...

ha ha ha ha ha

hmmm

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.

Grade-1-a-thon? eh?

I both play in & work for All Souls Orchestra. It's a Christian orchestra, directed by the inimitable Noel Tredinnick, and with its rehearsal base at All Souls Church, Langham Place, London here, in fact.
Although I work at Langham Arts Trust (supporting the music ministry of All Souls & All Souls Orchestra), mainly in the youthful Prom Praise for Schools work, this blog is not an official LAT or ASO product, and comprises my own personal views, opinions & experiences only - maverick, mad or whatever they emerge as!

The Grade-1-a-thon is another crazy idea from LAT's resident viola-player (ie me) and is hopefully going to raise funds for the pp4s work. The idea is that musicians in the Orchestra (or their friends, family, budgies - whatever) will learn a new instrument - probably from another All Souls musician - and attempt to pass the ABRSM Grade 1 exam on it in summer 2005. They'll be sponsored to pass by their family and friends (hmm... friends... I'm sure I've got one somewhere...). We're hoping LOADS of people will be involved. Those not learning a new instrument can still be sponsored for the cause - but for putting their newly acquired Grade 1 pupils through the exam successfully.

This blog is going to evolve into my own account of my saxophoneal learnings as I attempt to cram for Jazz Saxophone Grade 1.
I hope it turns out to be enjoyable reading.
:)