Really rubbish practice session

[nick_cook]

[color:green] I had a really rubbish practice last night. I couldn't start a piece cleanly, and I couldn't sustain a note either. It seemed a real effort to get anything to come out at all!!!

I've just started a couple of new reeds, so maybe that was the problem - it seemed a bit harder than the others I've been using (from the same box). I've brought the sax into work for a lunchtime practice in a car park, so I'll see how it goes with the other reed I got out!!!

Update this afternoon!!!
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[philthd]

i still get that feeling with alarming regularity

sometimes nothing seems to be going right - although its all relative and im sure what you think of as a bad session in a years time you would settle for now

 

[fecklesseric]

Yes, I'm having a bad couple of WEEKS at the moment.

I normally find it's it's a combination of things like tiredness, too much other stuff going on, etc.


Don't worry, it will pass.

 

[phil_edwards]

fecklessEric wrote:

......... Don't worry, it will pass.

Yep, sure will, don't get too hung up about it.

regards, Phil

 

[frankb]

Sunday's and Monday's were both utter pants... And then yesterday's went okay! (Just as well really, as I was starting to get depressed about it! :erm: )

"It isn't a linear progression. You don't always get better. Sometimes, for no readily apparent reason, you slip back a bit." I've heard this a lot (and said it myself on occasion) but until it happens you don't really get how demoralising it can be.

Hang in there, keep practising and it *will* come good in the end!

All the best,

Frank

 

[jonf]

Everyone has 'off' days. I've been playing for about 27 years man and boy, and I still have days when I play crap. When it happens, I usually just pack away my sax, have a glass of wine and forget about it 'til the following day. Then I usually find it's all OK again.

 

[nick_cook]

[color:green] That's just what I did Jon!!!

Just had a blow in the car and everything seems ok now.

Got another lesson this evening - see what my teacher thinks of my rendition of 'Tie me Kangaroo Down, Sport'!!

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[danmays]

Reeds are sometimes really easy to break in and other times so hard.. I tend to put the reed flat on my tongue and apply pressure with my hand to break the back in (not too much mind you) and the same on the other side all just a good 2-3 minutes in your mouth can sort it out.. Or just blowing right through it till it gives 😉

Dan

 

[Linky Lee]

If I'm having trouble with a reed a few bottom Bbs as loud as you can, very unmusically, and held for a while normally gets it's act together.

I always smile after doing this. *Foghorn*

 

[Saxlicker]

FrankB wrote:
"It isn't a linear progression. You don't always get better. Sometimes, for no readily apparent reason, you slip back a bit." I've heard this a lot (and said it myself on occasion) but until it happens you don't really get how demoralising it can be.

Frank

Thats about it in a nut shell for me!
Of course all the reasons given in this thread apply but sometimes you wont be able to put your finger on it!

Just wait till you hear something you recorded a decade ago that you thought was just about OK and today you feel you can't match it! 😡 Now thats demoralising!!....but you still come through it!

 

[Bobby G]

Yo Nick Cook, another in-car saxer!! 🙂

Another thing that can cause you to play badly, which I believe has been mentioned in the past, is if you are coming down with a case of the snuffles or similar.

I can have off days too, where my fingers just won't go where I want them too, which can quite often be cured by playing some laid back slower tunes until you feel like you're in control again. Sometimes it can take a while to play a reed in, I often hold a mouthful of water in my mouth (Volvic lemon and lime seems to work particularly well) and poke the reed in there with it. In the car, of course.

Cheers, Bob

 

[nick_cook]

[color:green]Hi Bob,

Yes, if I'm not doing anything at lunchtime (running, shopping, pubbing, etc.) then I go off to a car park nearby, push the driver's seat forward, wind the back down, then sit in the back with the music on the passenger seat. If I need a backing track to play to, I have that on my MP3 player which I play through the radio.

Soon clears the car park!!!! :laugh:

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[phil_edwards]

Nick Cook wrote:
[color:green]Hi Bob,

Yes, if I'm not doing anything at lunchtime (running, shopping, pubbing, etc.) then I go off to a car park nearby, push the driver's seat forward, wind the back down, then sit in the back with the music on the passenger seat. If I need a backing track to play to, I have that on my MP3 player which I play through the radio.

Soon clears the car park!!!! :laugh:

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Bet you don't have trouble finding a parking space :laugh: :laugh:

regards, Phil

 

[nick_cook]

[color😛urple]It was the reed!!! I tried it again last night - had trouble with the first scale straight away. Got another reed out and all was fine!!!

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