I’ve taken up saxophone practise again after a break of six or seven months. Giving up was precipitated by getting a new mouthpiece that turned out to be very hard to play. I could only play for a few minutes before my lip collapsed, my tone became uneven in the upper register, and my intonation went all over the place. I knew it was a good mouthpiece, not because the brand had a great reputation, and not because I’d read somewhere that it was good, and not because it was expensive; I knew it was good because it just sounded amazing, made playing across the break easy, and sounded evenly throughout the registers. For the first few minutes, that is. … read on »
Posts Tagged ‘saxophone’…
The Black Page Part II
Just over a year ago I published a post about my experience learning a difficult piece of music, I Sleep At Waking by Ian Wilson, for solo saxophone, which has lots and lots of notes. Well, the good news is that I’ve made progress: I’ve memorized it and I can play it through, after a fashion. The bad news is obviously that it has taken a year, and also that I still haven’t mastered it. There comes a point with a piece when it becomes part of your mind and body, and it is yours – but I haven’t reached that stage yet. However, I’m developing a feel for it, and I love it more and more, despite its awkwardness. … read on »
The Black Page
Two posts ago I reported on my success in the jazz grade three exam. Now it’s about time to start preparing for grade five, the top jazz grade, but I don’t much like the tunes. Should I still do it? I think I need to, because my practise has become rather aimless lately.
But one thing that has carried me through these last few months is my latest challenge. I’ve been learning a modern classical piece for solo saxophone, I Sleep At Waking by Ian Wilson. After all the jazz I wanted to tread some unfamiliar ground, to put my technique to the test, so a few months ago I asked my teacher for a through-composed piece in a modern style, … read on »
Saxophones and Photographs
I have two reasons for the recent lack of blog action, and I mention them because they’re quite interesting (though I feel that neither will counteract the suspicion that if one takes four months off from work then one has time to write blog posts pretty frequently): I was preparing for my saxophone grade three jazz exam; and I’ve become addicted to Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/alistairrobinson/)
Last time I mentioned the sax exam in these pages, I had just committed to do it. I said at the time that I had opted to play All Blues, Autumn Leaves and Mopti, but I decided not long after to forget about Autumn Leaves and play Lady Be Good instead. It was a good mixture of … read on »
©2010 Alistair Robinson