Havent played my Saxophone for 18 days – query

[Anonymous]

Come back from holiday and got my Sax out, which i hadn’t played for 18 days.
Put on a zz reed and practised for about 2 hours,
started off with the chromatic scale, then did 4 major scales, 2 minor scales and their arpeggios,
then went through half a dozen of johnny’s songs.
Everything sounded odd?
i was wondering if this had to do with the reed not been used for such a long period?
and thought should i break out a new reed instead? and dump all my old reeds?
The sound i was putting out, not to be rude, sounded a bit too slow & sexy!
the sort of music you hear for strippers. The notes were all slightly not in tune to my liking!
Is this to do more with my embouchure and should i keep the reeds & just give them all a good soaking?

[john]

I think playing a reed for just a few minutes will tell you the full story. After 2 hours it’s not gonna change because playing it for 2 hours IS a good soaking!
It probably has to do with an 18 day break.

[Anonymous]

ok – that rules out the reed.
So because i haven’t played for ages,
my embouchure has become loose,
which explains why i’m having to work
harder to controll the sound of the notes!
Thats good news – it means i don’t have to
dump all my reeds! phew

It just really weird – i sound like a completely
different player, even the wife commented it didn’t
sound all that bad! When i said it sounded dreadfull!

[gavan caldwell]

I was in a similar situaton was unable to play for about 8 weeks — was so surprised to find that I had forgotten scales
etc – it was very off putting to the point that I nearly gave up as I just sounded so bad — after a couple of weeks I gradually got into the way of playing again but it showed me how for me anyhow that I need to practice on a regular basis.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Dundrod,
I got my book 1 “Essential Elements 2000” & book 1 “Eyes & Ears saxophone” and started working
from the beginning – & now i’ve got my mojo back!

[Author]

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