though I know I can't afford one unless I sell something... Hanson SA-8 anyone?

 

[Rogerb]

Chris, I only have two (plus one 'on the way')...a Jody Jazz DV alto #6 and a Jumbo Java A45.

BUT, I have already 'been through':
- ESM original mpc, now owned by bobk's daughter;
- Selmer S80 which I hated...to ebay;
- Vandoren V5 A25, very nice piece, sold to bobk; and
- a *really* nice Lamberson 6M, sold to tris....

My loss is the Breakfast Room members' gain 😀

It was only the Selmer I couldn't really 'make work'... with the others, I just had the urge to 'try something else'..... I can't get near that bright clear sound that's only taken Dave Sanborn a lifetime and a few thousand hours of practice (as Ron Coelho reminded me while taking my order 😀 )

My name is Roger and I'm a mouthpiece-aholic!
Living in Spain, I have to buy 'em to try 'em!

(My teacher never says much, although he tries 'em all ..... and sounds pretty much the same!!)

 

[Pete Thomas]

Rogerb wrote:
And she's got an 'expressive and soulful' tone, even using a Jumbo Java ?

That's possible. Expressive, soulful and loud. 😛

But it does show how much the *player* contributes to the overall quality of the sound.

Yes, exactly.

 

[Chris98]

[No message]

 

[Rogerb]

Well you did have lots to say, Chris, and fascinating it is 🙂

I suspect that all beginners, and some not-such-beginners, can relate to many of your 'motivational crises'...I'm certainly stumbling along that rocky path, sometimes slipping back a bit, but if I look back to where I was,say, a year ago, I can see that I have come quite a long way 🙂

I don't know enough to comment on your mouthpiece 'issues'! I have splurged-out on an RPC and am really pleased with it.

Happy blowing.

 

[frankb]

Hi Chris,

If you're feeling flat, down or thinking that you're not making terribly good progress, try going back to some of the tunes that you *used* to have trouble with. I'm prepared to bet that you'll now find them easy as pie! 😉

On the mpc issue, well I'm not really qualified to offer advice. I have had a similar issue with my 4C though. I tried different reeds, tried repositioning the reed, tightening the lig, loosening the lig, drinking something cold immediately before playing(!) and still this harsh quality persisted.

In the end I discovered that a long session of long tones, concentrating on creating the warmest, most mellow sound I could manage helped to ease the problem away for that particular practice session. In time I found I could smooth it out more and more quickly. It still comes back from time to time, but less so and I can quite often shake it while playing normally.

(YMMV, but I hope the above helps!)

Like you, I want to play well and sound great (I don't!), but I have no idea what my long-term goal is, or even if I have one!

My short term goal is to keep having my fix of the hour a day when I don't (can't!) think about work, dodgy central heating, recurrent car problems, money worries, what I'm having for dinner for the rest of the week, whose birthday is coming up and what I'm getting them, that thing I laughingly call a career, the swine who cut me up on the way home...

...because I'm too busy thinking of embouchure, keeping my throat open, tone production, air support, fingering, what note comes next, and the one after that, oh heck it's that fiddly bit again...!

The frustration and the fun. It feels good.

I was at a photo gathering this weekend and had my tenor along for a trip to sax.co.uk Another of the attendees is an alto player who's been going for about 2.5 years.

Under cover of darkness we sneaked out in to the beer garden and, though he was 'way better then me, we managed a pretty fair impromptu version of Summertime between us with me laying down a fairly plain melody and him soloing over the top! With assorted other noodling we had a good bit of fun (and nobody threw anything at us so I'm calling it a win!).

Keep on keeping on!

Frank

 

[sharon]

Hi Chris,

I think we all have times like that, it that old thing of the more you know the more you don't (or something like that). I've had the same thing learning French. You learn the basics and then realise how much more there is to learn to become really proficient and confident. I think we've all probably gone through phases when we've played like the dog.

Still, I think I speak for us beginners, we have to accept that it's a long haul with many ups and downs along the way. But don't lose sight of why you took up the sax in the first place. For me it was to play some favourite tunes and have some fun.

Whenever I play something I like for the first time (even badly) it makes me want to laugh out loud. The idea of pressing a few buttons on a brass tube and a song coming out is just so cool isn't it

I agree with Frank - try playing some of your early things - you'll see such a difference and also try some things you thought were hard when you started. Oh and keep up the diary because we're all in the same boat 😉

Sharon