When I started studying the saxophone (and music) seriously, I had one goal … to be the best saxophonist I could be. Everything else I did was in some way centered on that goal, either to actually play better, or to position myself to find a way to make a living centered on the saxophone.  I studied music history because they made me if I wanted to stay in school; music theory because I thought it might help me get a job; flute and clarinet because… umm… well, because. Even though I was doing all those things, they were on the periphery. My focus was always the saxophone. In short, I had tunnel vision. Although I was going through the motions of a lot of musical activities outside of the saxophone, I didn’t really enjoy it, and I didn’t fully appreciate much music outside of the literature for the saxophone.

Last week, I had the opportunity to play for a Lenten Taize Service. Nothing really out of the ordinary for me at this point to be playing at a church service – it’s pretty much a part of my weekly routine at this point. The Taize music wasn’t new to me, either. We’ve been using several of these as part of the Eucharist for the last couple of years, at least. It wasn’t even strange that I was playing them on flute; I’ve been begrudgingly pulling my flute out for these (and a few other things) from the time it somehow got out that I could play the silly thing. Two things were different — the first is that we were able to recruit a really good violinist to play for these services. The other thing that was different — I caught myself having fun. Fun, playing flute, with violin and organ?!? What? After the initial shock and shame, I realized that this has been going on for a while now. I’ve been enjoying being a choir director, choosing to listen to things like Yo-Yo Ma playing the Bach Cello Suites instead of something on the saxophone. It really has happened … I’m no longer just a saxophonist, I’m a musician.

Where am I going with this? I have no idea (remember the blog is, after all, Random Notes!) Just a thought that’s been going through my head  In the meantime, I’m bummed that I have to miss the second Taize service tomorrow, but am looking forward to the third one on April 1st. Who knows, maybe I’ll even practice my flute!

Heiden is coming along nicely, maybe even a bit ahead of my schedule. At any rate, I was looking over what I wrote last week, and I realized I failed to mention why I started this piece. That’s sort of central to my point in journaling my progress on this one!

When I was at IU, I was one of Eugene Rousseau’s students, and believe it or not, he turned 76 this year. In honor of Dr. Rousseau’s 76th birthday, there is going to be a “Rousseau Celebration” hosted at the University of North Carolina – Greensville. As one of Rousseau’s former students, I have the opportunity to perform a piece either recorded by or dedicated to Dr. Rousseau. The Heiden “Solo” was dedicated to Rousseau back in 1969  — AND he recorded it. It also happens to be reasonably approachable, which is really important to me since I’m still in the “rehab” phase of my performance. Although I perform nearly every week, it’s been about 8 years since I’ve done any sort of high profile/major performance, so I want to be sure that this is successful for me.

So, here’s what I’ve been up to. One of the things I’ve been really focusing on has been identifying and working out what I’ll call, for lack of a better term, “nuisance” passages. One of the biggest nuisances in this piece, at least for me, is at the top of the third page:

If you look at this passage at the level of a single beat, there isn’t anything really hard about it. What does present a challenge, at least for me, is that each beat is similar, but enough different to trip me up. One of the strategies that I find especially helpful with sections like this is to work out each beat, then start building the passage by practicing two beat blocks, then three beats, then four … until I’m comfortable with the entire passage. I also prefer to start at the END and work back towards the beginning so I’m always playing to something I know and am comfortable with — really helps to keep me relaxed.

The other things I’ve been really focusing on are pushing tempi and identifying what fingerings I want to use when there are alternates available. Those two things — tempo and fingerings — are not only important, but they are also related.  Tempo first….

Now, I know, the common wisdom about tempo is to practice as slowly as you need to to play without making a mistake. I’ve repeated that mantra to students and to myself over and over and over and over again — and it is extremely important. Don’t think for a minute that I’m not spending a lot of time working out the kinks slowly and methodically. The other piece of the equation, though, is that you need to spend some time teaching your fingers to move at the performance tempo and, when a piece has technical passages that extend of several beats (or lines or pages!), you really need to get your brain thinking and processing all of that information at the speed you need it to go. I’m not say this very eloquently, and I’m not sure if that was really clear, so if you don’t understand, leave a comment!

The other thing I need to do is to at least get to the point that I can play passages a couple of beats at a time, at or above performance tempo, fairly quickly so I can really hone in on fingering decisions. Take this passage, for example:

If I’m plugging away at a nice, slow tempo, I’m inclined to just use standard fingerings the whole way through this, but as I approach performance tempo (somewhere around quarter note = 120 bpm) the palm key E down to the F and back up to palm key E is a bit of a pain.  The biggest problem for my fingers is in my right hand, moving from right side key 3, getting my first finger down for the F, then shifting back up to get back to RSK3. Simple solution — don’t use the first finger to play the F, just use the middle finger. That simple shift keeps me from having to move my right hand/wrist to get to and from RSK3. If I’d taken my time gradually easing the tempo up, yes, I would have eventually made that decision. In the process, who knows how many times I would have played it using my first finger before I made the decision, which in turn would have meant having to UN-learn before I could LEARN. Plus, when I get nervous, I find that if I haven’t been 100% consistent in my use of specific fingerings, I have a tendency to make mistakes simply because I choose the wrong one, drop a note, then break my concentration and drop a few more notes.

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