Today, I've restarted playing a cheap Vietnamese colorful sax (Cranes) which I bought years ago...
To start with, it was a bit of a struggle - I had to put much more effort both physical and also in terms of control than what I normally do on my Yamaha YTS32 - I had to be more careful about the note produced and at one point I was so bothered I was about to give up and put the thing back in the case (after all the Yami was only a few meters above - in the loft).
The initial discomfort rapidly disappeared (20 minutes?) and once I figured out I was just limiting myself and finding excuses I was then able to play the Cranes the same way I enjoyed it years ago...it just that now (for that initial 20 minutes) I was behaving like a spoiled brat who complained because I was being fed from a rusty spoon instead of a silver one!
The bottom line of this short episode is simple....is pro gear too easy? (mind you, the Yamaha YTS32 is just an intermediate horn...). I mean, is there a danger of becoming too spoiled by spending too much money and time on better sax gear?
At this point if anyone say e.g. "well, one has to concentrate in producing music and the horn shouldn't interfere with that"....which is also a debatable point since in my case (for example) it took only 20 minutes of adjustments to reconquer/tame the Crane and I'm glad I didn't give up too easily (don't ask me why...).
Back to the moot point above: "the horn shouldn't interfere with the music" or a similar thought...well, in fact it does interfere one way or the other...the design of the sax itself has so many limitation compared to other musical instruments - the Boehm system being an obvious one - which make keyboard players wondering if sax players have some sort of masochistic tendencies by putting up with such a cumbersome system (that's just one example).
Let's face it....most "commoners" out there think of musicians as being a bit of a bunch of masochistic individuals (especially those who are "unsuccessful" somehow) - why spending hours behind our horns? Wouldn't be rather better go out chasing blonde birds? That why so many give up practicing at one point in their life...
I'm wondering how many pro player out there are just too spoiled to "drive" a cheap horn...of course it's human nature trying to have it easy - but then it defy the very nature of learning and having control of our environment...some form of struggle or achievement is the very nature/essence of what we do in our daily lives (it can be applied to anything, not just sax and music).
At this point, if it was just about producing music, then let's invent some special pills which make all of us better players instantly (let's assume these pills do exists) - would you buy these pills or a better sax? (or both?)...after all, why spending time learning scales and chords etc. if the music come first there should be no struggle - why sweating?
(controversial Zannad).
To start with, it was a bit of a struggle - I had to put much more effort both physical and also in terms of control than what I normally do on my Yamaha YTS32 - I had to be more careful about the note produced and at one point I was so bothered I was about to give up and put the thing back in the case (after all the Yami was only a few meters above - in the loft).
The initial discomfort rapidly disappeared (20 minutes?) and once I figured out I was just limiting myself and finding excuses I was then able to play the Cranes the same way I enjoyed it years ago...it just that now (for that initial 20 minutes) I was behaving like a spoiled brat who complained because I was being fed from a rusty spoon instead of a silver one!
The bottom line of this short episode is simple....is pro gear too easy? (mind you, the Yamaha YTS32 is just an intermediate horn...). I mean, is there a danger of becoming too spoiled by spending too much money and time on better sax gear?
At this point if anyone say e.g. "well, one has to concentrate in producing music and the horn shouldn't interfere with that"....which is also a debatable point since in my case (for example) it took only 20 minutes of adjustments to reconquer/tame the Crane and I'm glad I didn't give up too easily (don't ask me why...).
Back to the moot point above: "the horn shouldn't interfere with the music" or a similar thought...well, in fact it does interfere one way or the other...the design of the sax itself has so many limitation compared to other musical instruments - the Boehm system being an obvious one - which make keyboard players wondering if sax players have some sort of masochistic tendencies by putting up with such a cumbersome system (that's just one example).
Let's face it....most "commoners" out there think of musicians as being a bit of a bunch of masochistic individuals (especially those who are "unsuccessful" somehow) - why spending hours behind our horns? Wouldn't be rather better go out chasing blonde birds? That why so many give up practicing at one point in their life...

I'm wondering how many pro player out there are just too spoiled to "drive" a cheap horn...of course it's human nature trying to have it easy - but then it defy the very nature of learning and having control of our environment...some form of struggle or achievement is the very nature/essence of what we do in our daily lives (it can be applied to anything, not just sax and music).
At this point, if it was just about producing music, then let's invent some special pills which make all of us better players instantly (let's assume these pills do exists) - would you buy these pills or a better sax? (or both?)...after all, why spending time learning scales and chords etc. if the music come first there should be no struggle - why sweating?
(controversial Zannad).