PM's? (Private Messages)

[Troy]

Good day Johnny,

I was looking around to see if there was a way to send a private message to another member, but I wasn't able to find anything. Is that option available on this forum? I wanted to check up on another member and see how he was doing without putting his personal business out for everybody to see.

Thanks,
Troy

[Dave Tucker]

Hey Troy,
Good question! I have often thought about this topic. Something I noticed with this forum is that anybody in the world can read what's on this forum they just can't respond. I would much rather keep up to date with someone such as yourself via PM instead of putting something out for the public to read.
How is your new mouthpiece working for you? I had to put my back into the repair shop because it had a few issues. I rented one while mine is being repaired. I am shopping around for a new horn. I do have a couple of model's in mind. I do like the Selmer series II after playing my teachers for a whole lesson.
Do you have a Facebook page? Keep in touch.

Dave T

[john]

PM's… That a good point and question. I didn't find that option from my admin area so will look into it.

This forum was chosen and set up for us by the site designer last year. There are a few things I would like to change and so as we move ahead this forum may get a re-do.
Thanks for the input guys!

Johnny

[Troy]

Thanks Johnny!

The only other (extremely minor) thing I noticed was when you list a price with numbers, such as Ten Dollars, decimal, Ninety Five Cents, which I wrote here ( $10.95 ), it often cuts off the leading numbers. I edited a post about five times one night that had a price in it and I was really laughing at myself when I finally realized I wasn't the one leaving the numbers out (granted, it was probably 3 am, as it is now). As I said, very minor, but if you're going to talk to them anyway, it could be a simple update for them.

Troy

[Troy]

Dave,

I hope the repairs are more than sufficient on your back. I don't know if your insurance covers chiropractic care and/or therapeutic massage, but that has helped my neck. I've only had one pinched nerve in my neck in the 3-4 years I've been going, which looking back is great, and that one time was after a lot of yard work and cutting down several small saplings with a handsaw. I used to have horrible kinks in my neck every few months out of the blue. People say you would be surprised at how easy it is to throw your back or neck out, well, I understand becaues I threw my neck out once just towel drying my hair. I just had to laugh at the humor…

The mouthpiece is OK. I thought I'd notice more of a change than I did, but my wife commented recently that my tone has improved a lot lately, so it is probably doing better than OK. I use a web cam with microphone to record myself playing, and sometimes just a separate microphone, but it hit me tonight that the fuzzy vibration sound I am hearing on the louder notes might not be me, but a limitation in the microphone trying to record sounds louder than it was designed for. I'll have to get my wife in her one day soon and play for her and then play the recording back and see what she says – she has a much better ear for music than I do. I never considered the microphone as a possible issue because it has always been great, but at lower volume. It amazes me what that microphone can pick up…for instance, I used to play an online game and used a voice chat server and my friends on the other end could tell me when it was raining at my house because the mic picked it up, even a gentle rain. If I keyed the mic and didn't say anything, it has picked up my wife and our friend having a conversation on the opposite end of the house. :-p

I created a Youtube channel to upload a 60 MB video file of my daughter to share it with a friend in Afghanistan. Once I had uploaded that file it hit me…why not upload one of the songs I was practicing for the heck of it? I thought the recording was older, but I see my Rovner ligature in the video, which I bought this past Friday, so this is recorded with the Selmer S-80 C* mouthpiece. I don't know if that was my Hemke 2.5 reed (only one left) or the new Vandoran Traditional 2.5 reeds I bought recently. I also found a guy on the saxontheweb.net forums that works for Rico and he is sending me a few Rico Reserve Classic reeds, 2.0 and 3.0. I did some web searches and with the exception of one person, the reviews were all positive. I'm curious to see how they sound, and to see how the different strengths play/sound. Once we connect off a public forum I'll get your address…and I'll send you a few to try if he sends me enough to share. I did actually hear a difference with the new ligature, and I like it!

Anyway, here is the Youtube video. You'll get a chuckle at my squeak around the 45 second mark – http://youtu.be/S4Epg17sWqc

My dad's birthday was on Feb 5th and my wife's is the 25th. I had practiced playing "Happy Birthday" (one night only) and I was going to surprise her for her birthday, but my dad recently had some medical news that spooked us so I told Jessica my plan and asked if she would mind if I played my first song for him instead of her, and she was happy with my plan to play for her, and insisted that I play it for my dad’s birthday, which was the following day, so I didn't have much time to practice. My family didn't know I was learning to play the sax and we were going to tell them over Christmas, but when Jessica said something about my 'instrument', not one mind went to the musical kind of instrument and the subject was derailed, so when I pulled out my sax to play for my dad, everyone was shocked and wide eyed. I tried to hide it, but I really enjoyed their surprise. It took me three times to get it right (playing off the top of my head), not because of nerves, but just lack of practice. I didn't have my new mouthpiece yet, but everyone still enjoyed the song, and we all laughed at my mistakes. It felt good, and everyone over the age of 30 was really proud of me for picking up a musical instrument at my age out of the blue.

