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…
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