prosperous new year to everyone

[sxpoet]

my new years resolutions are the same as last years – practice an hour every day on the alto and the clarinet, and make the effort to upload….

[Leo Salu]

All good resolutions James, I am trying for something similar learn a new song and record it at least once a month. oh and to exercise more (a standard resolution)

[sxpoet]

Hi Leo – is that learn a new song from memory?

I got rid of my yamaha 480 alto and replaced it with an old Selmar SA80 ii alto, the selmar offers less wind blowing resistance than the yamaha with the same setup. So i’m having to adjust my embouchure and get used to playing with a lot less lip pressure to play scales in tune with a tuner.

[Leo Salu]

At my age it hard enough to remember how to play a song from sheet music, playing by memory uses up to many of my sparse brain cells, i’ll leave that to the younger players.

[sxpoet]

you’re never too old to learn the odd song from memory.

i played the acoustic guitar for 40 years, i never learnt any tunes on the guitar, i never played any guitar music books tunes. i got a lot of pleasure of just sitting in the garden and playing various chord combinations.

Similarly with the sax, i find it more satisfying just to doodle along to a backing track not specific to any song in general.

different strokes for different folks…

[Leo Salu]

I’m closing in on eighty years old aren’t you in your sixties?

[sxpoet]

i’m late sixties, i can still learn a new tune from memory, it takes me about 4 new bars a day, the hardest part to memorise is the solo sections.

The nice thing about playing from memory is the freedom from not being chained to a sheet, it gives you more room for expression and making the piece of music your own style – less robotic.

Age is a funny thing, the mind is very deceptive. ex a neighbour of mine in his late seventies was walking two to three miles every other day. The week after he turned eighty, he found he could barely walk a quarter of a mile, since then he still cant walk a mile, and now travels on the bus.

[Leo Salu]

Not looking forward to eighty, nothing good seems to happen after that, any way i have about 5 songs i can play without music, but i have over 300 sound tracks with
sheet music to choose from, when i play at a party or show i usually play about 25 songs and i like to mix it up for each occasion so trying to learn that many songs
would be tough. Back in the early sixties when i played in rock bands we never used sheet music, simply bought a 45 record that we wanted to play and learned the songs by ear. there was one song we always played “Wild Weekend” very popular song in 1963 I can still play the whole song today nover forgot it. Fun times.

[sxpoet]

[Leo Salu]

That’s the one, here is the original

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