The two goals that I've always had, and that frankly I think everyone should have, are:

1. To enjoy playing.
2. To improve.

Anything beyond these two is highly specific to one's musical tastes, current ability level, ensemble preferences (if any), performance opportunities (if any), budget, etc. I do think concrete goals are very helpful, but no one can tell you what they should be for you.

 

The two goals that I've always had, and that frankly I think everyone should have, are:

1. To enjoy playing.
2. To improve.

Very nice.

Yes indeed, Kendall....if what you really wanna do is just practice and get your chops up to playing a few Jazz tunes well (whether with backing tracks or not), then there you have it. Perfectly laudable and attainable goal to start out with.

If playing with others again is something which excites you, then the path to that is pretty similar to the aforementioned, except at a certain point you start hunting for other musicians....

 

Goals are a fantastic thing to have. And while the goals in the above post are laudable and something we should all strive for, I think specific goals are very important too. Otherwise it's way to easy for your brain to rationalize and weasel around them. Of course, the goals you pick will depend on your level of playing. But some examples could be to play and improvise without major mistakes on a certain tune, anything from a blues to Giant Steps depending on abilities. Or you could aspire to play in a band with others. Personally, I'm working on my doubling right now, so one of my major goals is to play clarinet convincingly. I have many smaller, more specific goals that are part of this like being able to play with an even tone throughout the range of the instrument, learning all my scales on clarinet, etc. Just some ideas to get you thinking. Happy practicing, and have fun!

 

I played clarinet off and on since grade school, but took up sax not so long ago. I wanted to play stuff that sounded good on sax that didn't really work on clarinet, like R&B and funk. My main goal was to play with other people. To do that I had to get good enough to not embarrass myself. I got there. Now I am working (somewhat) on improving my improvising (lots of chamber and orchestral music and musicals don't provide much practice), and using some Ethiopian pentatonic scales. But I don't really like to practice (especially things like scales), so progress is slow.

As LostConn said, your goals have to be specific to you - I know people who are extremely ambitious in their goals, others less so. Your goals need to match your personality/inclination. Given that I have a full-time day job, two kids, an old house, a disorganized artist wife, and other stuff I like to do (like teach sailing to kids), my goals are pretty modest. I am playing with a group, so I do practice enough to be prepared for performances and not embarrass myself too badly, but I am not doing much more than that.

 

When I started playing again after a long layoff, my long-term goal was to get good enough to play in a college-level big band, and my short-term goals were kind of baby steps in that direction: working on sight reading, intonation, articulation, all that. Lots of exercises and etudes, trying to get it perfect, then pushing the metronome up a few notches and trying again. I also did lots of improvising, because my other goal was to have fun. Not that etudes aren't fun, but ... you know.

 

Etudes are not that much fun.

 

Well, there's fun fun and then there's ... other kinds of fun. Etudes are that other kind.

IMO practice should involve a certain amount of frustration: no pain, no gain. When I first start in on an etude, it's often frustrating. But there's a certain satisfaction in sticking with it, making progress, and eventually being able to easily play something that initially had me baffled. It might be a stretch to call that process fun, but it's a part of what I love about music.

 

After a layoff of more that 30 years (actually more like 40), I decided to start playing my saxophones and clarinet again. My first goal was simple: see if you can play better than you did when you were playing daily in school. After a year, I am not there yet on clarinet, but I did meet the goal on my saxes. Along the way to this goal I discovered that I just really like playing the kind of music I like, for myself. So what is my next goal? I think LostConn nailed it in posting #2.

Oh yeah, and I still need to meet my goal on clarinet!

 

Love the replies guys! Keep them coming.

 

Obviously, we all share a love of music or we wouldn't spend our time learning to work these contraptions hanging from our neck straps. Music is many things, including a way of building community. When I picked up the sax, my main goal was to get good enough to play with other musicians, because I've found I feel happiest when I am sharing music with others. And when I examine my life, most of my friends are people I've played in bands with and many of my greatest memories are connected with music I've played or witnessed. The music I've recorded may not ever be widely heard, but I've put my soul into doing what I love and that matters.

But the most important question is what does music mean to you?

 

I doubt if I could ever put it all into words. But what you're saying about "community" is definitely a big part of it.

 

I'd like to hear about what your goals were/are when you first started and or picked the sax up after a long time. What are you trying to get out of playing the sax?

Among my foremost goals are to always have a sound that I like to listen to. If your tone sucks, there's not much reason to play.

IMHO

 

I'd like to hear about what your goals were/are when you first started and or picked the sax up after a long time. What are you trying to get out of playing the sax?

I didn't pick up a horn until I was well into college. I'd been listening to lots of stuff that just burned itself into my brain. Coltrane's late stuff, in particular, became an obsession. I decided to jump into the pool to see if I could swim. More a primal need to make some sounds, aiming for "pure sound," rather than a specific goal.

Over twenty years later, my goal is to be able to play anything which is playable on the saxophone. Unattainable for me, but it gives me lots of stuff to work on and lots of room to keep growing. Right now I'm balancing my playing between very lyrical lines and very, for lack of a better word, unbalanced intervalic stuff. The lyrical stuff is for other people, the intervalic stuff is for me.

 

I started playing sax when I was 25 years old. I had no woodwind or brass experience previous, just guitar and bass and a little piano. I enjoyed the sound of a tenor sax so much that I played as much as my time would allow. Much of it was playing along with oldies on the radio as well as familiarizing myself with scales, chords, etc. I seemed to be able to play by ear easily so I ended up going to jam sessions as soon as I was comfortable playing in most of the keys and to not make a fool of myself. lol. I gravitated to the blues, so went to lots of blues jams. After a few years I started picking up gigs in blues bands. When I became a Christian I started also playing on worship teams which I do to this day. I continued to improve gradually and was able to play on a paid weekend warrior level in one band or another since I was 32. I am now 66 and still am learning- practicing lots of jazz related things but not able to pull it off in a band setting so I just practice and enjoy playing jazz at the house. I really do not have specific or unrealistic goals regarding jazz playing. As young as you are, you are not limited age wise like I am. So set any goals you want and enjoy the process of reaching them.
Like Dr. G said above, it's all about getting a tone that is pleasing to my ear. I often experiment with my different mouthpieces and various reeds on all my horns and enjoy playing my favorite tunes, improvising on them, and just making sounds that please my ear. A simple pleasure, but as long as I enjoy playing, I will continue in this way. I gave up wanting to be Mr. America long ago but still enjoy a good workout. Same principal.