Summer 2021 Thank god it’s over…
It has been a while. I hope everyone has had a good summer, and is getting ready for their pumpkin spice whatevers…
Me? My summer has been anything but normal. I’m still in recovery mode from my surgery. I’ve been told it can take up to a year before I’m back to my normal, loud-playing self… Jeez…
To make matters more complicated, I was left alone for the last 3½ weeks as my better half attended to family matters in Ontario. That meant my surgery healing time has been slightly delayed while I had most of the pet and house chores on top of what I normally do… And truth be told, I did hardly anything else, since I am still pretty sore.
I am deeply indebted to my student however, who came over every morning to bunnysit for 2-3 hours while Ms. Bea had run of the bunny-proof portion of the house. (In total transparency, the bunny had been hers for 4½ years, and we only got Ms. Bea because the family’s new condo doesn’t allow for a pet bunny.)
In exchange for all the bunnysitting, my student and I spent at least 4-5 hours per week working on her saxophone playing skills. We worked on her musicality with things like: phrasing, articulation, starting and stopping notes. You know, all the stuff we should be doing, but many players get quite sloppy on.
I also let my student be the first person to play my Couf bass sax. How easy was it for her to play? It was so easy, she could subtone down to low Bb, and was playing, In The Mood, like a champ—all within the first 30 minutes! She was laughing and giggling at what fun this horn was to play. Given half a chance, she would be a natural bass sax player.
A revisiting of a Bassic Sax Blog classic
To get us in the mood for the fall, I have decided to revisit a topic that I wrote about a lot when I first started the Bassic Sax Blog: saxophone signage.
As I wrote about more than a decade ago already, saxophone imagery is used to convey a lot of different information at a glance. Saxophone shapes are used to advertise, promote, and dissuade. The following photo illustrates the latter in Warsaw, Poland.
Source: florathexplora on Flickr
According to Google Translate, the sign reads:
prohibition of playing instruments
I would assume this means that there is to be no busking?
If you want to see some of the other saxophone signage I have found over the years, check out the saxophone signage hashtag at the end of article. I think you’ll start to notice a theme. 😉
Over the coming months I plan to revisit a few topics that I wrote about a lot in the beginning, but then moved away from as The Bassic Sax Blog evolved in scope and size. Call it Throwback Thursdays. Today’s just happens to be a day late. 😆
