I spent the last 2 nights up the Hudson River with my dear friend Miyuki and his lovely family in their amazing house. Needed to re-charge the ol' batteries, just changed jobs and just moved into a new pad and, well, NYC can be exhausting.
So I was in this deep sleep this morning and I had this lucid dream that I had just gotten a great deal on a Selmer Mk6 tenor sax at Wally's Music in Oregon. I had gotten tired of the key work on my old horns and to get more work I bit the bullet and bought this Selmer. I was talking to people in the dream about my justification of it, I now had a variety of necks I could try out on it blah blah and Wally's had given me $1200 for my horn which is more than I paid for it. My high end would improve etc, more work, good investment etc. I felt really stoked and had this feeling like I had passed through the fire somehow and grew up finally. Welcome to the world of sounding like someone else! I've made it!
All the while I had this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I was giving up a piece of myself, my identity, my vibe to sound like an acceptable sax player.
Then I woke up really sad with this sense of longing for what I had. I woke up feeling like I had given in and made a terrible mistake. It took about 10 minutes to realize my old horn was still in the room and nothing had really changed. It took me the morning to remember that I love my horn and more so I love my connection to my horn.
Not that there is anything wrong with a Selmer. Give me one and I'll take it and make the best use of it I can. Maybe it would get me more work? I don't know. I heard that was true from some people. But you know, I tried a bunch of horns the other day and I sounded like me on all of them and mine killed the others, more guts, more....me. I can't escape me, I can only accept me and work on me. All good reminders. Spending all that money won't fix any bad habits or improve my sound. I know this already.
Sheesh, a dream. It's amazing how deep this all gets in there......
J1
So I was in this deep sleep this morning and I had this lucid dream that I had just gotten a great deal on a Selmer Mk6 tenor sax at Wally's Music in Oregon. I had gotten tired of the key work on my old horns and to get more work I bit the bullet and bought this Selmer. I was talking to people in the dream about my justification of it, I now had a variety of necks I could try out on it blah blah and Wally's had given me $1200 for my horn which is more than I paid for it. My high end would improve etc, more work, good investment etc. I felt really stoked and had this feeling like I had passed through the fire somehow and grew up finally. Welcome to the world of sounding like someone else! I've made it!
All the while I had this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I was giving up a piece of myself, my identity, my vibe to sound like an acceptable sax player.
Then I woke up really sad with this sense of longing for what I had. I woke up feeling like I had given in and made a terrible mistake. It took about 10 minutes to realize my old horn was still in the room and nothing had really changed. It took me the morning to remember that I love my horn and more so I love my connection to my horn.
Not that there is anything wrong with a Selmer. Give me one and I'll take it and make the best use of it I can. Maybe it would get me more work? I don't know. I heard that was true from some people. But you know, I tried a bunch of horns the other day and I sounded like me on all of them and mine killed the others, more guts, more....me. I can't escape me, I can only accept me and work on me. All good reminders. Spending all that money won't fix any bad habits or improve my sound. I know this already.
Sheesh, a dream. It's amazing how deep this all gets in there......
J1
