The ups and downs of playing this thing

[jersey_mike]

As recently as a couple weeks ago I was ready to chuck the whole thing in as I was seeing little real progress and making numerous mistakes. I found myself getting completely frustrated by the time I put the sax away from making mistakes and not really having any fun in the process. Why should I put myself through this???? Some days went well, but others were a real disaster.

A few weeks ago I was given a jazz/swing style 64 bar duet to practice and play for the next lesson. The first week we tried it I was absolutely useless. I went in nervous and my tone was terrible, notes were missed, timing was way off, etc. This was after doing it near perfect a few days earlier. By the end of the lesson I was ready to give up. It was enough to drive a teetotaler to drink!! Anyway, this past week I relaxed more, gave myself permission to make mistakes (For some reason I was expecting perfection when I knew it wasn't possible with the little time I've put in), and decided to just enjoy the tune. Well, it came out nearly perfect in tone, with correct notes and good articulation twice through!

The next couple nights I had 2 good sessions with my latest assignment (from the Aebersol Killer Joe play-a-long). Even my wife said it sounded great. Tonight didn't go nearly as well as the old warble decided to make a comeback on low D, but at least the attitude is still good.

 

[tengu01]

Maaaaaaan. I can so sympathise. That has happened to me on a number of occasions and I just wondered what was wrong with me. So I took a break of a couple of days and didn't think about the saxophone (much)

Coming back, I was mentally fresher and I wasn't so hacked off with making mistakes on the same thing I had been bashing away at over and over and over and over.......

How's it going now?

 

[Linky Lee]

Good for you. I had a rather un-productive practise session yesterday. I think it was because I was starving hungry though and it felt very uncomfortable to breathe as heavily and deeply as you do when playing. Strange one that.

I'm afraid to say, you get these random uncontrollable nerves all the time in your career. The good news is that you learn to cope with them, find ways to subdue them and you can end up feeding off of them in a live performance as you have that 'risk' factor there. I know nerves get me excited more than worried when I perform nowadays.
I prefer performing top a big audience though, everything blurs out there 😛