It took me nearly two weeks to get over this illness that I had.  I’m glad it is over with now, and I was able to play my saxophone  again for the first time since I came down  with it.  I was pleasantly surprised by the results.  I actually ended up having to stop practicing for a reason other than my mouth giving out.  I played longer than I had ever done in the past.  Now the tone wasn’t perfect, there were issues here and there, but overall it sounded fairly well.  Tomorrow I’ll have to set a timer before I start playing and see how long my practice session actually lasts.

Basically today I went over a variety of scales and arpeggios of the G Major scale, the played a number of melodies while my baby boy sat on the couch and listened.  My lung capacity isn’t quite back where it needs to be so I ran out of breath a few times, but I think I did fairly well on that too.   Tomorrow I think I’ll add the C Major scale along with the G Major scales to my practice session and see how it goes.

Well I haven’t had nearly as much time to practice the saxophone this week as I have been sick ever since my last post.  It isn’t pleasant.  Hopefully I get to feeling better soon and can get back to my practicing.  I’m guessing this thing is going to take a week to get over at the rate I’m going.  My next post will be once I get over this, and can get back to playing.  I’ll then record some of the tunes I learned over the past few months.  It should be fun.

I have gotten to the part of my saxophone book where they switch from melodies to scales and arpeggios.  I started off today with the key of G, and went through four different exercises.  I should have them all down very well by the end of the week.  My endurance while playing still isn’t very long.  After playing the four exercises I couldn’t go on any longer.  I’ve only been playing for just over two months now, so it may still take some more time.  Right now I just break up my practice sessions into 15 minute segments so I can get as much practice in per day.

At the end of the week, I’ll record the scales and post it online so everyone can hear how it is going.

My tuning fork and metronome arrive this weekend.  The metronome is no issue for me, as I have used them before when playing the piano.  So now I have one again and can use it to help with my timing when playing music and scales on my saxophone.  The tuning fork however is another story.  This is going to take some practice.  I strike the tuning fork on an object and the fork begins to vibrate.  It’s not terribly loud so I then put it close to my ear and listen to the tone it is making.  I do this a few times and try and remember the sound I just heard.   I then play G on my Saxaophone, which I recall hearing somewhere is the tuning note.  If I’m wrong then maybe someone would be kind enough to tell me otherwise.

In any case I “think” it sounds right.  The note I play on the saxophone sounds pretty much the same as the tuning fork.  I don’t think it sounds any sharper or flater.  When I can have a saxophone teacher again I’ll be able to confirm all of this of course, until then I’ll just have to listen very carefully and take it slow.