Almost there

I’ve practised and practised on the song Are you sleeping. Yesterday I found the song after I got fed up with the only song I could play: Au clair de la lune. The idea was to go to the next level, but maybe it was too early (or I lack some patience...).

The process started yesterday afternoon. I found the sheet music and a finger chart for the alto saxophone. A finger chart is a series of pictures in which you can see how you have to place your fingers to play a certain note. Now I was ready to start practising.

Before I started to play, I divided the song into small parts, two measures per part. Then I practised each note separately to make sure that I understood the fingerwork and amount of air needed. After that, I could start playing the real song.

The first part was really easy. These measures only consisted out of the three notes I already knew: the G, the A and the B. This was quite simple. I needed to repeat it a couple of times and then I got it. The other parts, on the other hand, were much more difficult. These involved difficult notes and a fast beat (well, relatively fast). To get the hang of these part, I needed way more time. This process was accompanied by quite some frustration, however, it did get me far.

The mission is almost accomplished. Level one: Au clair de la lune is played and I’m halfway level two: Are you sleeping. I’m sure that my skills will improve by the time but for this moment, the experiment was quite successful. My enthusiasm for the saxophone has grown and my skills have improved. This was my main goal for the experiment and that goal is perfectly reached J