Introduction Hi

[taff60]

Im 42 and one of those late bloomers. Only been playing for a couple of months. Play for myself not for others and I find it a great stress buster. Not sure all the poor folks who get bombarded with my squawks agree. I trawl most of the sax forums looking for advice and inspiration. I get a little frustrated with the sarcasm and impatience from some members, on these sites, who seem to dislike questions that seem to trivial to them. (They were beginners once).

So Im hoping that this site may pan out to be more understanding and tolerant.

Heres to many posts!
Taff

 

[taff60]

BTW, I know this is a bit of a handicap, but I have a real problem reading music (gave up trombone and guitar as a child for this reason) so most of my learning and playing is done by ear!

 

[Pete Thomas]

At 1:29:00 PM 15/03/06, taff60 wrote:
Im 42 and one of those late bloomers. Only been playing for a couple of months. Play for myself not for others and I find it a great stress buster. Not sure all the poor folks who get bombarded with my squawks agree. I trawl most of the sax forums looking for advice and inspiration. I get a little frustrated with the sarcasm and impatience from some members, on these sites, who seem to dislike questions that seem to trivial to them. (They were beginners once).

So Im hoping that this site may pan out to be more understanding and tolerant.

Heres to many posts!
Taff

Hi Taff

Welcome, I hope that too - I'm sure everyone will be tolerant and understanding. A.M.S can get a bit unpleasant but I think SOTW is great. I didn't actually set this up to compete with other forums (I guess I would probably have to step down from admin and moderating if it ever did get as big as some of those as it can take up a lot of time)

 

[philippe]

I started in my 20s, and reading is the one thing that I find needs daily practice in order not to get worse!
Once you can do it even moderately well it does bring great rewards though.
Philippe

 

[rs2sensen]

I've gotten annoyed with many online forums too. I became a SOTW member back on 2001 I believe, but it got too big for me. I'm also a very active poster on Mac-Forums.com.

It seems like everyone is polite on this forum, and the member list is rapidly growing. I'm sure that if you ever need help with "beginner" questions, we'd all be willing to help.

I know several musicians who can't read music, and there are certain advantages to playing by ear. Personally, I'm too dependent on the music, and wish I was better at the latter. I've been doing a fair amount of playing with recordings, and that kind of thing, so I have been making progress.

I never could read music before I started an instrument, but I did quickly learn once I was required to.

 

[drew_stewart]

i couldn't read music until i started playing the sax,so their is hope!!i know other musicians that can't read music either! so don't panic.

 

[rebellion117]

I've found the easiest way to learn to read is to get a beginner method book and use it. It can get a little tedious in the beginning, because you're doing all this basic stuff when you know you can play at a much more advanced level, but stick with it and you'll benefit.

Cory

 

[tengu01]

Hey there Taff60, when I started playing, I did a lot of playing by ear, and had to learn how to sight read the hard way. I'm not all that good yet, but I did find the following tips really helpful

1. Get a metronome and start with simple tunes at a slow pace. It's amazing how much fun it is to start with a page of notes and eventually tease out a piece of music.

2. It's all about practice. the more you do it, the better you get. It is taking me a while but I have noticed the improvement. I remember reading loads about it, but only actually doing it really made the difference.

3. Put yourself in a situation where you have to do it i.e. in front of a good teacher 😉

4. What really made me get better in a hurry was joining a wind band where playing 2nd or 3rd tenor. Having to read it in time with others really did wonders for my reading ability.

Good luck