Category Archives: Creativity

#LO 3: Planning and initiating activities

While at the same time taking my saxophone lessons, I did a lot of individual practice. I mostly played pop songs but sometimes Jazz songs. I found playing these songs very fun and relaxing especially since I am in grade 12 and there is just so much on my plate. As always my greatest setback to this was time. There was barely enough time to rehearse which changed a lot of things. It meant I had to practice for a few minutes and then go back to doing my school work immediately. To solve this, I just practiced everyday but for less than 30 minutes instead of the 1 hour that I used to practice. The following are some of the recordings for songs I used to play.

]

#L0 1 : Increased awareness of strengths and areas for personal growth

Having put in as much effort as possible into overcoming the squeak that I normally made when playing the saxophone, I finally got through it. However, not fully. There are still instances when I make the squeak but it only happens rarely. All I did was practice all the drills that my saxophone teacher taught me e.g breathing, fingering techniques and just learning more music theory . The squeak helped me to realize that I really need to improve my fingering when playing the saxophone. Eliminating this squeak was not an easy thing to do since I was not really sure what caused it.

As such I practiced a lot and worked towards perfecting my techniques which turned out effective in the end. This practicing did not just minimize the squeak but also improved the quality of sound in overall. The major struggle I came across was the lack of time which forced me to employ effective time management strategies. But even so, there was still a lot of school work to do so this meant I practiced less than I usually did as I had to prioritise.

LO 2: Undertaken new challenges and developed new skills

I came across a really huge obstacle to playing the saxophone being the squeaking sound. Yes! every time I play the saxophone I have to produce a squeaking sound and this frustrates me at times. I started getting that squeaking sound after changing my mouthpiece but I am not completely sure if that was the major reason behind it. To remedy that squeaking sound, I started being careful and studied why my saxophone squeaked. I considered my embouchure, mouthpiece, reed, and even the saxophone itself as the reason could be mechanical. After inspecting all of those and starting to become more conscious of how I play the saxophone, I still did not figure out what the problem might be. The squeaking sound is something I am currently working diligently on now because I noticed I would not get anywhere with music if I continued to produce it. Having explored the possible reasons as to why I made a squeaking sound gave me the opportunity to develop my critical and analytical skills and transformed me into a more meticulous person. I will be able to use skills like these in other areas of my life that will require problem-solving. The more I played the saxophone, the closer I got to spot the source of the squeaking sound. For example, I squeaked a lot in the beginning but with constant practice, it got better and better so hopefully, in no time I will be able to solve this problem. My saxophone teacher kept motivating me to work hard while being patient with myself at the same time and also gave me a little bit of comfort when he told me that he also used to make the squeaking sound and even worse than that and that it will get better with time.

The following are pictures of some practice sound exercises I employed in my battle against the squeaking sound.

#LO4: Showing Perseverance, Resilience and Commitment

As time went by, my saxophone teacher suddenly developed this useful idea in which he started giving me songs to play on my own but that is not all, he made sure to give me an audio of the song so that I could listen to it and figure out myself how the song is played. I must say that it took what is called perseverance and commitment to learning everything almost by myself. We reviewed the songs that he gave me every week so as he could get the chance to see if I am making progress and if there is anything that he could clarify. What always kept me going in this creative portion of CAS was the joy I got from playing the saxophone and also the dream to be a great saxophonist someday in my life.

Sometimes I got really frustrated when I was not able to figure out the right music notes to play as part of the song but that became better when I learned more notes and keys to playing the saxophone. On an occasional basis, I kept feeling like it was too late for me to play the saxophone but then whenever I told this to my teacher he told me that, “it is never too late to follow your passions” and even related this scenario to himself where he said that he started learning how to play the saxophone when he was as old as I am. This made me have hope and belief that indeed I will succeed in this journey.

Below are some of the songs that I was assigned to work on by myself as practice:

#LO2: Undertaken new challenges and developed new skills

Things have been progressing smoothly with my saxophone lessons but not totally smooth. After constant practice a couple of times a week, I was given the opportunity to do a recital. The idea behind this was so I could get my first experience of playing the saxophone in front of an audience. I was a bit disinclined to do the recital the moment my Saxophone teacher brought it up because it would be my first experience and I was truly afraid of a mob. As days elapsed, I began sitting down and asking myself why I wanted to do music. I later remembered that music is not necessarily something that you do with just your teacher as I thought.  Not that I did not know this but that it was a bit unexpected for my teacher to suggest doing the recital more especially since I was doing the lessons all along. I, later on, mustered up the courage to do the recital and thus I started practicing really hard.

The song that I was assigned to do at the recital was called Ostinato by Costel Puscoiu. It was not that hard of a song after all since I played it together with my teacher during the recital, more like a duo. The major challenge to this activity was standing in front of a mob. I have not really performed in public that much so I at some point became too nervous as to what the recital was going to look like. In the future, I intend to overcome this challenge by gathering up every bit of confidence that I have and make sure to keep eye contact with the audience. I firmly believe that in the end, it was worth it because I learned new skills being, Public speaking, time management, collaboration, creative thinking, self-expression and so forth. All these skills ensured that my performance was great during my saxophone lessons and that I was a fast learner. I would like to believe that these skills that I acquired in the recitals and all my saxophone lessons would be applicable in other areas of my life such as, in a family set up, school, career and also in my daily social interactions.

Below is an attached music sheet and audio for the song that played during the recital;