"I'm Not giving Up My Day Job."

I took quite early (planned) retirement some ten years ago (the look on my wifeâ??s face when I sprung it upon her was similar to the one she had on many years previously when Iâ??d come home from work one evening. â??Whatâ??s up?â? I said. â??The central heatingâ??s gone off!â? As Iâ??d always worked long hours, it was always going to be a question of what to do with all this spare time. Iâ??d played squash for a team in the North-West counties leagues for a considerable time, but had given it up competitively several years before due to problems with recurring tennis elbow. My kids â??bannedâ? me from playing more squash, so I bought a set of golf clubs and joined a golf club and have since been playing regularly three times a week, getting myself down to a â??low teensâ? handicap. Like many others, I could get it lower if I could be bothered to practice, but as do my golfing friends, weâ??d just rather play.

Then three years ago I decided to take up something Iâ??d previously fancied never been able to justify the expense. Iâ??ve played an electric piano for many years (badly) Iâ??ve had five over the years.

So hereâ??s â??my two babies.â?



The smaller of the two is a Yamaha student alto. I bought that first got on reasonably well with it but then took the plunge and progressed to the second
The larger is a Yamaha â??professionalâ? tenor. An â??investmentâ? of over £2,000 for the pair. (prices have gone up nearly 40% sinceâ?¦ price of copper and the poor value of the £)

I chose Yamahas as they have a reputation of â??playing straight out of the box.â?
Iâ??ve a library of over two hundred â??backing tracksâ? Iâ??ve played and recorded on my piano, which are saved to floppy disc (itâ??s that old) and can be replayed through the piano with a facility to transpose the key.

Iâ??ll never be really any good, because I canâ??t be bothered to practice for hours on end (donâ??t think the neighbours would like it either) I try to manage at least 30mins a day, but I donâ??t, just playing â??tunesâ? I donâ??t play from music I just â??buskâ? in a couple of keys.

It can be time consuming as Iâ??ll often hear a tune I like (mostly old jazz standards, but a few Motown and classic pop tunes, so I will search for either the song tabs on the internet or download the music. (No searching in fast disappearing sheet music shops for stuff they havenâ??t got, but can order for you) you can buy it instantly on line at half the price of a â??hardâ? copy, download it and print it off, itâ??s quite legit. I then teach myself to play it on the piano, then record it, (that can take a few goes â??cos I wonâ??t â??saveâ? stuff where Iâ??ve made a mistake) I then learn to play it on the saxophone. I do get a lot of pleasure from this.


For those who donâ??t know, saxophones are a masterpiece of ergonomic engineering. They have 22 keys which you work, with 8 fingers, one thumb, the side of the right index finger and the palm of the left hand. There are up to four different ways to play some notes. â??At no time do your fingers leave your body.â? But itâ??s mostly â??how you hold your mouthâ? and breathe controlling your diaphragm, but no hard blowing.
Iâ??ve never had a lesson, (same with the piano, you would probably be able to tell) but I get a lot of advice from a saxophone message board run by a music dealership in Las Vegas. It has 30,000 members, with usually over 500 â??on lineâ? at any one time. If I leave it for more than a day, there will be â??new postsâ? on over four hundred topics both old and new. Musicians have a great sense of humour, itâ??s highly entertaining. As well as informative.

Anywayâ?¦ There you goâ?¦ Technically I'm not bad, I just need to spend hours on improving my tone. Yeah!

YouTube - I'm not giving up my day job

Errâ?¦ Iâ??m currently â??just lookingâ? at vintage pinball machines, the ones that use huge ballbearings with the â??flippersâ? on the sides of the table. But it isnâ??t seriousâ?¦yet.

 

Well I got to end of video and I reckon that was mighty good.
Not an easy instrument to master as you mention.
I used to play at the clarinet many years ago but never kept it up.
You do good.
robert

 

Thanks for your kind words.


I use a little Lumix DMC-LZ7 digital camera I've had for a couple of years which will also record video with sound, it's pretty much "idiot proof" and takes superb photos.

 

I can't watch the video yet because I'm at work, but I'll look later.

I love the sound of a well played sax. I think it is such an underrated instrument in some circles. Obviously its great when its at home in a jazz or latin type setup, but it also stands out really well when used in a rock band. The wife and I go to see a lot of live rock music (slightly bigger than single pub type bands, but much much smaller than mainstream famous bands). They are good, but the standard setup of lead guitar, bass guitar, drummer and vocalist can get a bit samey. Sometimes someone comes along and they have some brass with them, usually at least one sax, and on such occassions the atmosphere is electric.

 

Thank you Doghouse, I enjoyed that.
Glad you're enjoying your retiremnet and doing the things you want to do with it.

 

None of our three kids are musical, though both my mother and father-in-law played the piano a bit in their youth, though we didn't have a piano at home. I used to play guitar in a jazz band when at grammar school, but reached a compromise with my wife many years ago, the guitar and amplifier went up into the loft and I bought my first keyboard which of course can be played with earphones. Our seven-year-old grandson is learning to play guitar and doing well, he accompanied his teacher at the last school Christmas concert. His dad has three guitars and plays a bit. He has a brother-in-law who was a semi-professional drummer, whose wife is learning bass guitar and another BIL who's a professional bass and classical guitar player, but can play anything. He got us some tickets for "The Duchess of Malfi" at the Lowry as he was in "the band." We have had one or two "sessions" at my son-in-law's house at Christmas, but there always tends to be more drinking than playing.

A trawl through eBay always throws up lots of nearly new alto saxophones where people have bought them not realising how difficult it is to play. It's not as one poster on the saxophone message board described the skill as, "Just blow in the small end and wiggle your fingers."
I think it sad that many schools don't encourage kids to play musical instruments (other than guitars) yet pretty much every US high school and college has a band.

Here's a couple of my heros, sadly long gone.

This an all all time favourite tune;

 

oooh, I play the sax! Tenor sax partic is such a gorgeous sound! Think you are doing well :-)

 

I've always liked "My Foolish Heart" It was my mother's favourite song. She had it on a 78 by Steve Conway (he died in the late forties) Unfortunately it's not on YouTube.
I've lots of versions of the tune on mp3 or YouTube clip. Here's my favourite piano version.

Another great musician no longer with us.





Thanks for the link.