spotlight on sax

rabbits & reeds

Did some work on "In The Bag" this evening when I came back in after church.
The working on the sound seems to be helped a bit by me stopping when my lower lip starts to be bitten by obstreperous teeth below it, and doing an impression of a little fuzzy-wuzzy rabbit - not the wuffling nose or the long ears or the huge hopping feet - but the "fip-fip-fip" teeth thing that comes just before "What's up doc?"
Did long notes and took the work currently being studied (In the Bag!) really sslloowwllyy, trying to make each note sound clean and not too offensive!

I was playing in the orchestra at the evening service at All Souls tonight, which was nice - bit of viola-ing after the saxophoneal excitement of the last couple of days! Good sermon too from Mark Prentice on Acts 4 and a really moving testimony from Fiona King too.

The morning (well, early afternoon since I didn't emerge from the snuggly hug of my duvet until midday) session was long notes followed by another session with the Lovely Lady Liz on piano - again trying to get notes to speak when I expect them to - and to sound sort of like I expect them to rather than a quack, a honk or a gobble. Playing along with Liz is really helpful - for me anyway, think it might eventually send her bonkers though!

I'm finding that whereas with recorders, you can be slightly lazy about tongue-use at the end of notes, the reed-ridden mouthpiece on the saxophone isn't that forgiving!

Up until today, I'd been seeing how I got on with '2's (of the Vandoren breed). I decided that I'd have a go with the 1 1/2 (same genus), which seems a little bit easier to get a reliable parping out of it, with slightly less murky note beginnings & ends. Interesting.


I had another lovely offer from someone from The Ship offering to sponsor me to the tune (at least there's one tune going on then, even if it's not being played by me!) of a fiver - which is fantastic!
:)

Dogwatch, posting on Ship of Fools

suspicions that Dogwatch is a very nice person were fuelled today by the posting of this message on this thread on the Ship of Fools.
(hope it's okay with you, Dogwatch, to reproduce it here, for those who can't be bothered to follow the link! If not, let me know & I'll eliminate it.)

Hey, shipmates, this person (whom I presume to be female) is voluntarily subjecting herself to aching cheeks, lips of jelly, a sore tongue, ribs that feel like they've done a couple of rounds with Prince Naseem - and that's before she tastes the curry from two days ago, still on her reed. Furthermore, there's the social ostracism resulting from noises like an ocean liner docking on a foggy night - not welcome in the London suburbs.

This is serious self-denial and mortification of the flesh, and all in a very good cause. She deserves all the support (financial, moral, immoral, prayer, whatever) we can muster.

So form a queue here (and don't let this thread drop off page 1 for a few days more!)

Dogwatch (lapsed tenor saxophonist)