12/31/2003
Looking back, I have had a very good year. Though I spent much of my time this year buying and selling saxophones (and other gear), I have still managed to learned a ton. After selling my first sax at the end of 2002 (Selmer Super Action 80), I was on a quest to find a horn that would provide me the tonal characteristics I wanted. I won't go through the entire list but just say that I've owned over 25 saxophones over the course of about 8 months. In addition, I bought several mouthpieces and many different brands of reeds and strengths in order to find the right combo for me. This has been a very good learning experience for me and though I did "waste" a lot of time just messing around with these horns, I have gained valuable information on what I like. I now am the proud owner of a custom Cannonball Big Bell which has a beautifully rich tone. I had it custom made to look like a 75th anniversary Keilwerth - Silver neck, bell, keys, with a black nickel body. WOW!!!

Some of my greatest triumphs (and tribulations) include improvements in tone production, breath support and control, and better embouchure control and lip positioning. I play much smoother and with much less effort than a year ago. When playing, I can focus more on my embouchure, breathing and tonguing since my fingers "know" the notes better. I have been working on my jaw/lip positioning on the mouthpiece which has helped me to play with different tonal characteristics (clarity, subtoning, etc..). I've been playing a lot of ballads in the last four months or so which I think has helped me to produce a better tone since the tunes are generally slower and many times have longer tones. I started to work on one or two songs that require more technical ability in the last couple of weeks (Mintzer 14 Blues & Etudes Songs IV & IX). I've found these songs are much easier to play now and hope to focus on more challenging books next year.

As I mentioned, it has been a good year. My playing has substantially improved and I've been able to get in about 1 to 2 hours a day worth of play time. Its kind of hard to sum up everything I've learned the entire year but I've tried to list some of the highlights.
 
 
Accomplishments
- Major scale chords
- Learned over 40 songs from Aebersold, Mintzer, Hal Leonard, Carl Stommen and other books
- I play with much greater accuracy
- Tone! I am very happy with the progress I've made with regards to how I sound
- My breath support is much better
- Embouchure has definitely improved - I'm no longer tightening up when I play higher notes
- Tonguing has improved - I play with steady breath and use my tongue to separate notes and rests
 
 
Need to work on...
- Improvising - I can embellish a little but have problems with chord changes
- Accenting, articulation and playing with style - I definitely need some work in this area
- Sight reading - I have trouble reading at faster tempos
- Reading notes above the staff - I can't recognize them from a glance
- Counting - I don't practice with the metronome much
- Timing - I listen to my recordings and hear myself going too fast or too slow at times
- Playing with speed - I'm kind of slow :)
 
 
Goals for 2004
I am very happy with my progress over the last year. That being said, there is still a lot I need to work on. Naturally, my ultimate goal is to be able to play with better tone and articulation, proper accenting and intonation, and style. More specifically, I think I need to work on the following things:
- Better practice habits including more pattern, scale and chord workouts
- Fuller and richer tone throughout the entire range
- Better breath support (playing through the horn)
- Timing, rhythm, and flow
- Sight reading and note recognition
- Melodic articulation and accenting
- Improvising and embellishing
- Chord changes
- Non-Major Scales and chords (minor, blues, etc..)

One of my highest priorities is to get in to better practice habits. Doing so will (hopefully) help me achieve many of the other goals on my list including sight reading, timing, rhythm. I also want to play songs more fluidly and with greater style - embellishing more and in the right places and articulate more melodically. I'm hoping that if I learn how to embellish better, I will learn how to improvise better. What I mean by embellishing is playing the written tune while adding and changing the timing of the written notes (adding grace notes, scale and chord runs, etc..). My thought is that if I can make slight changes in the melody, soon I'll be able to expand that to a total improv that will sound good and have the proper timing.
 
 
Final thoughts
My thoughts right now are that the general goals will repeat every year - it will be very interesting to see if my goals change much next year from my current list. The reason I say that is because I think all of these things make you a better player and I don't see perfecting any of them EVER. Maybe these should be considered long term goals and set more specific goals within this framework.

I'm really going to try to buckle down in 2004 with regards to practicing and playing more effectively, and experiment with gear much less than I have been. Though I play up to 2 hours a day now, I really need to practice more efficiently and focus on achieving specific goals. I'd like to spend at least 1 hour a day working out with patterns, scales and chords, then 1 hour (or more) playing tunes. I'd like to record my first “album” next year with a variety of songs including ballads, standards, jazz and blues.

Current Equipment
Cannonball Big Bell Tenor (T1-BSS)
- Rousseau Studio Jazz #4 Mouthpiece
- Fibercell #3 (med) Reed
- Rovner 2R Dark Lig
- Purchased new 10/2003

Buffet Super Dynaction (1969)
- Meyer 5M Mouthpiece
- Rico Royal #2 1/2 Reed
- purchased 9/2002

Vito Baritone (Yanagisawa made)
- purchased 12/2003