Random Notes

Had anyone told me when I bought a house and had children just how much of my time and energy (both mental and physical) would be devoted to poo, I would have told them they were, well, full of poo (t0 put it nicely). I sort of hate to digress from the saxophone theme this early in the life of my blog, but life events have dictated otherwise … and they’ve kept me from practicing, too!

To put this in perspective, I have a three-year old boy, recently potty trained, and a 140+ year old house with a septic system of unknown age.  My son, bless his heart, is doing great at using his potty, but being the independant little guy he is, he also insists on trying to EMPTY his potty, which until today, we had foolishly moved from the bathroom to his bedroom to avoid any late night/early morning accidents. He loves his little potty — or should I say, he loved it until it mysteriously disappeared after his most recent attempt at emptying it. Need I say more? If you are a parent, you know what I’m talking about.

Now, that little, umm, mess, isn’t what has been keeping me from practicing. The septic system, on the other hand, is an entirely different story. Did you know that, if you have a septic system, you have a “Bio-Mat” lurking beneath your yard? That is just one of the countless new things I have learned about poo. I’ve also learned things like all of those cool enzyme additives that prevent you from having to have your tank pumped also keep your poo in suspension in your septic tank, which then makes its way to your Bio-Mat and clogs it, so then the poo oozes out into your yard. I also didn’t know that fabric softener has microscopic waxy particles that can get suspended with the suspended poo that exisits because in your septic tank because of the expensive enzyme additives that you added and, you guessed it, clog your Bio-Mat.

I’m not quite sure where I’m headed with this, other than to say that all I wanted to do tonight was practice, but instead, I got to read about poo and learn all these interesting facts (I avoided cleaning up today’s three-year old inspired mess only because he did it while I was still at work!) only to figure out that, since my Bio-Mat is now clogged with poo, my bank account won’t have poo left in it once the ground thaws. Next time, I’m sticking to the practicing!

10. The more reeds you have in use, the more reeds won’t play

9. The amount of time you are willing to spend adjusting reeds is inversely proportional to your budget

8. The more out of practice you are, the fewer reeds really sound that bad

7. The more out of practice you are, the fewer reeds really sound that good

6. The more you want to practice on any given day, the worse your reeds will sound

5. Reed knives disappear mysteriously as soon as you REALLY need to work on your reeds

4. Reeds are what make playing the saxophone most enjoyable … so much so I think I’ll switch to bassoon so I can play with DOUBLE reeds … NOT!

3. Keeping reeds in a salt box will ALWAYS prevent mildew

2. Reed warp

1. Endless supply of kindling for my wood stove!

I was just looking at my Outlook tasks and realized it has been, oh, something like a month since I planned to publish my first “real” entry on this blog. Amazing how time flies when you procrastinate! I actually had a little more significant a thought about that, but first, a bit about the intent of this blog.

Once I get my bio up (whose idea was it, anyway, that a bio should be a part of a personal web site?), you’ll likely quickly notice a pretty significant “dead spot” in my performance history. The idea for this blog actually grew directly out of that dead spot. This past November, I finally defended my doctoral ‘document’, completing the Doctor of Music in Saxophone at Indiana University-Bloomington. Aside from the degree, one of the things I walked away from that experience with was a fairly intense desire to return to playing and performing. As I started playing actively again, a couple of things happened. First, I was having a great deal of difficulty structuring my practice and really focusing. More central to the existence of this blog was the realization that my experiences as I go through this process might actually be of value to someone else. From those two realizations, the idea for this blog, publicly chronicling my experience, was born.

So, a little bit about what I hope to do here… In the last few weeks, I’ve taken the basic idea of sharing my experience through, oh, maybe 30 variations — all without writing a single word. Depending on the day, I’ve thought I’d do anything from simply writing about what I practiced and journaling the progress I was making on whatever it was I was working on to thinking I’d write these lengthy, in depth insights into playing the saxophone, directing small church choirs, and explaining how to rehab an old house. What I’ve finally settled on (for at least the blog portion of the site) is to keep it simple. What you’ll find here are nothing more than my thoughts about what I’m experiencing as I try to get back to the performance level I was at a few years ago, with some occasional thoughts about directing a small church choir (another part of who I am) and maybe an occasional rant or two about my frustrations with trying to keep up with my 140 year old New England home. I’ll still do some of the in depth “Dr. Burke” saxophone articles, but they will be published separately from the blog itself (but I will link to them as they appear). If I get lucky, eventually there will be at least a few folks dropping by from time to time to add their own comments, although I don’t plan to try and run a saxophone forum within the blog. Which all brings me back to the title of this post… Just Get Started Already!

 When I was actively performing, I never found it to be a problem to get off my rear, get to a practice room, and practice and practice and practice. One of the biggest challenges I’ve been running in to in the last few months has been just getting my horn out and starting. Once I get past that hurdle, the time just seems to disappear — before I know it, I’m up too late and I’ve put in a couple of hours. Same thing as getting this first entry written — once I get past that initial act of simply starting, the rest just happens. If you’ve stumbled on this entry and you’re a professional or advanced player, my guess is this is pretty old news. But if you haven’t gotten to that point yet, before you get too worried about what literature or scales or etudes you “ought” to be studying, what practice techniques are the best ones, what reeds to play on, what horn to use or anything else, just get that horn out and get started! There is no material, no piece of equipment, and no knowledge that is worth anything unless you actually practice. So what are you reading this for? Go Practice!