[Troy]

Dave,

Sorry to hear about you lost your surgeon and that you're still dealing with the tumor. I hope you've gotten some better news since I was able to get on here last. Sorry for the delay, but I didn't see this reply until today.

I tried to find you on FB, but do you know how many Dave Tuckers there are on FB? I tried using the PEOPLE and LOCATION filters but didn't have any luck. Maybe you can try finding me on FB? Troy in Virginia Beach, VA. There shouldn't be too many people with my name out there…probalby only one. :0)

Dave, that is one sexy saxophone! It looks really sharp with the gold keys and the dark inlaid keys, and having your wife's approval just makes it all the better and is an incentive boost to practice more! I have been considering moving and I'll probably start looking into renting tenor and soprano to see how I like them and buy one from there…but very nice looking horn! I havne't heard much about the P. Mauriat line. What made you choose this horn?

Troy

[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.

[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.

[Troy]

I'm not sure which fingering chart you're using, but have you checked out Sax Tutor? The program is free. You can pay if you want and open up a few more scales (Pent. Major/Minor & blues), but Johnny has the Pent. Major/Minor scales here on the site.
http://www.saxtutor.co.uk/

SaxTutor is a small PC program which teaches scales, transposition, fingerings and altissimo notes for soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxophones. It’s also pretty good at teaching scales on a keyboard but lets face it, once you have Sax you never look back…

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.

[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]

Big SAX! Big sound too! I bet he has to double up on the mouthpiece pads to stop the vibration!

[Troy]

I hope you all have been doing well!

Johnny, silly question – I see so many professionals playing on vintage saxophones because they have such a great tone. Why can't anybody make the horns like they did in the past? Can they not remember how much zinc they had in the brass or how thick the horn was as it was worked? I don't mean to be a smart Alec, but I don't understand why they cannot recreate these vintage horns that the professionals cherish so much…

I finally ordered the Selmer S-80 C* mouthpiece and some 2.5 Vandoran Traditional reeds, along with the 101 tips book Dave was talking about and a larger reed protector. Thank goodness the reeds will be here in a day or two since I split my last reed the other night. It's amusing because with the slight split, the last reed was giving a very nice and mellow tone without the 'tinny' sound that I disliked that I normally have. I'm eager to see how this Selmer AS500 horn Dave and I both have sounds with the new mouthpiece!

Dave, how did your last lesson go? Are you saving up for that professional level horn in a rainy day fund? Here is a Youtube video of one of the sax tunes I have fallen in love with recently. (http://youtu.be/cf-8Auk-N4o) (Lily was here – Candy Dulfer & Dave Stewart).

I also have a set of saxophone music that's awesome – "Lonely Shepherd Erotic Saxophone (2011)". It is 100 tracks of songs with prominent sax and no vocals. I've spent a few hours trying to track down the actual albums via Window's Media Player lookups and over 10 pages of Google searches trying to purchase it legally, but I can only find sites to download the songs…nothing else. It's a great mix, but I cannot find anywhere to purchase it properly. I don't know if it's someone's personal mix since I cannot find an actual album, but I doubt it because it is too well done. If you find a place to purchase the album, please post it.

[Troy]

OK, I just finished practicing because my mouth was so tired I had fake vibrato. But, it was probably the best overall session I've had since day one. I was hitting the forte and piano dynamics well, my timing was pretty good and I was hitting the keys really well. The only problem was I had a great deal of squawks and chirps (a lot more than normal) and touble hitting really easy lower notes, and about 15 minutes before I stopped, I discovered I had my first split reed. How sad is it that my best night playing was with a busted reed? :0)

[Troy]

Dave,

Really sorry to hear about the tumor on your spine, but the word benign is a great word! I'll keep an eye out for more posts and updates, but I hope the surgery won't take you out more than a few days. My week was pretty good, thanks for asking! I just got back home a few hours ago after my wife, daughter and I went to visit my parents a couple hours away. My dad is going to have an MRI at the end of the month for his back. It would be sooner but he isn't comfortable getting into the normal MRI scanner because it is so closed in, so the end of the month was the soonest available for the open sided MRI scanner. My dad's 75 and has been fairly healthy all his life and now all the sudden he has some back issues, nerve damage in his arm and hip problems, and just had cateract surgery. I hope he is around for a while myself, not just for me, but for my daugther. My dad can be a son of a gun at times, but he's a great grandfather and father, and I really hope Jocelyn gets to know him well.

I can see by your music selection you've had plenty of time to practice! Tico Tico gave my fingers cramps just watching. I spent too much time on my earlier lessons trying to get rid of the squawk than progressing and I am just now getting to the 1/8th notes. I'm been having problems practicing this past week or so because I have a chest cold and I run out to breath a lot faster and get winded, but I'm about to start practicing again once I finish this post. Being a government holiday, I should have a fair amount of time to practice tomorrow.

I haven't heard Moon River in a while, so I looked it up as well and I really like that song for the sax. The same with Day of Wine and Roses. I have to say, I like your choices in music.

Did you check out which mouthpiece your teacher was using on her sax? With your choices in music, does she think it would be worthwhile for you to switch up mouthpieces to one with designed a little more for blues or jazz? At your level of practice it may be a little premature, especially since you already have a quality mouthpiece.

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