The plan was to blog each day but I seem to be failing at that. My practice is going slightly better. I didn't make it to three hours this week because I was having trouble getting two done. Still I've done at least one hour each day, bar two, so I guess that's better than nothing. Guess I'll just keep trying.
I am finding that the content of my practice is paying off however and I'm progressing in the area of tone production quite well.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Oh, right, I have a blog.
So yeah... I've been getting the practice in but I have let the blog fall behind.
I have been working some basic, very basic, patterns around the cycle of fourths and taking them down in semitones. Mainly focusing on ironing out all the little flaws in my technique that slow things down. Boy there is a lot of ironing to be done....
I've also been working with a tuning cd to try and work on my pitching. What I've found is that so long as I am relaxed I'm pretty much in tune but as soon as I tense up, like in a performance situation or when I'm trying to play a something that I find difficult, it all goes to hell especially in the upper register.
So from next week I'm going to be working with the Effortless Mastery book. I'll be doing an extra quarter of an hour before I start in on my other practice and on top of that I'll try out the meditations before even picking up the horn. Hopefully that will help me let go of my ego and let me play without fear. It's odd to me how hard it is for me to write that last sentence, to admit that I'm afraid of sounding bad to other people.
But I am. I'm so scared of playing in front of others that today I almost didn't practice because my brothers girlfriend, who hasn't heard me play before, was in the house. All I was playing were exercises and basic stuff but I was still so afraid of being heard I almost flagged it.... Fortunately I kicked my own arse and made myself do it regardless.
Pretty sad huh? Oh well.
One more day before I add another hour of practice.
I said a couple of posts ago that I'd be doing 48 minutes of sax prax followed by 12 minutes rest and I'm going to stick with that. I'm not sure it's the ideal time structure for me but it IS a structure which I'm finding important. Maybe after a week of doing two lots of 48 minutes I'll have a better feel for how well it is working.
I have been working some basic, very basic, patterns around the cycle of fourths and taking them down in semitones. Mainly focusing on ironing out all the little flaws in my technique that slow things down. Boy there is a lot of ironing to be done....
I've also been working with a tuning cd to try and work on my pitching. What I've found is that so long as I am relaxed I'm pretty much in tune but as soon as I tense up, like in a performance situation or when I'm trying to play a something that I find difficult, it all goes to hell especially in the upper register.
So from next week I'm going to be working with the Effortless Mastery book. I'll be doing an extra quarter of an hour before I start in on my other practice and on top of that I'll try out the meditations before even picking up the horn. Hopefully that will help me let go of my ego and let me play without fear. It's odd to me how hard it is for me to write that last sentence, to admit that I'm afraid of sounding bad to other people.
But I am. I'm so scared of playing in front of others that today I almost didn't practice because my brothers girlfriend, who hasn't heard me play before, was in the house. All I was playing were exercises and basic stuff but I was still so afraid of being heard I almost flagged it.... Fortunately I kicked my own arse and made myself do it regardless.
Pretty sad huh? Oh well.
One more day before I add another hour of practice.
I said a couple of posts ago that I'd be doing 48 minutes of sax prax followed by 12 minutes rest and I'm going to stick with that. I'm not sure it's the ideal time structure for me but it IS a structure which I'm finding important. Maybe after a week of doing two lots of 48 minutes I'll have a better feel for how well it is working.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
The Fifth
Pretty much the same practice as yesterday. Did some more work on tonguing today. I think one of my biggest problems there is keeping it consistent. My attack might be nice and legato one note and too sluggish and mushy on the next. I guess it's just a matter of practising lots and lots till my tongue forms the right habit.
Yeah.
Don't feel much like writing at the moment.
Yeah.
Don't feel much like writing at the moment.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Fourth of January
Well, it's the first full week of the new year so, as I resolved, I'm back into the practice.
After not having touched my sax for weeks, which I don't really have any excuse for except I wanted a break, it felt pretty damn good to be playing again. Even if all I did was a bunch of long tones and some articulation work.
