What Is Your Natural Tempo?

Being able to perform a piece of music competently with expression is a function of the music's technical demands and the player's skill. Each musician is faced with unique challenges that change as repertoire goals and proficiency levels change.

I often find it useful to determine my "natural tempo" for a piece of music after the technical issues have been resolved. I will basically ask myself "at what tempo can I play this piece well without feeling much stress?"

First, I play the piece without the metronome at a relaxed pace until I can execute it cleanly. This pace may be dead slow or not, depending on the music's complexity. I then reference the metronome to find my natural tempo that I can use to practise my piece. I find that jotting down the tempo with the date is helpful to note progress later on.

My natural tempo shows me how far I am from my goal in real terms. I can explore expressive elements of the piece because technique is less of a concern to me. Natural tempo can vary somewhat each day, but over time, it tends to increase organically to a certain point. At that point, I have to start pushing my tempo boundaries again so I can improve if I haven't already met my goal.

I realize that many musicians (myself included) do not have the luxury of time to learn music using the natural tempo method. However, I find this method useful when learning to play music that is of innate interest to me.

TLC for Unpromising Reeds

A couple of weeks ago I drove 150 km to a big band rehearsal to discover I forgot my reed case at my studio. I had no reeds for the rehearsal. I offered to buy a reed from the other tenor player but he refused my money and gave me one of his new reeds out of generosity.

I used his reed in the rehearsal but it was difficult to play, felt rough, and sounded stuffy. The reed was a brand that I normally use but it was one notch harder than my normal strength. Because I didn't have my reed case, I had to store it on the mouthpiece for the journey home. To no surprise, the reed dried out and warped. That is why I regularly keep my reeds in a bona fide reed case.

This morning, I tried the reed again but when I wetted it, the warping was even more severe. I took out my modest reed sanding kit consisting of No. 600 wet/dry sandpaper and a piece of 1/2" plexiglass stored in a box.

My Reed Kit

(box is clever packaging that once contained new Lucky Strike fishing lures)

To fix the reed, I placed the sandpaper on the plexiglass and gently pushed the reed across the gritty side of the sandpaper in a fluid motion away my body. This way, I am sanding with the grain. It is okay to sand when the reed is wet.

My next step was to place the reed directly onto the plexiglass, flat side down (as shown in the photo) and lightly sand the opposite side of the reed.

I repeat this two-step process except I use the smooth side of the sandpaper to buff the reed.

After I completed this sanding process, I tried playing the reed and behold, it came to life. Perhaps not all bad reeds can be saved this way but this little reed kit has saved me from prematurely discarding plenty of reeds.

Importance Of Rest and Recovery From Musical Instruments

Recently, I've been increasing my practice time on the saxophone in the morning to simply maintain my performance level. I have been using the app Music Journal religiously to document my daily routines and subjects, and it has kept me on track so far. At the same time, my gigs, rehearsals, music instruction and business has been quite demanding. On Friday, I was exhausted.

This past weekend, I decided to rest up and recover. I passively listened to music, watched movies, and did a bit work around the home. I was feeling a little guilty for not touching my saxophone but I resisted the urge to come to the studio.

This morning, I felt rested and renewed. I resumed my routine and I was surprised at the ease and fluidity of my fingers on my saxophone.

It's important to practice your musical instrument each day but sometimes you need to listen to your
body when rest and recovery is needed. Rest gives the brain time to unconsciously learn the things you've been practicing and gives the muscles time to adapt to the demands placed upon them.

Chops Maintenance

I have always found it challenging as a multi-instrumentalist to stay in shape on saxophone which is my main instrument. Teaching, arranging, listening and developing my guitar and voice technique compete for my attention, making it really easy to let my saxophone playing fall to the wayside.

During the summer of 1995, while I was on break from attending the Humber College Music Programme, I decided to learn my chords and scales using  Patterns For Jazz. I managed to get through about 75% of the book before I hit a wall with the chromatic intervals and never finished it.

A few months ago, I returned to the book fresh and started over, not with the ambition of finishing it, but with the intent to use it as a tool to simply stay in shape and to keep my mind fresh. I did have a lapse for two months but I got back on the horse again a couple of weeks ago. I am finding the iPad app Music Journal quite useful in helping me stay focused and achieving my tempo goals. I limit my time on the saxophone to about 30 minutes a day unless I have an approaching gig.

I am now on the diatonic 4th exercises which is giving me my first real challenge. I have been forced to reduce my tempo to 80 bpm so I can play them cleanly think ahead. However, it's a good exercise for the mind to learn new things, or in my case, solidify what I tried to learn 17 years ago. Gradually, my tempo on the diatonic 4th exerecises will increase so the time it will take me to finish it will reduce. I will then be able to add new exercises and delete older ones. That has been my approach to the book and it seems to be working for me.

As a result of doing these maintenance exercises, I have found that my fingers have been more fluid at my weekly rehearsal with the Big City Big Band. My embouchure also benefits because I am able to get through long, tiring infrequent rock gigs.