nothing to report

I'm really quite excited about starting saxophone. I've always been a bit of a learn-something-new junkie - especially where music's concerned. I'd like to take the sax on beyond the Grade-1-a-thon & get good at it, especially on the jazz side of things. Maybe that's mad, especially as I don't do anything that resembles regular practise on my viola any more, but it's a nice daydream. The thought of it's made the idea of 2005 stretching out before me better too. 2-3 years of M.E. & its partner :(ness was making it an unappealing prospect, but now I'm kind of like "bring it on"!

Sophie's agreed to teach me - don't know that she's quite sure what she's let herself in for though! We're going to go saxophone shopping on Friday, after I finish teaching that lunchtime's 3 violinists at school. Don't know how I think I'm going to pay for a horn, but hey, I want to - and I've got this term's teaching money in reserve if I need it. Anyway, musical instruments are like books - never a waste of money unless you buy trash.
I'm like a little kid - really looking forward to it, but pretty much utterly clueless! I've read screeds & screeds of bits online about how-to-buy-a-saxophone, and googled for alto-saxophones until my little laptop wants to punch me!
I've found that www.saxophones.co.uk is quite informative, and I've been reading my way through the Saxophone Buyer's Guide from www.saxophone.org - but as much theroetical knowlege as a person could ever suck in wouldn't be that much use in buying a fiddle, so I suspect it's not that much use in buying a sax either!

Much as I fancy a pretty looking sax, I know that I'm going to go with one that can play & that sounds good. One person's warned me off Trevor Jones ones & recommended Yamahas, Sophie started on a Jupiter and reckons they're a good one to plump for, the Buyer's Guide writer suggests;

in my opinion you should stay away from: Belmonte, Antigua Winds, Jupiter, El Dorado, Olds Parisian, Conns after the M was dropped from the serial number, Grassi, Conservarte, and just about any Chinese-manufactured horn

& my heart & readings tell me (unreliably I would imagine) that I fancy this or this or this or this or this or this or this or this ... so I'm pretty undecided really!

I've got the ABRSM Grade 1 Jazz Alto books - tunes, scales, aural & quickstudy stuff, as well as the Razzamajazz sax book & having ordered The Complete Saxophone Player Omnibus Edition from musicroom.com - so I'm all ready & raring to go!

...or am I?

what if we find a sax that Sophie trys & says is ideal & I can't get a single honk toot or beep out of it?
what if I'm terrible at it and she hates & dreads teaching me?
what if I can't get my head around the transpositional beast - not the reading off a page, that's fine with me- but the playing a note & getting a different one to what you've heard in your head?
what if I should have gone for my other strong contender, the Double Bass?
what if I can only ever make a sound like a baby elephant with sinusitis blowing its nose?
what if I find I can't improvise on the sax & find that I can only do it on viola. violin, recorders or harp?
what if I find all that keywork too confusing & scarey?
what if I can't get my chops to make a decent embouchoure, or my diaphragm to, to, errr.. to diaphrag?
what if Liz hates the horrible honking tooting & beeping of me practising?
what if Billy [our cat] hates it?
what if its weight & shape exacerbates the injury to my left thumb? (obtained while opening a van door, stage-team-ing in Bristol?
what if the M.E. :( gets worse and I can't practise?
what if I find I don't like it or something?
what if no-one (except "Dogwatch" from the Ship of Fools, who's offered a tenner by PM) sponsors me?
what if noone else in the ASO joins in?
what if I FAIL???

still waiting in breathless anticipation for friday's shopping expedition though - roll on week, roll on.