I'm breaking my practice up into 48 minute blocks with a 12 minute break in between. I'm not sure if this is the best amount of time but I figure it's worth a try and I'll change it if it's not working.
Now I said I was going to do one hours practice every day for the first week but since I'm only doing 48 minutes out of the hour that's not exactly true. The plan is, once I get to multiple hours, to do the saxophone practice, with breaks, then afterwards do ear training, and rhythmic exercises for the time taken up by the breaks. So today I did 48 minutes of sax prax before moving on to 12 minutes of ear training.
Now... Down to what I worked on today. Like I said it was all long tones and articulation, in this case tonguing, and 48 minutes of that is quite enough.
Long tones are interesting. Any type of practice is better if you're really focused on what you're doing, regardless of weather it's taking basic digital patterns around a cycle or, say, learning a full on big band chart.
But long tones... If you're not paying attention then you might as well just sit down and stare at a wall. Listening to yourself playing an A over and over again before moving on to an Ab might not be all that exciting a prospect but if I closely listen I get to hear things that I just don't have time to pick up, at least consciously, when I'm playing a tune or a taking a lick around through the extended diatonic cycle.
The saxophone tone seems to me to be made up of three distinct sounds. You have what I think of as the core sound, which is just a rather bland sounding note, then you have that saxophone buzz which sounds like anything from an angry bumble bee, low notes, through a frustrated blow fly, midrange, on up to a particularly blood thirsty mosquito when you hit the top of the horn. The third sound,which is one I can only pick out clearly on a few notes, are the harmonics above the fundamental.
My understanding is that the differences in tone between sax players depends on these three sounds and how strong or subdued they are. I would love to have recordings of say Kenny Garret or Art Pepper playing long tones just so I could listen for, and hopefully hear, all the subtleties that make up their very different tones.
Maybe if my ears get better I'll be able to pick it out of their recordings.
Anyway, now that I've gone off on a tangent I should really look at what I'm trying to do with my long tone practice. The two things I want to do are a: get a much bigger, fatter, tone and b: work on my tuning.
My tone has always been a weak point and although that's largely to do with air speed I want to make sure that I'm aware of what is happening to my sound as it develops so I need to make sure I'm not just putting more air through without listening closely to what's coming out. I doubt I can have all that much concious control over my tone but if I have an idea of what I want and am listening for it hopefully it will come.
As far as tuning goes it's the same old story. Listen, listen and listen. I'm going to do some work with a tuning CD although I didn't get to that today.
In non-music related practice I'm trying to learn how to juggle four balls with the aim of working up to five at some point. I did a bit of practice at this as well today so yay.
After not having touched my sax for weeks, which I don't really have any excuse for except I wanted a break, it felt pretty damn good to be playing again. Even if all I did was a bunch of long tones and some articulation work.
I'm breaking my practice up into 48 minute blocks with a 12 minute break in between. I'm not sure if this is the best amount of time but I figure it's worth a try and I'll change it if it's not working.
Now I said I was going to do one hours practice every day for the first week but since I'm only doing 48 minutes out of the hour that's not exactly true. The plan is, once I get to multiple hours, to do the saxophone practice, with breaks, then afterwards do ear training, and rhythmic exercises for the time taken up by the breaks. So today I did 48 minutes of sax prax before moving on to 12 minutes of ear training.
Now... Down to what I worked on today. Like I said it was all long tones and articulation, in this case tonguing, and 48 minutes of that is quite enough.
Long tones are interesting. Any type of practice is better if you're really focused on what you're doing, regardless of weather it's taking basic digital patterns around a cycle or, say, learning a full on big band chart.
But long tones... If you're not paying attention then you might as well just sit down and stare at a wall. Listening to yourself playing an A over and over again before moving on to an Ab might not be all that exciting a prospect but if I closely listen I get to hear things that I just don't have time to pick up, at least consciously, when I'm playing a tune or a taking a lick around through the extended diatonic cycle.
