saxophone<3

Monday, April 03, 2006

So this blog's dead. Since last October, in fact. But really, does it matter when the Great One's at hand to rescue this miserable cluster of pixels from eternal oblivion?

Not really. But massively overblown ego aside, I suppose we really ought to get down to some serious business. Noticed that our section's been languishing ever since Jermyn and co. left. At the risk of sounding like a complete asshole, we might be marginally better than most other sections when it comes to practical ability, but somehow we haven't achieved the levels of discipline and musical unison that Lester managed to inculcate into the saxes 2 (or was it 3?) years ago.

Personally, I feel we lack discipline. Now this might sound a bit rich coming from someone who bursts into substandard impersonations of Moody and the Untalkative Bunny, but I think we have to achieve a level of ruthless effeciency, where we don't waste any time in sectionals. We have to learn to respect the conductor, learn to treat creating music as a discipline in and of itself, and not as a tool to vent your emotions. Music deserves to be played well, and to do that we have to treat it seriously and not fool around like a monkey on steroids.

But the problem doesn't only lie with discipline (or a lack of it, whichever you prefer). Perhaps taking a step back, we might notice that we don't play as well as we can. For instance, I'm fickle-minded when it comes to tone, and constantly focus on altering and perfecting it whilst neglecting tonguing and intonation. As for the rest of the section, I don't think I'm in any position to comment, but there certainly is room for improvement. But on a whole, we lack the distinct sound of a group of saxophones. The magic... it's not there.

Really, individually, we're all capable players. Jeremy has the jazzy funk, Abtzy rocks ass with the baritone, Samuel and Bertrand can both play notes that are way beyond the range of the average musician, and Justin's in the SSO. Brian won best practical, Joel's improving fast, and the Sec 1s are extraordinary considering how raw their talent is. On paper, we're really quite brilliant, but we have to play together as one unit, create true musical fusion.

I often sound like a demented cheshire cat on steroids when I'm at band, but right now I'm pretty dead serious. I loved the feeling of playing in a top quality RIMB section, to feel the elitist pride of hearing the clarinets go gaga at the vive the saxophones can exude.

I want to play real music again.

- Jumbiez saxophonist MUSIC`