Saxophone Forum


by nvilletele
(1 post)
9 years ago

Just joined up, sayin' hi . . .

Howdy all . . . I have recently begun playing alto sax, at the age of 57, taking lessons from the same guy who taught each of my son and daughter a few years back . . . .

I've got two YAS-23's, the leftover horns after my son got into guitar and my daughter took up the drums . . . One needed only one pad replaced, done for $20 in 20 minutes, but the other hasn't been properly looked at yet.  It seems to work OK, but I am not yet in any position to properly diagnose anything less than a major obvious problem.  In any event, it will get to the shop on Saturday.

Though I play guitar and have been taking drum lessons, my music reading has pretty much so far been limited to guitar tabs/chords and drum notation.  Now I am finally really learning to play an instrument through reading standard music notation.  I actually had learned, and still remember, lots of music reading basics from elementary school, back when they used to teach about FACE and Every Good Boy Does Fine and even sharps and flats and quarter notes and eigth notes and so on.  But I failed to put any of it into practice learning an instrument, so it never was a practical skill of mine in any meaningful way.

What I am getting to is how cool it is for me now to be learning an instrument and reading music, for the first time really.  It took a couple of lessons and some practice before I began to feel halfway comfortable blowing the horn, but by lesson three it started to fall into place, the basics I mean -- nothing fancy.  I am still at the very very start, but this instrument is so fun to play, I look forward to practicing.  

When I was a kid in the fourth grade, back in '65, we were first offered instrument lessons  through the public school . . . I told my parents I wanted to play sax . . . Somehow I saw myself at the age of 8 as some kind of beatnik blowing bebop on his horn (while someone in the corner read poetry or something) (hey, it was 1965, and beatniks were already mainstream) . . . anyway, I really wanted to play sax . . . . but my parents said no, it would ruin my teeth!!!!!  I've since come to learn that's not a valid argument . . .but at long last I have started to forgive . . . . 

I am now adding saxes to my Craigslist search . . . not really looking to buy one just yet, as the YAS-23 will be fine for quite some time yet, but I find it also is a great way to learn about what instruments are out there . . .then I do some googling and forum reading, and I start to acquire some knowledge after a while.

Well, I ran on quite a bit there, but that's my sax story so far.   I am looking forward to learning a lot about the instrument here, and enjoying every step of the journey with this new instrument.

Cheers/Slainte 

Reply To Post [Report Abuse]

Report Abuse

Replies

  1. by PhillipS.
    (9 posts)

    9 years ago

    Re: Just joined up, sayin' hi . . .

    It's never too late friend! I started playing in 5th grade and it wasn't a mistake. It's such a vast and varied world when it comes to the sax and it's so darn cool! There is so much music you can play that is ideal for a sax and nowadays many music artists include the sax as solos and melodies. I'm taking lessons now and everyday I learn something new, whether it be something small or something huge. I've come to love this instrument and you sure made no mistake choosing it. It's good to meet you, and I wish you the best in your studies. Cheers!

     

    Keep It Real
    ~Phil

    Reply To Post