Chopz of STEEL

I used to saxophone pretty much every day back in high school. On top of daily concert band at school, I had lessons on Mondays, Jazz band and Wash U Wind Ensemble rehearsals on Tuesdays, A second Wash U rehearsal on Thursdays and concerts/performances, solo/ensemble festivals, auditions and spot gigs with other groups spread out through the year. College was definitely less intense from a saxophoning standpoint, but I still crammed in a lot of playing over my 4 yrs.

Following graduation, after work consumed my life (and my will to live . . . ;) I've hardly played at all . . . until today.

Today marks the rebirth of a happier, more fulfilled, more saxophonic Joe. A couple days back I contacted the director of the Foothill College Symphonic Winds too see if I could join their band and it looks like I'll be rehearsing with them starting this coming Wednesday. I can honestly say that I haven't been as excited about anything for quite a while. It's going to be awesome. On top of getting to play again, I'll be leaving work every Wednesday earlier than usual to make the 7:30 rehearsals in Palo Alto.

In preparation for my return to the musical world I spent about an hour practicing after I got home from work tonight. It was kind of sad. My action's all uneven and my tone quality on sustained notes is pretty shitty, but I'm too busy being stoked about playing again to worry about it. My plan is to spend an hour practicing every day after work - spending a lot of time with long, quiet, low notes to fast-track the rebuilding my Chopz of STEEL, a bit of time working on technical facility and overall evenness of action with old etudes, and then some sight reading - both on saxophone and Guitar Hero (that shit works . . . for reals . . . no, seriously).


It's going to be awesome.