Keeping time and staying in tune…

Just got back from a relaxing few days in Phuket, it was hot and sunny (most of the time) with a bit of torrential downpour thrown in for good measure just to keep the tourists on their toes! All in all it was most enjoyable although I did have to leave my sax at home…

Just before heading off, I did manage to grab a new metronome tuner thingy – an Intelli IMT301 combined metronome/tuner (made in Korea, battery included).

The device is full of features yet is very easy to use and is saxophone friendly!

So now I am playing in tune – well some of the time! Seems that while I can tune into say "G” nice and easy some of the other notes are out of tune. Apparently means I have to change my embouchure slightly and is something all wind instrument musicians have to deal with – great!

The metronome is really easy to setup and is nice and loud. My current problem is actually playing in time with the metronome – my brain seems to be having some trouble listening to the knock, knock of the metronome and coordinating my fingers to where I want them and breathing correctly…

Fair enough – more practice is clearly necessary – yippee!

Work on scales however is coming along nicely C, D, E, F, F#, G are all being practiced every day now – obviously A, B, Bb, C#, G# and D# are all next in line (not necessarily in that order of course).

Finally – seems I need to get myself a new tutor as my current one is still flooded out (poor fella) and nobody knows when the situation is likely to improve. It’ll be a shame – he seemed like a nice guy.

Technorati Tags: metronome,tuner,intelli,IMT301,scales,Phuket

Bridge Over Troubled Water

So my saxophone lesson for tomorrow has been cancelled – seems my tutor is caught up in all this flooding malarkey sweeping through central Thailand at the moment – not good.

So far my part of the country is dry although it seems highly likely that we’ll be seeing some excess water in due course – there’s looks to be too much runoff to avoid it… Still at least the rain seems to be holding off at long last (apparently the monsoon season this year has had 58% more rainfall than normal…)

In other news I’m still practicing daily and having fun – I still need to work on my embouchure after one hour of practice my mouth feels so tired I can barely hold my notes!

The other day I discovered John Coltrane’s legendary tune Giant Steps and despite having no desire to play jazz, I must admit to being both captivated and blown-away by this seminal piece of music – it is simply incredible. It got me thinking “how the heck do you breathe?” then I discovered the technique known as “Circular Breathing” which explained that little conundrum… I had to have a go at that breathing style but clearly I’ll need a much stronger embouchure before I can seriously get close to that! Stick with walking before thinking too much about running eh!

Also discovered in this music revelation is that I have a surprising number of tunes with saxophone sections in them – some jazz, some funk, some escaping classification! So they have all been stuffed onto my MP3 player so I can listen not only to sax music but try to analyse technique, articulation and even have a go at identification of note and fingering used (I’m totally woeful at that right now but one has to start somewhere right?!!)

So with tomorrows lesson cancelled I might attempt to head over to the music store area in Bangkok (its not far by taxi from my office) and get hold of a tuner, cleaning swab and possibly a stuff-it cleaner thingy…

Technorati Tags: Flooding,John Coltrane,Giant Steps,Circular Breathing

Lesson #1

First lesson yesterday and it was hard going and good fun! All-in-all I was at it for 1.5 hours (it was supposed to be a 2 hour lesson but my tutor was late?!) and by the end of the lesson I had face ache!

So what did I learn?

Mouthpiece

My mouthpiece needs to be pushed onto the sax an awfully long way before it’s in tune – I was amazed! So now I need to get myself a metronome/tuner device (or perhaps write one in software eh – that’ll be a fun little project…)

Seems my ligature (which came with my sax) is okay – so I won’t bother changing it for another one (I was thinking about a Rovner Dark) until I have a better idea of what style of music I want to play (I’m leaning towards Jazz Funk right now)

The reeds I bought (Vandoren 2.5) got the thumbs up – ideal for a beginner (that’s nice to know – I’m glad I’m not using those Gonzalez 3 – impossible!)

Mouth placement on the mouthpiece is a personal thing – I do have some training tasks to improve my embouchure and on top of that I have breathing training to do – seems the way I’ve been breathing for cycling training is different to that needed for sax playing – then again – I might have been doing it all wrong on the cycling front too – seems I need to do diaphragm breathing (same as cycling) but I need to breath with my shoulders relaxed – this is the key – so I’ll be making adjustments from now on…

Scales

G Major (I already knew half of this so I didn’t have much more to remember)

D Major (never played formally – just messing around so that wasn’t too bad)

Managed to practice both of these this morning (both ascending and descending) – some of the notes I needed to lookup in my book – couldn’t remember them – but eventually it all came together.

Songs

I worked through book exercises really quickly – I think my tutor was impressed. I did mention I’d been practicing (albeit without any kind of sax feedback) with reading score and making sounds) – as it turns out I learnt to read score eons ago while I was at school – I then forgot all about it until I got a guitar then left it all and now I’m back! This time I’ll be sticking with it.

I think I’ll be needing to get a music stand so I don’t need to look down to my desk while reading music and perhaps a high stool so I can sit comfortably while playing – oh more things to buy!

Maintenance

So at the end of the lesson my saxophone was almost as flooded as parts of Thailand – my tutor had the same problem which was nice… I need to get a “stuff-it” to put inside my sax and a cleaning swab that can be pulled through the thing – so I can dry it out nicely before putting it away – you don’t want sticky pads I can tell you!

