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. You can hear a clip in the saxophone section of the site:
In fact, two or three months ago I decided to take a break from it, having memorized it. I had it under my belt, meaning my trousers were not about to fall down around my ankles, even though they weren’t yet comfortable or fitting right. I think my difficulty here has simply been down to a lack of the requisite technique. I have the potential to play it well, with feeling, but not without a lot of technical training along the way. There’s a lot of fiddly stuff with the palm keys, and it requires lots of puff, and here’s the thing: the piece is so serene and introverted that you can’t let the immense effort show up in the sound. I’m not far off though: when I go back to it I think I’ll have it cracked within two or three months.
So I haven’t played it much recently. I’m still working through Technique of the Saxophone by Joseph Viola. Until recently I was just working through the first book, on scales, but I’ve got the second one, on chords, and I realized there was nothing stopping me working through both in parallel. I’m only in the first few exercises of the chord studies, but I’m really excited about them. A well-crafted exercise, even on something apparently mundane like C major, can give you a boost, and make you really love practising. I guess it’s possible that any new exercise would have the same effect. It’s true that in developing technique the best advice is to choose any respected book – and there are several for saxophone, all of them full of exercises and nothing else – and just stick with it.
One of the results of all this is that I haven’t learned many tunes over the past year. I don’t think I’m going wrong here though, because I want to improvise well, and the only way you can do that is scales and chords, over and over again, for ever.
But that’s okay with me, because I love them.
And we love yooo!
Oh yes we surely do! Great job honey! I admire your dedication more than you will ever truly know!
What a super star!!
And I thought I would add just a few more exclamations!!! because I know how much you respect someone with the ability to over exclimate! Is that a word??!!!??!!!??!!
Keep up the good work.
Love you