Saxophone!
I have wanted to play the sax since I was small. It is such a cool and expressive instrument. I keep seeing and hearing excellent sax solos (most recently from the guy in Elkie Brooks’ band) and the idea would not go away, so it is time to take the plunge.
I drove over to Crowborough, to the nice people at saxophones.co.uk and talked about an ex-hire sax in perfect condition. An hour or two later I was very excitedly on my way home with a horn in the boot of the car. It is a Trevor James Revolution II Alto. It looks gorgeous and came with a good case, stand, a tutorial DVD, a couple of reeds and some cork grease. I had to buy a box of reeds and a tuner/metronome. I also bought John O’Neill’s “Jazz Tutor”.
The first attempts were both easier and harder than I expected. I was delighted to be able to get notes from the sax straight away, but my lips and face are very quickly tired, I am not always in tune and it does not sound that much like a sax yet. Still, early days.