my main instrument i play and perform on is the tenor sax. i started playing 7 years ago.  i had no idea what i was getting into when i started playing, but  the idea of swooning like Lisa Simpson was too appealing.

i practice hard.  i play harder.

i took lessons for a while but liked freestyle more than theory and decided to teach myself. 

high school was all about the senior wind ensemble, co-running the junior jazz band, and being lead sax for our senior jazz band.    my teacher was very good to me.  she gave me plenty of solos and i loved standing up and improving 64 bars onstage.  favourite style to improv?  pure funk.  who can forget 'Chewin' the Fat?'

what a thrill.

when we were little, my parents got us  a piano. i took lessons but hated them, so i quit and the piano went untouched for years. i still don't take lessons but i've got back intostarted playing by ear. most of what i play are 'pop' tunes... sarah mchlachlan, ben folds five, etc. the nice thing about the piano is that they're everywhere. most homes or hotels have one somewhere (unlike the saxophone).

when i  went to lake lucerne, switzerland, my hotel had a gorgeous Steinway piano. i decided to play and started 'busting out the hits.' i was doing great but then this middle-aged woman came over from the bar and told me she didn't like what i was playing<!> she asked if she could 'try', sat down, and TOTALLY showed me up. i later found out she was touring with an international jazz festival, and i was basically stepping on her gig at the hotel.  moral is?  i'm sticking  to the sax in public

~>Tales from a self-professed band geek