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.