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A compliment

4060 Views 27 Replies 14 Participants Last post by  kavala, 
AlistairD
Tonight when I got home from work, my wife said that the neighbours had visited and had complimented me on a tune I played last night (Killing Me Softly...)

This is my first ever unsolicited compliment!!!!

At last, I must be making some progress.... :D :D :D
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Carl H.
Did you just change your avatar?

Way to go! Keep up the good work. Time to start working on "in the mood" or "string of pearls" That will get you feedback from the neighbors, almost guaranteed!
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R
Congratulations!

I'm still hoping the pounding and angry shouting
here will stop soon.
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AlistairD
Carl H. said:
Did you just change your avatar?
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Nope, I changed it a while ago.... Great album from George C...
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Carl H.
I could have sworn it changed while I was looking at it! Oh Well.
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hakukani
Carl H. said:
I could have sworn it changed while I was looking at it! Oh Well.
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...they promised us flashbacks.;)
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tjontheroad
AlistairD said:
Killing Me Softly...
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Gee, I wonder what your neighbours were doing at time. Roberta Flack tunes very sexy... Ah, I mean saxy :D
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jrvinson45
Congratulations! What a neat feeling, eh?

Here's something to consider... If you have any Real Books or All Time Favorite stuff, particularly things popularized in the last 25 years, run them up the flagpole as a "set." By this I mean pick half a dozen Robert Flack, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Carole King, even ABBA, things to pick from try practicing them without stopping to work out little stuff for about 15 to 20 minutes and leave the windows open. People like to hear tunes they know, and unless your neighbors are my age (not many are) they will like them better than Glen Miller or Basie, or Charlie Parker things. Practice like you ARE playing for them. If you focus on that, you will truly work harder than you do if you are just noodling or playing exercises. You'll still need to do the exercises, but you can always close the windows or tone it down. The neighbors will appreciate it. Also, if you play more of the pop stuff, you can slip in "Ornithology" and they'll love it.

Keep on having fun!
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martysax
I like practicing my overtone series with the windows open.

It drives the dogs crazy!:twisted:
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rleitch
AlistairD said:
Tonight when I got home from work, my wife said that the neighbours had visited and had complimented me on a tune I played last night (Killing Me Softly...)

This is my first ever unsolicited compliment!!!!

At last, I must be making some progress.... :D :D :D
Click to expand...
Either that or your neighbours are fairly accomplished ironists:D

Seriously though, congrats. What practice materials are you working on these days?

Rory
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AlistairD
Thanks for the ideas and encouragement guys.

rleitch said:
What practice materials are you working on these days?
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Rory, My normal practice routine consists of scales, long tones some Lennie Niehaus and some Jamie Ambersold.

I decided a couple of weeks ago to try something more popular and got "50 Songs with Sax Appeal" which has a number of more modern "classics".

jrvinson45 said:
If you have any Real Books or All Time Favorite stuff, particularly things popularized in the last 25 years, run them up the flagpole as a "set."
Click to expand...
Once I get a bit more polished, I'll try some in a 'set' with the window open and see what happens!!!
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rleitch
AlistairD said:
Rory, My normal practice routine consists of scales, long tones some Lennie Niehaus and some Jamie Ambersold.
Click to expand...
Sounds familiar!--although I rarely get to "play along" these days. Do you have the Jerry Coker Patterns for Jazz book? That's a biggie. If you like classic blues styles, the Dennis Taylor Blues Saxophone book is a blast. Some of the solos are pretty hard, but getting Lee Allen's "Walkin' with Mr. Lee" down for me has been worth the price of admission! Your neighbours won't believe their ears!

Cheers,

Rory
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AlistairD
Rory,

rleitch said:
Sounds familiar!--although I rarely get to "play along" these days. Do you have the Jerry Coker Patterns for Jazz book? That's a biggie.
Click to expand...
Not got that one, I'll look out for it...

rleitch said:
If you like classic blues styles, the Dennis Taylor Blues Saxophone book is a blast. Some of the solos are pretty hard, but getting Lee Allen's "Walkin' with Mr. Lee" down for me has been worth the price of admission! Your neighbours won't believe their ears!
Click to expand...
Got it, but not tried any of them yet... but hopefully will in the not too distant future.

