(no subject)

[miraje]

I'm trying out for Symphonic Band again next semester, so I need to start practicing now and getting my embouchure in shape. I just played different little fragments of songs on the sax for about an hour, and it feels like I damn near chewed through my lip. My tone has been sounding very bad lately, and I'm not sure if it's the horn or me...or maybe both. That poor thing hasn't had a tune-up in at least two years, and me being out of practice and out of shape doesn't help much. I'm debating on whether to use a rental horn for the semester. The model I have is a Yamaha YAS-23, which is the most basic student model. It lacks one key that professional models have, and that was a problem last year since one or two of the songs we performed had that note in my part. I also don't get the greatest tone in the world with it, and the fingerings are starting to get a little clumsy. I hope that's a sign that I'm improving musically past my horn's ability instead of me just sucking. It'll cost me around $30 for the semester, which isn't bad at all. I think I'll do it as long as I get a quality horn. If it's a piece of shit, I'll just use my sax. You wouldn't expect a University to have shitty horns, but a friend of mine got a doozy for her rental bass clarinet last year.