The saxophone tone seems to me to be made up of three distinct sounds. You have what I think of as the core sound, which is just a rather bland sounding note, then you have that saxophone buzz which sounds like anything from an angry bumble bee, low notes, through a frustrated blow fly, midrange, on up to a particularly blood thirsty mosquito when you hit the top of the horn. The third sound,which is one I can only pick out clearly on a few notes, are the harmonics above the fundamental.
My understanding is that the differences in tone between sax players depends on these three sounds and how strong or subdued they are. I would love to have recordings of say Kenny Garret or Art Pepper playing long tones just so I could listen for, and hopefully hear, all the subtleties that make up their very different tones.
Maybe if my ears get better I'll be able to pick it out of their recordings.
Anyway, now that I've gone off on a tangent I should really look at what I'm trying to do with my long tone practice. The two things I want to do are a: get a much bigger, fatter, tone and b: work on my tuning.
My tone has always been a weak point and although that's largely to do with air speed I want to make sure that I'm aware of what is happening to my sound as it develops so I need to make sure I'm not just putting more air through without listening closely to what's coming out. I doubt I can have all that much concious control over my tone but if I have an idea of what I want and am listening for it hopefully it will come.
As far as tuning goes it's the same old story. Listen, listen and listen. I'm going to do some work with a tuning CD although I didn't get to that today.
In non-music related practice I'm trying to learn how to juggle four balls with the aim of working up to five at some point. I did a bit of practice at this as well today so yay.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Practice makes perfect but I'd settle for average.
2010. The Year of Practice.
Well it is as far as I'm concerned. I've decided that I need to have a look at how I practice my playing and what is in each practice session. I figure if I write it all down and maybe get some feed back it'll be that much easier to form good habits and avoid pitfalls etc.
So here we are.
Starting on the 4th of January, 2010, I'm going to practicing for one hour a day. The following week, starting on the Monday, I'm going to up this to two hours each day and in the third week of January I'll hit the three hour mark.
I want to keep increasing the amount of time I spend practicing beyond three hours but I don't think adding an hour a week after that point is going to be practical when I need to a: Find a job and b: Go to said job.
So, three hours a day and I'll see how the work situation pans out before I go adding to that. There is nothing to say I can't practice more than one, two or three hours but I want to set a minimum.
At the end of each day I'm going to blog, or blag, about what I practice, how I felt it went and anything that I think of that is related to practice. I'm sure there are better reads out there on the internet but if people are watching, or even if I ignore the traffic counter and just pretend, I'm more likely to actually follow through.
At least that's what I'm hoping.
P.s. In case you're wondering I'm talking about practicing Saxophone. I'll also be looking at practicing flute and bass guitar but mainly focusing on sax.
Well it is as far as I'm concerned. I've decided that I need to have a look at how I practice my playing and what is in each practice session. I figure if I write it all down and maybe get some feed back it'll be that much easier to form good habits and avoid pitfalls etc.
So here we are.
Starting on the 4th of January, 2010, I'm going to practicing for one hour a day. The following week, starting on the Monday, I'm going to up this to two hours each day and in the third week of January I'll hit the three hour mark.
I want to keep increasing the amount of time I spend practicing beyond three hours but I don't think adding an hour a week after that point is going to be practical when I need to a: Find a job and b: Go to said job.
So, three hours a day and I'll see how the work situation pans out before I go adding to that. There is nothing to say I can't practice more than one, two or three hours but I want to set a minimum.
At the end of each day I'm going to blog, or blag, about what I practice, how I felt it went and anything that I think of that is related to practice. I'm sure there are better reads out there on the internet but if people are watching, or even if I ignore the traffic counter and just pretend, I'm more likely to actually follow through.
At least that's what I'm hoping.
P.s. In case you're wondering I'm talking about practicing Saxophone. I'll also be looking at practicing flute and bass guitar but mainly focusing on sax.
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