As I have no recent boat tales I can only comment on OTHER things...
So...during all the flooding going on, FedEx kept bringing food for the school children that were going to miss eating because school was out. It was long, and rather large boxes and most of it was long storage milk. Of course there were some snacks too, and I ate some of the dried fruit! The grandchildren use this address because of a nomadic existence, and whoever that delivered them, was dumping the boxes on the GROUND where the ants were attacking them. Yes, I have a couple of tables and places to PUT packages. And besides the ants, it was raining cats and dogs and the packaging was getting wet.
We arrived after my surgery and I noticed one box at the back door, which Sonya got. And Sat morning there were THREE more. On top of a delivery from WalMart, so I missed the different box. I pushed it out of the way to get the WalMart delivery out of the rain and fend off mosquitoes and a barking dog. My son had sent me a Father's Day gift and I'd overlooked it. It wasn't until Sonya plopped down a black case in front of me and said, "You just pushed your Father's Day gift to the side!" that I knew they had snuck one in under the radar. She's been looking for it from my son and had unboxed the gift. And I knew when I looked at that case what it meant. And opened it up and beheld a gleaming gold sax!!!!
I had made a comment on social media about wishing I had one. And I was amazed by the feeling I got from this gift. Oh man, brand new, big, shiny, golden HORN!!! And despite misgiving about blowing on a horn, because of surgery related cautions, I couldn't resist a few notes and even a ditty. YES! YES! My son has a way and knows the spirit too, and it hit down deep in this fellows soul. There is something going on with this. I've been around too long not to be able to see the signs.
But maybe it isn't what you think. I know as near nothing as you can manage about playing a sax. I do have a knack for wind instruments. My club fingers make a mess of strings but I have lots of air! So I was telling my sister and she mentioned that saxophones have names, which I'd never considered. I knew a few guitars with names. And somehow, the golden object is now named Louise, after my Mother's middle name. Which is a story all it's own and lends a unique flavor to all this. You see, the ONLY time we ever heard that name was when my Pop revolted against my Mom's tirades, and said, "Aw, Louise!!!" and she'd know she was getting on his long standing patience. The ones that lived it will understand. Or maybe it's just the portent of ear shuddering squawks! LOL!
Happy Fathers Day!
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And so, Louise can be....ah, difficult. Maybe that's the expression. There are lots of notes and keys and I'm a novice. Almost immediately I could make some sound but that ain't nothing. I couldn't yet make the sound I WANTED to make. Not yet. But she has let me in on a few sounds already. And once, early one morning, without a soul around, I played how I felt. For several notes, high and low and in-between. With TREMELO to boot! Yes, a novice music student. Learning and experimenting and learning some more. One day, if I live long enough, I'll be able to play what I feel at the drop of a hat.
And that feeling is a very grand thing. Here's to music and imagination and sound that will wrap your soul up in a nice bundle!
Riley, Ummmm . . . . . Have you tried rotating the mouthpiece 180ยบ, so that the reed is against your lower lip? ???
Ya know . . . . like all the other saxophone players do? ???
Just wondering . . . . . ::)
Charles Brennan
Yep that might help. ;D
I missed this first time around and would have been good to see on Fathers day, bringing back memories of my Dad. He played the alto sax and clarinet as a part time job for sixty years, literally in bands anywhere we lived. When he retired from the Navy and moved to Biloxi he was in a number of bands all genres, rock, country, dixieland jazz, and his favorite, although not often needed, forties big band. Riley you may be familiar with Marion Carpenter, AKA "Prof" Carpenter, long time coast musician, band director at Biloxi high and music store owner. My dad played in several of his bands including a dixieland band that played the coast hotels on weekend brunches.
My Dad "Huck" Boettcher was inducted into the Mississippi Gulf Coast Jazz hall of fame. Ironically he couldn't read music, played all those years by memory and ear.
Me? I didn't get the talent pass through, although my sons did. Struggled to maintain a third chair status at Notre Dame HS band.
Playing how you feel...The Native American Flute lends itself to that and it gave me a path to making music. I also enjoy making them. I picked up a plastic soprano ukulele for something new to do in 2020. They have a history of being a shipboard instrument and can also be stowed in my sea kayak. Being blessed with big hands and fat fingers it proved difficult to play some cords, so I bought a nice tenor ukulele. I learned a few songs but mostly enjoy making my own compositions just like I do with the NAF. A sax seems out of my league.
Charles, that picture was taken the moment of unboxing and is proof that I speak truly when I say I'm a novice :o The squeaks and squawks are STILL awful and Sonya commented, "OH CRAP! I've been through a couple of trumpets, a piano student, and now THIS????"
I did shut her up though when she was ranting about me not doing the same old same old routine the book laid out. (Typical woman rant). I think it was frustration from listening to failures. And I was trying to explain that I was still trying to play the SCALES. So I played SOMETHING, spur of the moment; dead simple, and she sez, "Well....I see. Congratulations"
And I just thought those low notes required technical skill!!! Yes, a long way to go. I'm still learning mechanics and notes. But Oh buddy! When Louise was speaking it was awesome!! Could I repeat it?
Not reliably...