A Slight Shift in Direction

Hello again! Luckily I have found more time to practice saxophone over the past two weeks than I have had in previous weeks. I worked some more on the fight song and September. I have improved on both pieces, however I have experienced a little bit of difficulty articulating the fight song when I try to play it quickly.

When playing the saxophone, the tongue is supposed to touch the edge of the mouthpiece. Usually I have to remind myself to do this because I am used to articulating by my teeth (for trombone), not further back in my mouth. This occasionally slows me down, but not too much.

Because I forgot to post this last time, here is a photo of me at the project fair:

This past week we had a band concert, and one of our bands, Gold Band, played Phantom of the Opera. This reminded me of when I played the song in 8th grade. I still remembered the trombone part, but I wanted to try the saxophone part for the song. The part I am playing has a flat, but I am not too worried about missing any notes.

Here is a link to a version of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMNC4jqwJUc

I also remembered a part from Pirates of the Caribbean called "Medallion Calls". We played this last year in symphonic band, and it was one of my favorite parts in the spring concert.

Here is a link to the sheet music I will be using: http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtdFPE.asp?ppn=MN0138030

On top of practicing the marching music, I would like to play these two songs because I enjoyed playing them on trombone, and want to give them a try on saxophone. I will continue to work on some of our marching band music, but I would really love to be able to play Phantom of the Opera and "Medallion Calls".

Unfortunately I only have one in-class day of 20-Time left. I am glad to have had the opportunity to learn the saxophone, and am currently deciding whether or not to continue playing it over the summer. My goal for next week is to continue to play the fight song as well as Phantom of the Opera and "Medallion Calls". I hope I can finish learning them before the end of 20-Time.