I know what you mean, dude. Although it sounds corny and cliched, just close your eyes and let it flow from your body, utilising all the bits we sax players use - diaphragm, lungs, embouchure, tongue, fingers. It'll come naturally.

I know when I'm playing something just right, I get a chill down my spine and sometimes the hair stands up on the back of neck also. That's when you've hit it spot on. That reaction is increased if you have a direct emotional connection to a tune and, rather than distract you from playing it, I find it makes me play it even better!

 

Here's a scary thought.

As a musician, amateur, pro, it doesn't matter. At some point in your life, you will be asked to play at somebody's funeral. Posssibly somebody very close to you.

Next time you complain about a wedding or birthday party, consider the alternative and count your blessings.

 

Dog Pants: Thanks for your mention of this. I have only had to do that once. It was an honor to be asked to do it, and there was a strange mix of gladness (that I was able to say goodby in this fashion, and pay respects) and sadness (at the loss of a friend). For some reason, what I really didn't think I could handle, was applause. I asked in advance that there be none, that this was not "performance" but eulogy.

 

Dog Pants: Thanks for your mention of this. I have only had to do that once. It was an honor to be asked to do it, and there was a strange mix of gladness (that I was able to say goodby in this fashion, and pay respects) and sadness (at the loss of a friend). For some reason, what I really didn't think I could handle, was applause. I asked in advance that there be none, that this was not "performance" but eulogy.

Classy move Leon

I had to sing Danny Boy at my mate's Father's funeral. I'd known the man since I was 3 years old. I wasn't nervous really, just in no condition to speak, let alone sing Danny Boy.

Fortunately, all the menfolk, young and old, fell in with me and it was just a wonderful thing. Still gives me the shivers to remember it. Those old Irish men sure can sing.

I'm an Aussie with Scots/Irish ancestry. When I go, I want Danny Boy, Flower of Scotland, and Waltzing Matilda sung at my funeral. as well as the obligatory hymns to keep me in the good books with the new landlord.

At the wake, an all-night jam sounds about right.

Strewth, that's morbid. Someone post a happy wedding story or something.

 

I played at both my parents' funerals and it was the easiest thing I ever did. People said 'I don't know how you did that, I couldn't have' but I had to; at the two moments in question, it was almost as if I was destined to play the sax for these two specific instances, making it the reason I took it up - it wasn't the reason, it just felt like it at those two instances.

 

Whenever I sing or play Silent Night, or Amazing Grace, I begin to cry because I played those songs when my Mom's cat Tootie died. I wasn't crazy about Tootie, but I hate it when animals die... (as for the ones we eat for food, I try not to think about that little detail)

But any piece of music, if I really listen to it, it will provoke emotions. I can connect with what I have to play.

 

Whew!

I haven't done a funeral yet, but I come from a huge family, and I'm not lookin' forward to being asked. On the one hand of course I would try to accommodate the request and honor the loved one.....On the other hand, I don't know if I could deliver.

I can feel INTENSE emotion when I play, but what happens if you feel too MUCH emotion and it messes with your ability to carry on? I mean the embouchure starts slippin' or the breathing gets weird?

DIRK....did you play sad or melancholy songs...or more uplifting, inspirational at your funerals?

Anybody??

 

S'never happened to me, (either the 'overcome while playing' or the funeral part) but I have seen Tim Garland start crying in a happy kind of way (if that makes sense) while playing a tune he wrote for his daughter. He told me later he just had a sudden kind of 'rush' of realising how much his family meant to him, and had real trouble finishing his solo. Solo was amazingly powerful too - there were quite a lot of moist eyes around the place. Sounded like he started out by pouring a lot of emotion through the horn then kind of got overwhelmed... It's kinda nice to see a hardened pro like that being really unravelled by the music!

 

I've been asked to play at funerals of friends and family. I'll play at a wake or post-funeral party with other musicians but never as a soloist and rarely at the funeral service alone or in a band unless it's a specific request from the widow or widower. My usual answer to those trying to turn a funeral into a jam session is, "I'm sorry, but this is a time for grief and not a performance opportunity." I've seen too many people use funerals to draw attention to themselves. I prefer to grieve quietly and privately and to allow the true mourners their time of attention to help them get through it.

But to address the original question: Yes, that's happened to me. I used to play and sing "Old Folks." The tune describes my late father-in-law so well that I cannot sing it publicly now without losing it. We cared for him the last couple years of his life and he lived, declined and died with grace and dignity. I'm getting all weepy now just writing these words.

 

Thoughts, Emotions

Sonny Rollins' version of "I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face" really tears me up.

 

I went to St. Louis in October to play at the memorial concert for Maynard Ferguson. We did a bunch of Maynard's tunes, with different trumpet soloists doing the MF parts. We all became emotional at different times, but there were times when one of the trumpet guys would be up there, doing a high-note ballad thing, and trying to do it with a lump in his throat. I mean, Holy Cow! That kind of playing is already a very exacting physical endeavor, trying to get air, tongue position, throat position and embouchure to be in just the right alignment. Add the wild card of how emotions can surface physically, and I was amazed at how those guys did it.