The Bis Key Chronicles

After a 25 year break in music performance, I returned to my roots. I purchased an alto saxophone, joined a band, and started taking lessons. First thing I noticed is that I was a horrible sight reader, something that is a requirement for musicians who get paid. All those years in school bands, and I never had lessons, never learned to sight read. Hey, I did save my paper route money for summer band camp. And now, I have had my own big band for the last 20 some years. So let’s talk about that.

When I was in high school, I thought I might tilt my lance at music education in college. My band teacher picked me to lead the varsity band sax section because I was new to the school and as a senior, I still would have been low man on the totem pole in the top band. So they asked me if I wanted to teach the freshmen and sophomore players to play. I jumped at the chance. Bonus, I had three solos in the last concert, including an alto-sax solo feature song called Mr. Lucky by Mancini.

One day my dad pulled me to the side and asked me some hard questions. I mean, he wasn’t pushy or demanding but he asked me, “What if your hobby became your job that you had to do every day? Would you still love music?” And then he said you can always do music as a hobby. For example, see that guy across the street from our home? He hates his job, it’s in something called computers (no idea what that was at the time.) But they pay him so much money that he only work six months a year and spends the rest of the time golfing. That conversation was key to me not going into music as a profession, assuming I could have succeeded in getting a degree with my shortcomings.

I stopped playing sax as I entered the job market and raised a family. I even traded my Buescher Aristocrat alto sax in on a new sax for my son. Spring ahead 30 years and I had a hankering to play again. So I purchased a Couf Superba I alto sax that in high school was my dream instrument to own. I searched the Internet for community bands and selected one that was close, performed a lot, and had a jazz band. Then I discovered my weakness, sight reading.

So I started taking lessons, usually an hour or so a week where the first half hour would be sight reading exercises and duets with the instructors. I had so many fine instructors who to a man gave me confidence in my playing abilities. So yeah, I’d never be a world class soloist, but I could have some solos and be a decent sax section leader. I took lessons for about ten years, sometimes with three instructors a week.

I started getting gigs and quickly became discouraged with the same old music in so many big bands. So I started building my library, which now has around 5000 charts. Then I created my own group at work. The Microsoft Jumpin’ Jive Orchestra (now called the Seattle Solid GOLD Big Band. I had a basement in my house I turned into a music studio with drums, bass, and piano available for musicians who sat in. I was so fortunate to live in the Seattle area because there were sooo many really good musicians to pick from. I also had a professor who gave lessons every week to my friends in my music studio.

I am now in three music ensembles; big band, rock band, community band, and sax quartet. I run two of those. Retired, I have time to spend on getting gigs, and I get to play soprano, alto, tenor, bari, and bass sax on a regular basis. I did challenge my clarinet-playing wife (yes, I met her in high school, but that is another story) to learn to play sax. I told her I’d learn to play clarinet if she learned to play sax. Within a month she was sitting in on sax in a number of groups, including some theater pit gigs. I, on the other hand, am still pitiful on clarinet although I have been known to play bass clarinet for a song or two in my big band.

I often tell parents and kids to consider this. Pick a hobby that you can enjoy your whole life. And guess what, it’s not going to be football, etc. Golf, music, tennis, etc can be done well into your retirement. If you get good experience as a child, you will learn what you need to know to succeed. If you try to learn when you are a senior, you may never get the fluency you desire.