my new years resolutions are the same as last years – practice an hour every day on the alto and the clarinet, and make the effort to upload….

Hi Leo – is that learn a new song from memory?

I got rid of my yamaha 480 alto and replaced it with an old Selmar SA80 ii alto, the selmar offers less wind blowing resistance than the yamaha with the same setup. So i’m having to adjust my embouchure and get used to playing with a lot less lip pressure to play scales in tune with a tuner.

you’re never too old to learn the odd song from memory.

i played the acoustic guitar for 40 years, i never learnt any tunes on the guitar, i never played any guitar music books tunes. i got a lot of pleasure of just sitting in the garden and playing various chord combinations.

Similarly with the sax, i find it more satisfying just to doodle along to a backing track not specific to any song in general.

different strokes for different folks…

i’m late sixties, i can still learn a new tune from memory, it takes me about 4 new bars a day, the hardest part to memorise is the solo sections.

The nice thing about playing from memory is the freedom from not being chained to a sheet, it gives you more room for expression and making the piece of music your own style – less robotic.

Age is a funny thing, the mind is very deceptive. ex a neighbour of mine in his late seventies was walking two to three miles every other day. The week after he turned eighty, he found he could barely walk a quarter of a mile, since then he still cant walk a mile, and now travels on the bus.