Vlog!

Hey everyone. Here is my vlog! 

Interview

I sent these questions out to 2 saxophone experts. One, Chris Farr teaches at the University of the Arts in Philly. The other, Matthew McClure teaches at UNC Chapel Hill. My family and I  actually ran into him while I was touring UNC Chapel Hill. My family and I were exploring some music buildings and stopped to talk with Matthew about the music program at UNC. I figured he would be the a perfect person to interview! He  is the saxophone teacher and assistant director of bands in the Department of Music at UNC.  He also directs numerous saxophone chamber groups in the department.

I asked these 5 questions to both professors.

• How long did it take before you considered yourself to have mastered saxophone playing?
• Throughout your school career, how involved were you in music groups?
• It has been said that "music makes you smarter". Based on your experiences, can you vouch for this claim?
• How has the saxophone and music impacted your life?
• In your life, What is the coolest place your saxophone playing has taken you?

Chris must have been pretty busy, because his answers were not the greatest.

Here is a look 

Matthew McClure's Answers

Matthew's answers were much better. I am thankful that he took the time to write out great responses for me. It was great to hear a professional's perspective on my questions.  

Part 4: The Brain and Music (is this the brain project?)

        Hey everyone!

        This week I started to think about my saxophone playing from a more educational lens. I was wondering if there were benefits to the mind while playing a musical instrument. I have heard a number of my music teachers mention that “music makes you smarter” but I wanted to set out myself to find out if this claim was true.

I did some research and discovered a study conducted by Boston Children’s Hospital on this very topic. The study was featured on Psychology Today Magazine. In short the study found that there was a strong correlation between musical training and “improved executive function” in both children and adults. Executive functions high-level cognitive processes that let people to quickly process and retain information, regulate their behaviors, make good choices, solve problems, and adjust to changing mental demands. They came to these conclusions by using MRI brain imaging of people who played instruments daily (sounds like me!).

Nadine Gaab from the Boston Children's said, "Since executive functioning is a strong predictor of academic achievement, even more than IQ, we think our findings have strong educational implications." He also claimed, "While many schools are cutting music programs and spending more and more time on test preparation, our findings suggest that musical training may actually help to set up children for a better academic future."

I found this evidence to be very surprising. Schools should take another look at studies like these before they try to cut music education!

So… An update on this week.

One of my goals from last week was to push my limits by practicing and learning longer pieces. In previous weeks an average song length was about 20 seconds. However, this week I learned pieces that significantly longer. They consistently were over a minute long!

Here are two selections.

I was genuinely surprised at how my mouth tired so quickly. I found myself having to take breaks between each run-through of the songs.  But as the week progressed, my mouth strength became much better.

Remember that horrible squeaking I was experiencing last week? Well, it’s gone now. I am not exactly sure why it is gone. It’s probably a combination of small things. Such as, studying diagrams on saxophone embouchure, gaining familiarity with newer notes, or simply repetition.

Diagrams 

                                      

Hopefully the horrid squeaking and squawking is gone for good!

The future looks bright!

                         --  Joel  

Part 3: Two steps forward, one step back

      This week I did not have as much time from practicing. I only got in 3 practice sessions, when my goal was to get 5 each week. I had extracurricular activities, and had to practice my main instrument, the trombone, in preparation for a jazz competition. Overall though, I main progress in learning new notes, and new rhythms. But endured setbacks in my tone quality. Basically, I was squeaking a lot.

Moving along 

This week I went through and learned 3 pages in my book. However, the material was much tougher to master than in previous weeks. The songs included faster and more complex rhythms. They required me to move my fingers quickly to each note which I struggled with. My unfamiliarity it with treble clef seemed to be holding me back. The rhythms were only eighth  notes, but they a surprisingly difficult to play on a new instrument. Since I do not know the notes by heart  (since I am just learning them) I would often stumble through the parts that included eighth notes. This was frustrating to me! I am used to being able to play these rhythms with ease on the trombone, so I became demoralized when I had to keep redoing simple melodies.

These are some of the good takes I had 

On the top are quarter notes. On the bottom are eighth notes (which I was having trouble with).

I learned new notes along the way this week. They are E, F, A, and C#. A feature I enjoy about my lesson book, is how it integrates the notes into songs. It first gives a slow pattern in order to familiarize yourself with the note. Then it often uses a folk song or traditional tune that everyone knows that uses the specific note. I find this method to be very effective for learning.

Tone

Learning new notes has its downsides. I must have been more focused on playing with speed and reading rhythms, because my tone quality suffered this week. It was on certain notes, particularly the low F, that my saxophone would squeak uncontrollably.

This did not only bother me, but annoyed the heck out of my family especially my mom. As I mentioned in my first blog my mom is a music teacher. So she could not stand the squeaking, and was trying to help me fix my tone. I believe the problem was with my mouth position. I made a few adjustments with it, and I think I have it correct now. I just have to remember to always have the correct embouchure locked in when I play. My squeaking fiasco also reminds me that I cannot get ahead of myself and rush through the book. I always have to keep the fundamentals in mind.

Here I am squeaking. This was not the worst of it!

This is what the embouchure should look like. Most likely, my problem                                           was that I was putting too much pressure on my bottom lip.

Plans Going forward

This coming week I want to slow down and work on the embouchure problems. I must lock down the correct mouth position before I can do anything else. I do not want to anger my family with squeaking again, because they still have to hear me play the saxophone for a few more weeks. I will encounter much longer songs this week. I looked ahead and saw that there are songs that are a whole page in length. I want to learn this piece, and be able to have enough stamina to play through it completely. See you all next time!

I'll send you off with the happy Mexican Fiesta song!