I don't know what kind of budget you have for a horn, or if you are looking for a professional or intermediate level horn, but have you checked out the Antigua Winds horns? From what I've read on saxontheweb.net forums, these horns had a rough start many years ago, but for the past several years they have been putting out high quality horns at student horn prices, and are worth a look. Several members have played them in gigs for years and still love them. I think people have been rating them about 85% to 90% of the quality of a professional level horn. I have only looked at the soprano models, but their soprano's are computer modeled after the Yanagisawa 991 series, which I think is regarded as being about the best professional level soprano horn that isn't vintage. The other saxes may be modeled similarly after quality professional horns??? The first link is their saxophone products page. The second link is the dealers (it isn't logically located on the site). The third link is to one of the music stores that sell saxophones, including the Antigua Winds line. The saxontheweb.net forums have plenty of positive reviews of Dave Kessler and his business, if you're not afraid of buying a sax online and risking return fees if you're not happy with them.

http://usa.antiguawinds.com/productsList.aspx?productCategoryId=3
http://usa.antiguawinds.com/dealers.aspx
http://www.kesslermusic.com/

I have a couple of Facebook accounts…I'll have to find one that doesn't have my real name (for the sake of a public forum) and I can give you my e-mail address from there. Besides that, I go onto my FB account about 4-5 times a year…I don't really care to know what people are doing every 15 minutes of their lives, what chapter of what book they are on etc., and FB constantly screws up with the privacy settings. Even clicking on the thumbs up/down for comments and pictures allows FB to share information with Apps and such. The Germans have much better security laws and forced FB to remove that option. I have heard where FB has caused a few people to lose their government security clearance from related issues so I just avoid it.

[john]

10.95,

[Dave Tucker]

Troy,
It's great to hear from you. I enjoyed the video. I have spent all day today trying to get a decent one to post for you. The sound quality is terrible because of the laptop mic. I will send you the link when I get it posted.
As far as my back goes nothing has been done. I meet with the Neurosurgeon and he said the tumor must come out, It will be a tricky operation because it is hidden under some bone and has grown around the S1 nerve. Worse case senario is that I will lose the feeling in my right leg and foot.I have some good days and some really bad days.
I have more but will save it for when we get connected via email or FB. Keep on blowing, your doing great. Maybe sometime we could do a jam session on Skype. LOL
Oh, as of last Friday I am a proud grandfather to a 7lb 2oz grandson. Can't wait to get to the states to see him

Dave

[Troy]

Johnny,

I guess the problem shows up when you put a "$" in front of the number. $10.95. Leave it to me…I can foul up almost anything, given the proper opportunity! :0)

Congratulations Dave! When do you expect the little guy to land stateside?

Thanks for the positive feedback Dave. I appreciate it! When I get my FB info to you, I'll give you a Youtube post of my daughter…acting like a clown. Just hilarious!

Oh, remember I said the saleman at Rico was going to send me a few Rico Reserved Classic reeds to test out…well, he did. He sent me 3 boxes of 10 reeds, a 10 pack of 2.0, 10 pack of 2.5 and 10 pack of 3.0. I tried the 3.0 first and hitting the lower "C" on the first ledger line under the staff was surprisingly simple now. This "C" note was very problematic with the Hemke and Vandoren 2.5 reeds, but with the Rico 3.0, that note was cake. I almost had to try to get it to squawk because it was so stable. The 2.0 was a waste so far, or I have a bad reed. I was squawking and chirping all over the place with the 2.0. I did the "POP" test we spoke of before with the 3.0 reed and it stayed sealed over 6 seconds…impressive.

[Dave Tucker]

Troy,
The grandson has already landed stateside. It's me that has to go there. They are in the Western New York area where I grew up. I moved to the Toronto CA are in 1990.
I have made a video of Days of Wine and Roses. I need to get it posted for ya.
I just posted a question regarding switching from Alto to Tenor Sax. I'm waiting to see what he suggests. I need to ask my teacher also. See play's and teaches Alto Sax and I'm not sure whether see would welcome the switch. I am currently her only student. She is a good teacher. We were going to learn a new piece in class on Thursday night. (Fly Me to The Moon.)
We listened to the backing track that Johnny had posted for me but it was a different key than my sheet music was written. She does not want me to even follow my sheet but instead learn it from the Ab major scale. I struggling at first but then it just hit me.
I hope switching from Alto to Tenor won't be a major setback.
If anyone else out there reading this message has made this switch your comments would be greatly appreciated as well.

Dave T

[Troy]

Dave,

Sorry I haven't been on much. I hope you're doing well with your spine and look forward to hearing your sax on your post.

So, you're looking to upgrade to a tenor sax? That's logical. You could probably rent one for a few months for very little money, plus you'd want a decent mouthpiece. If you decide to sell your alto, let me know.

[Author]

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