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BOTM BOTM September 2018 - That's All

You're nice people, so I know you'll forgive the squeaks, squawks and hamming it up that beginners are tempted into.
Tomorrow marks the eight months since the first time I blew into a real saxophone. I hope to have a few years left to get better! :old:
I put in the Soundcloud description:
"You may cringe, you may laugh, you may cry, but I stand before you naked, and ready to have sax anytime. They call me the saxoholic
saxoholic.me"
https://soundcloud.com/randulo%2Fthats-all-after-exactly-8-months-on-alto
ps - I didn't opt to actually be naked in the photo, but even if I had, the alto would make it legal 😛
 
kevgermany said:
Just thinking - sax is giving an extension to your music, in a different aural direction. Please keep sharing.
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Thanks! I also spent a couple of years on upright bass, and that also widened my hearing immensely. Unfortunately, I realized I couldn't play for more than a few minutes because of muscular problems. The wind instruments make less demands on these, but add the breath which I also hope will be ok in the coming years.:old:
 
6441 said:
Thanks! I also spent a couple of years on upright bass, and that also widened my hearing immensely. Unfortunately, I realized I couldn't play for more than a few minutes because of muscular problems. The wind instruments make less demands on these, but add the breath which I also hope will be ok in the coming years.:old:
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To repeat what Kev said, very impressive. Your musicianship comes through in your playing. You have a good ear and play with good time. Those are things most new players struggle with. What is ahead of you is to just spend more time on tone production to develop a more "mature" sound that will become your "voice" playing jazz and other forms of music.
 
@IGoddard Thanks for that! I think 50 years of listening to music helped a little 🙂.
SInce I'm replying again, I wanted to mention something else. I love ballads but I am only learning them to get to know my way around the instrument. In the end, I want to play blues, funk and rock, which is what I play on guitar. Taking on the mantle of something like this tune to try to sound like the words sung by Nat, that's a great way to up my game. Recording this and getting the nerve up to post the recording publicly has helped me in numerous ways. I played a first take for my teacher and he made a few points about it that moved me up some, too.
I usually don't even try to improvise, just learn to express the melodies better and better.
 
6441 said:
You're nice people, so I know you'll forgive the squeaks, squawks and hamming it up that beginners are tempted into.
Tomorrow marks the eight months since the first time I blew into a real saxophone. I hope to have a few years left to get better! :old:
I put in the Soundcloud description:
"You may cringe, you may laugh, you may cry, but I stand before you naked, and ready to have sax anytime. They call me the saxoholic
saxoholic.me"
https://soundcloud.com/randulo%2Fthats-all-after-exactly-8-months-on-alto
ps - I didn't opt to actually be naked in the photo, but even if I had, the alto would make it legal 😛
Click to expand...

That was remarkable! 8 months? You’re way ahead in the journey. Very nice!
 
Thanks, @saxyjt - I'm encouraged by these positive comments, but I just listened and I don't like the tone and the intonation sounds like it comes and goes. I am now motivated to practice even more.
I do a lot of cooking, but my wife does the risotto :thumb:. Her red wine risotto is world class!
 
Tone... Play long tones and work on getting the sound right. You clearly have a good idea where you want to be, describing that might get some suggestions, but might get distracting ones.

Intonation. Also comes with long tone practice. Hear the note in your head before you play it. Then hit it first time. You'll find you have a lot of control over pitch, from lip tension as well as tongue and breath. You're experimdnting already in the recording. Tuning the sax so the octaves are in tune with each other and then adjusting lip tension to get pitch right is a good way forward.
 
So much work... so little time! Still, yes, long notes. The hardest part is to keep doing them. I do about three and then descend into some improvising and screwing around. I got a lot out of Pete's site and instructions about these things, by the way. My biggest problem is the frustration that comes from hearing the music in my head and not quite being able to play it! But I do feel that in a few years I might be saying something.
 
It's funny you posted this. I just had my first Bari session in ages! But I couldn't find my Eb version of That's All. Maybe I never printed it. :rolleyes:

Nice one Nigel! It's good to see another one go for bari.
 
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