Saturday, November 9, 2024
GuitarGuitar Tips & HacksTips & Hacks

Catching up on my “reeding”!


I go long periods of time, usually immersed in guitar playing, without picking up one of several other instruments I love and dabble on. As a preteen, I started out a drummer and still enjoy sitting down to my old Yamaha kit occasionally. I love and own various guitar related string instruments like bass, pedal steel, lap steel, dobro, mandolin and ukelele. I am a VERY rudimentary piano hack, but I sit down at ours for a few minutes almost daily. I have long blown the blues harp (harmonica) and typically keep one or two handy.
One instrument I have always loved the sound of, almost as much as the guitar, is the saxophone. It has a such a rich, nearly vocal tone in the hands of a skilled player and moves me greatly. Sometime in the late 90’s, my sweet bride slipped over to Donley’s Music and bought a used alto sax from Dave Donley (whom we sadly lost just over week ago????) to surprise me with on Christmas morning. Always the encourager, she said,“you love the saxophone so much, I bet you could learn to play it”!
I dove in head first, applying whatever music I knew, listening and feeling my way around it, trying to teach my self to play that thing…eventually even taking it out on gigs with my various bands and blowing a few solos. I went through a couple of horns, finally landing on my current beloved 1973 Selmer Mark VI Tenor. Some health issues I was diagnosed with a little later kind of scared me away from playing it, and I packed it away for years, only occasionally breaking her out, cleaning her up, and blowing it for a bit…trying to redevelop my embouchure (the shape of your lips on the mouthpiece) and trying to remember all that I’ve forgotten.
Like many of the other instruments I “play”, I am basically a rudimentary novice on the sax, but it gives me much joy.
I’m in that “getting to know it” stage again for a minute, so for this YT installment, I created a short, funky little backing loop and squeaked out a few lines. I couldn’t find my misplaced box of new reeds, so I’m battling a 10 or 12 year old one I found in the case.
Don’t judge, I’m having fun!

#Catching #reeding

Originally posted by UCOVMGdnq7gLjsna7YaLT-TA at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRHAgdDubis

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