Next Time

So next time I have a 2.5 hour lesson (that’ll be a nightmare) and by then I aim to have purchased the following;

1. Music stand

2. Stool

3. Cleaning swab & Stuff-it

4. Metronome/Tuner

I should be fingering G and D major scales like a sax god by then too – well at least in time with less errors…

Technorati Tags: metronome,tuner,music stand,lesson,G Major,D Major,scales,saxophone,swab,stuff-it

My Saxophone…

So I finally got round to taking a picture of my saxophone and here it is!

It’s great – next time I might even post a picture of the beast fully assembled – perhaps with me holding it!

Anyway I had a long, long practice today, so long in fact that it made my mouth hurt! Seems keeping ones embrouchure for an extended period gives the facial muscles something of a workout!

My first sax lesson at school will be two hours long – I fear it will be rather heavy going on my chops… It’ll be a kill-or-cure, baptism-of-fire, not-to-be-missed, never-forgotten kind of affair – well something like that anyway!

Getting a mouthful!

On the road to my sound – I decided to get a Yamaha mouthpiece – it is highly respected as a great mouthpiece for beginners so I figured it would be a good solid base for me to start out at. I went for a standard Yamaha 4C and got it from Yamaha Music Station @ Siam Discovery Centre (nice stock and great staff) – only cost 890THB – a steal!

While I was in a spending mood – I also got myself more reeds – I haven’t been getting on with the Gonzalez #3 reeds (far too stiff for me) and was looking for Rico 2.5 – alas I had to make do with a box of Vandoren 2.5 (apparently these are roughly the same as Rico 3) and to my surprise the first one I used played just great straight out of the box – I think I’m in love! lol

I got the reeds from another random music shop in the same mall – a mere 1500THB – so now all I need to find is a Rovner Dark ligature and that looks like it will involve another trip to the Werng district of Bangkok – simply too much fun…

Technorati Tags: Yamaha 4C,Rico,Vandoren,mouthpiece,reed,ligature

Buffet dinner

It’s been a funny old day – got to work just in time for lunch then left again three hours after that…

First stop bank then off to Asia Music – I phoned them earlier so the sax was pretty much ready to go – thankfully one of the staff was helpful enough to give me three quick lessons in embrochure, tongue control and playing notes – so in no time at all I was making sounds!

The sax looks the business – even the case looks tastic (photos will be posted in due course – of course!) The outfit came with ligature, mouthpiece, cap, reed, swab, neck strap and cork grease. They even threw in a small box of Gonzalez reeds (although I’ll probably get a box of Rico 1.5 soon as the Gonzalez are number 3!)

So after that – it was time for dinner with my other half and since we were in Chinatown we stopped at the side of the road for some sea-food which was rather good – alas they didn’t have any beer – come to think of it they didn’t have any Pepsi either – as I said – funny old day today…

Tonight took a quick look on Youtube to get a few tips – well to get some ideas of things to try at least so I can start practicing tomorrow.

Next week I’ll enroll with the music school and then I’ll be flying – I guess I’ll need to start thinking of my artist name – maybe I’ll just call myself Zen Sax and be done with it eh?! lol

The Delights of Chinatown

Well that was fun… I don’t think I like Chinatown much – although to be fair – if I had gone straight to Asia Music then perhaps my opinion would not have become quite so jaded!

Rather than go through the gory details – I’ll just cut to the chase! Nobody is stocking the Selmer AS710… Boo! I did find a Selmer AS600 mind which was in the driving seat but that was short-lived – once I found Asia Music I spoke to the owner and whilst he didn’t have a Selmer to sell me – he did have a Buffet 100 instead and it looks real good (although it’s a bit more expensive – no surprise there I guess!)

I suppose I’ll just have to bite the bullet and go get it – I wonder if that’ll be tomorrow?

In the beginning…

There was no sound, no soul and no rhythm – there was definitely a lack of jazz.

In the next few days I hope to be doing something about that as I enter the world of music – walk with me as I embark on a journey into the unknown – a journey to learn the mysteries of the saxophone and perhaps to unlock my inner musical mind.

I was surfing the internet yesterday and I was amazed at the amount of choice there is – I thought a sax is a sax but well then there are mouthpieces, ligatures, reeds – frankly I was quite baffled (which takes some doing since as a computer nerd I have been witness to much variation in my profession)

Still it is good to know that once the basics are dealt with – the saxophone can then be tailored to ones personal and individual style.

For lessons I am planning to enrol at the Crescendo School of Music at Siam Square – the prices seem reasonable (at 750THB per hour for beginners) however I do need to have my own saxophone before I can start (alas no sax hire) and whilst the school do have cheap saxophones for sale (in the region of 10,000THB) I’d like to get myself something at least half-decent…

The sax I am thinking of buying is a Selmer AS710 – it is in my budget (around 17,000THB) and seems to have a good reputation for a student sax – I would love a Yamaha YAS23 but the price is simply too high (currently around 42,000THB) – at least for now – I guess I’ll review that if I’m still blogging here this time next year…

So this evening I’ll head to Asia Music in Bangkok’s Chinatown (if it hasn’t been flooded by then) and see if they have one in stock.

I’ll report back with what I find out…