Sunday, August 14, 2011

Saxophone thoughts

So I've been playing the saxophone for about 9 months now, and it's been a journey of continuous learning, joy, and of course, pain. One the web, it's sometimes said that the saxophone is an instrument that is easy to play. The come back to that line is, that they missed a word - badly. Yes, the saxophone is an instrument that is easy to play badly

I submit myself to the court of public opinion, a horrible first 8 bars as I am totally out of tune. I thought the rest was not too bad, given I'm only spending maybe 6, 8 hours a week on it. Not substantial compared to full time professionals, but enough to slowly move on. As mentioned in a post below, the sax is one of the elements that helps me learn more about music, and in turn, more about myself. And from there.. to learn even more :P 

Case in point, saxophone recording. How does one record a saxophone properly? Upteen hours on gearslutz, homerecording and many other similar forums reveal a horrendous amount of techniques, equipment and variables required to get a good saxophone sound. Hence now, I've got a few new hats to learn and wear (omg I'm a red mage) - namely "composer*", audio engineer. 

Time learning about the saxophone and music related to the saxophone firmly gives me a better idea about my tastes - that I'm definitely not one to go down the "I'm a saxophonist - I play jazz" route. Rather, that is only one of the paths I want to travel. The more I listen to various kinds of music leads me down the path of game music - and with inspiration by Muta1206 that is definitely what I want to do several years down the line - arrange game music that is memorable (to me), as well as instrumental covers of old music that I love. 

With game arrangements comes the name, ocremix. Been listening to remixes since... wow a long time back. Lots of it off last.fm, only thought to join the forums months back. Much talent there, and it's bloody challenging. The way I like it :)

*arranger? Remixer?

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