Will she remember me?

It's been 10 months since I blogged about my affair with my mistress, a sweet sounding Yamaha Tenor I've never named because frankly, words can not express...Anyway, I'm glad to be back, extolling the virtues of becoming a Jazz saxophonist. Having suffered a slight medical set back(God is a healer) I had to suspend my lessons for a while but my return to my love is imminent. The real question is, what might I have left and will she remember me?

Having deviated from my compulsory routine of scales and fingering exercises for more than seven months, I wonder if this fresh, new re-acquaintance with my darling Tenor will bring a renewed embouchure instead of a loss of muscle memory that enabled me, after much work, to navigate from note to note sans squeaks. Maybe with a little luck, it will be like stepping away from a work of art like Francis Bacon, who never actually finished a painting, but rather constantly, over the course of his career, revisited his works, sometimes months later and paid an assistant to walk through his studio in his absence, determine what was finished and remove them from time to time. Maybe nothing is lost in this burning desire to express myself through this beautiful instrument. Maybe this distance from my "love" will actually be good for our relationship.

In the meantime, I've listened intently to my Elders, Ben Webster, John Coltrane, Michael Brecker, Chris Potter and others and I've played my horn in my head, which by some accounts, is 95% of the process of making classic brass moan like an octogenarian blues singer from New Orleans, if, in fact, like me, that is your goal.

My heart is unchanged. I can only hope my voice remains.

Not at ALL like riding a bike.

"Learn to work the saxophone, and I'll play just what I feel...."

The lyric is Steely Dan's "Deacon Blues" says it all for me. I have a simple goal. Reaching that goal, however, is in no way simple. I am humbled by the lessons that come from my experiences and my exposure to amazing music by way of those I refer to as my "Sax Elders." They lead me through this quest to become a great Jazz Saxophonist myself one day and my motivation is renewed every time I listen to the likes of Ben Webster, John Coltrane, Norwood, "Pony" Poindexter, Michael Brecker, Gene Ammons, and the like.

It's vacation season, which for me, means that my work schedule is complicated to say the least. Add to that, house guests, sick kids and my own travel and the result is SERIOUS distance from this instrument I love so much. You might ask yourself, "if you love this instrument so much, how can you not find the time for it?" It's easier than you think.

My experience is one that spans my life, really, whether it's close friends who live abroad who I've promised to keep in touch with or a home repair I've been putting off for weeks, it boils down to the fact that scheduled "planets" don't align as frequently as I'd like them to or need them to. I often find myself remembering to call a person to see how they're doing during my commute or suddenly discovering the solution to fix the shed door at home while I'm out of town or at work. Then, when I am at home I'm way to busy to even remember to address that shed door or call that friend, who, right now, is sound asleep in West Africa. My life is a life of constant multitasking and I decided that I will have to approach the saxophone the exact same way.

I bought a straight soprano saxophone, mainly because the key work is the same as my beloved tenor. My thought was that I could travel with the smaller soprano and even practice at work outside or in my closed department on my lunch hour and I would continue to develop my saxophone "chops." So, after three weeks of my soprano, or what I was referring to as my "mobile sax", I returned to the tenor not only worse than I left it, but if was as if I had never played before. Needless to say, I was deeply discouraged.

What I didn't realize is, the only thing the soprano saxophone has in common with the tenor is key work. Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful instrument and although I bought a cheap one(if you don't know by now, I'm thrifty), I am very pleased with my progress, but it does NOTHING for my tenor playing, absolutely nothing. My reading is better, my soprano embouchure is developing, and my sound is genuinely sweet to my ears, but it's been all at the expense of my tenor progress.

I know now that my saxophones are "personal" instruments; they have to be. I am not only learning how to play the tenor, I am learning how to get the very best out of MY Yamaha YTS-52 in particular. I'm also learning to nuance my set up to reach every note that I desire to play. I'm not just learning to develop Rico La Voz 2 1/2 reeds, but MY 5 reed rotation in particular and MY Brilhart Ebolin 4 mouthpiece. Learning to play saxophone, or any instrument I suppose, is not just about learning an instrument, it is more about learning YOUR instrument and taking those lessons to the next instrument, but ONLY after you've mastered your present instrument.

Okay, sax Elders, I get it now. Lesson learned, now back to the drawing board...

John Coltrane - Naima - 1965

Gremlins in my Yamaha?

Okay, so I woke up on Saturday, excited about how well my lesson went Thursday. My instructor is pleased too, because his disingenuous smile did not strain to cover his frustration with me. As he, and my closest friends have told me countless times, I TEND TO OVER THINK THINGS. "Stop thinking about it, man and just blow," he would say politely as I would list the possible reasons for my lack of success. "Could it be the sax? Or maybe the mouthpiece? Is my reed choice okay? How can you tell if your ligature is screwed on too tight? Is the mouthpiece at the correct angle in my mouth? Do I have too much mouthpiece in my mouth? Too little?" He'd just sit there, patiently, waiting me out, talking himself out of grabbing me by the throat and choking me. I could feel the undercurrent of frustration in the tiny little 8x8 practice room, but all he would ever show me was this forced smile. The kind of smile you get out of a kid when you make them smile. The smile you might see on a hostage's face. Ah, but Thursday was different. I could see victory in his eyes as I played all the scales flawlessly and sight read like a virtuoso. We are finally making progress and though he never said, I could tell that he was pleased and I was pleased that he was pleased. We blazed through the assigned exercises in my book and he gave me more exercises to work on until next Thursday.