Thanks for the advice.
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Prime Sax
the only compliment I got was when I stopped . . .

It's a great feeling, isn't it? When you're really into the music and pouring your heart out through the sax, and all of a sudden you realize people have been listening and they like it!
I wish I had that feeling.
I open my windows and play and thank God that the nearest neighbors are a little over a mile away across the valley . . . just out of rifle range.
Haven't seen the cat for quite a while and that pesky raccoon that was coming around frequently seems to have disappeared.
Ah, the many blessings we receive from playing the sax . . . .
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jazzbluescat
Prime Sax said:
.....I open my windows and play and thank God that the nearest neighbors are a little over a mile away across the valley . . . just out of rifle range.
..... . . .
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:D

I close the windows, just to be on the safe side.:hello2:
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MJT
AlistairD said:
Tonight when I got home from work, my wife said that the neighbours had visited and had complimented me on a tune I played last night (Killing Me Softly...)

This is my first ever unsolicited compliment!!!!

At last, I must be making some progress.... :D :D :D
Click to expand...
Don't want to disrupt your mood, but perhaps your neighbors were diplomatically letting you know that they can indeed hear you well.
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MJT
Prime Sax said:
I open my windows and play and thank God that the nearest neighbors are a little over a mile away across the valley . . . just out of rifle range.
. . .
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Hey wait, didn't I just sell a Barret to that guy?
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AlistairD
MJT said:
Don't want to disrupt your mood, but perhaps your neighbors were diplomatically letting you know that they can indeed hear you well.
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I give in.... I'll go and buy a sax mute.

And I thought it was progress... oh well back to the drawing board.:( :( :( :(
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RootyTootoot
jrvinson45 said:
Congratulations! What a neat feeling, eh?

Here's something to consider... If you have any Real Books or All Time Favorite stuff, particularly things popularized in the last 25 years, run them up the flagpole as a "set." By this I mean pick half a dozen Robert Flack, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Carole King, even ABBA, things to pick from try practicing them without stopping to work out little stuff for about 15 to 20 minutes and leave the windows open. People like to hear tunes they know, and unless your neighbors are my age (not many are) they will like them better than Glen Miller or Basie, or Charlie Parker things. Practice like you ARE playing for them. If you focus on that, you will truly work harder than you do if you are just noodling or playing exercises. You'll still need to do the exercises, but you can always close the windows or tone it down. The neighbors will appreciate it. Also, if you play more of the pop stuff, you can slip in "Ornithology" and they'll love it.

Keep on having fun!
Click to expand...
That is a very, very clever idea. I'm going to suggest it to my pupils. For myself, my neighbour, a sculptor, is a huge fan of free jazz and loud noises. This is a really important issue that rarely gets thought about. How can you really practice if you know next door is thinking negative thoughts and probably just getting up the courage to come and bang on your front door? If you're just going to say "Oh, sod them" what does that say about the way you think about music? I always loved that quote of Neil Young's (!) "I make a rule never to play with musicians who care most about what they sound like to other musicians. I find that eliminates 95%. Choosing a band is easy."
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Rick Adams
AlistairD said:
And I thought it was progress... oh well back to the drawing board.:( :( :( :(
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Whoa Alistair, that's only an alternate theory, not a definitive reality. Ask your wife, she could probably tell from the tone of their voices and non verbal communication whether the neighbours were trying to pass on a hidden message to play more softly or whether they were just geniunely praising your playing. If you're still not sure, just knock on their door and ask them :)
Rootytootoot said:
This is a really important issue that rarely gets thought about. How can you really practice if you know next door is thinking negative thoughts and probably just getting up the courage to come and bang on your front door?
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It has to be by negotiation and agreement in advance in my opinion. My current home is the central cottage in a row of three and as soon as I had the opportunity to introduce myself to my new neighbours I explained about my practising and reassured them about things like how often and for how long and up to what time of night I practised. I think people tend to be more OK with stuff if you've gone out of your way to be up front with them and they know there're some ground rules.
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