Saxomophone

A taster lesson is something like a “give fly casting a go” at a Game Fair, you get 30 minutes of instruction to see if it’s for you. I walked into the shop a bit excited but with sweaty palms and met my instructor, a former primary school teacher that could teach a lot of instruments, a bit like a MCI/THCI. We quickly put my saxophone together, sorted out the strap, poked myself in the eye with the mouthpiece and readjusted. A quick explanation about holding the instrument, forming your embouchure, press down on the top key, blow and nothing much happened.

At this point, you may have a puzzled frown because of the unfamiliar word. Being an engineer, I had spent a fair bit of time reading and watching videos in the months prior and knew what the word meant but for those who have read the “The Ecological Coach”, this was very much a case of having “knowledge about” something but not having “knowledge of” the topic, meaning that I had an abstract technical understanding but no practical application. I watched an introductory video that lasted 2 hours, the first hour being on mechanical stuff and then it went into playing the music. I got to about 1.5 hours in before I gave up, having frightened myself with how bloody complex this thing was. I used to watch casting videos like that.

I gave it another go and there was a bit of a whooshing sound but no note. An encouraging nod from the tutor, a little bit of adjustment and a very loud note came out. I don’t know who was more surprised, the tutor or me. I saw her eyebrows raise and she told me to do it again and I did. I was then told to do 3 in a row and after a couple of attempts I managed to do that also. At this point, I was told that I was tonguing and that was excellent. I would have been pleased but I didn’t know what it meant, so I just smiled. We then did the next note and then the first 2 together.

This was going well, so we did the 3rd note on its own and by now I’d played B A and G individually. At this point ambition became confused with ability as I was asked to do play the notes sequentially down the 3 keys and back up again.

Up to this point, I had only been pressing keys with my left hand but for no obvious reason whatsoever, my right hand decided to join in the fun. The saxophone then emitted a random string of burps, farts, whistles and whooshes. Apparently, I had also stopped tonguing and had started taking a breath every note. Undeterred, I pressed on and the random sounds became faster and shorter. Focus of attention and cognitive load issues perhaps?

Given a chance to re-oxygenate, my tutor explained that it would all come good when I could feel the music, I’m guessing that my poker face may have slipped at this point and we returned to single notes before wrapping up the lesson.

In casting terms, I guess I’d thrown a few tails and non loops, interspersed with a few decent loops. We’d attempted to double haul and got in a mess before finishing on a high which is a reasonable facsimile of the combat teaching at shows. There were some bits of teaching that stuck for the moment, some that didn’t and all of it needs some practice before I move on.

Although the session was only half an hour long I was mentally wrung out, learning new skills is hard work. Leaving the shop with a 3 month hire instrument, I am going to give it a go to see if I can really get on with it, as I have a working knowledge of deliberate practice. The shop has armed me with an introductory book and a lot of spare reeds but no drugs, maybe because I’m not a proper student or musician.

In my spare time, I’ll try and sort out the tracking error in my open stance SH 50ft carry and get some fishing in, assuming the forecast rain arrives. I’ll return for my next music lesson, once I have buttoned down the first 3 notes consistently, with a target ambition to be able to play silent night by Christmas, although I would settle for 3 blind mice. Maybe I will be able to do task 2 of the MCI as well by then. If everything it’s still bollox, I’ll tell people that I’m practicing long range presentation casts and playing modern jazz, nobody will know:

https://youtu.be/M_XoXrprDRo?si=GIGNxDq29Wkk7pvi

For the foreseeable future, I will be standing on both sides of the fence as an instructor and student and can see a lot of parallels in the skills learning structures and techniques that apply. I hope that the experience will make me a better instructor and student. Crucial….