So, I head to work on Saturday, excited about the practice I will have on my lunch hour. The anticipation is almost a distraction. Noon arrives and I grab my "axe" and head to a conference room on an empty floor. I'm all set up, book opened to a warm up exercise, reed moistened, good posture, diaphragm poised, and I blow G with the register key and it sounds like a pig in heat. I don't panic just yet, I go through my mental checklist: embouchure sealed, tongue lightly pressed on the tip of the reed, just enough mouthpiece in my mouth, bottom lip tucked, cheeks full of air but not inflated. I blow again. A little better, but the pig is still feeling pretty amorous. I continue to nuance my embouchure, air and posture for 10-15 minutes and I can slur to it and I can blow it without tonguing it but I can't, for the life of me, tongue this G. Then I remembered my instructor telling me that G is a tough note on ANY horn. "It can't decide if it wants to be low or high so it will give you difficulty until you learn to conquer it on each horn you will play."

This journey is about peaks and valleys. My struggles to find just the right horn and setup had it's share of thrilling victories as well as agonizing defeats. My dad always told me that life is filled with blessings and lessons. We should celebrate the victories as the blessings they are and we should accept defeat only after vigilantly seeking out the lessons they provide. My lesson last Thursday was definitely a peak. The G squeak, apparently, is my latest valley. My closest friends think I may be over thinking it. No doubt, my instructor will think the same.

Me? I think it's gremlins....

It's not you, it's me.

I have been taking lessons with a pretty good(notice the diminished description) Amati Classic stencil and I have a great teacher who's shown me what a great horn it is. I happened on a decent deal for a Yamaha YTS 52 and consulted my Saxontheweb.net family for advice. After a few replies, I dove right in(impulsive as I am) and bought this Yamaha I've been hearing so much about. Well, it arrived today and I am perplexed.

Have you ever dated a nice girl(or guy) and felt really good about the relationship until you met her slightly more attractive friend? I'M NOT SEEKING CONFESSIONS HERE, SO RELAX. What's real is real. After taking this beautiful instrument out of it's like new case, fitting it with the Rico B5 mouthpiece I've cursed on the Amati Classic, I blew into this horn every bit of my 4 lessons(roughly 15 pages in my book) and lo and behold, every note was as clear as a bell. The kicker is, now the Amati Classic seems every bit as"clunky" as some have described it.

I could chalk it up to arriving at the perfect set up for this Rico mouthpiece that had been accursed by me just days ago, or this newer horn having better intonation than my older horn, or Yamaha engineering something extra in the 52 than what Amati put in my Classic. I could even credit the "fastest kid in the world" phenomenon, where, as a kid, when you got new sneakers it seemed no one could outrun you, at least for a couple of days. Whatever the reason, I can't even bear to look at my Classic. I feel guilty. It's like I'm cheating on her.

My lesson is Thursday and I am tempted to take the Yamaha. I'm sure there is some benefit to learning to play the Classic, just like there was a reason, as a 16 year old, to learn to drive a stick because it was more complicated but cooler. There is something amazing about playing a saxophone that is completely responsive. I am now getting a sense of what players seek in action, ergonomics and response. My Vito alto gave me a hint of Yamaha action, but I had no idea it could be like this.

I will return to the Amati Classic at some point, but my Yamaha has renewed my interest in this instrument I love so much.

The dog ate my homework?

I had my 4th saxophone lesson with a remarkable teacher/tech who has, to this point, shown a lot of patience with me. He's had to because as excited as I am about learning to play saxophone, I am not finding the time to practice as I know I should. I've attempted to improve my odds by dropping a load of cash on one of those E Sax whisper mutes, thus extinguishing the excuse that I would disturb my family. I've even taken the muted saxophone to work with me to practice on my lunch hour. The result is the same. I am discouraged to the degree that I'm not motivated to practice and it's due, in part, to one main reason. Suddenly, for some reason, I cannot, for the life of me, play D2.

Okay, so I go to my one on one lesson today and my instructor can tell that I'm trying everything to blame this "D2" situation on the horn. Excuse after excuse, I mention how on Saxontheweb.net someone mentioned the difficulty playing the Rico B5 tenor mouthpiece, so my natural conclusion is that it's the mouthpiece and horn. Wait a minute, come to think of it, I did just start using Vandoren 2.5 reeds, switching from Rico Royal 2. Okay, so it's the horn, the mouthpiece AND the reeds!

My instructor, the nice guy that he is, left the room and came back with some old mouthpiece and reed. He asked for my horn and commenced to play the most amazing melody, peppered with D2(my nemesis) of course. Then he asked if he could use his reed with my mouthpiece. I agreed and he continued with a consonance of what could only be described as the jazziest "I told you so" I've ever heard. He quietly handed the saxophone back to me, looked me straight in the eye and told me the truth. "The only way to learn to play better is to play. Commit to the reps, my man. Where you want to be is on the other side of some serious practice. Stop thinking so much and just go for it."

So, as I venture through my weak tones and squeaks, I will know that no matter how bad I sound now, playing will show me more progress than excuses ever will.

Maiden Voyage

Welcome to "Jazz Without a Net", an exploration of, and journey to improvisational jazz saxophone.

The good news is that I'm the student here, so every bit of my discovery I will share in this space from time to time. I am also in the process of fulfilling a lifelong dream of learning to play the saxophone so any good tips as well as transformational advice I receive I will be sharing here as well.

This exploration, though jazz focused, will not be exclusive to one genre of music, but I will, from time to time, share amazing discoveries of saxophone interpretations in "smooth" jazz, rock and roll, r&b and classical music forms. The journey will coincide with my own development as a musician and hopefully will inspire others to pursue their interests, not just in music, but in life.

The journey begins...