42 – The Lesson Part 3
(The Lesson starts here)
Haven’t we all pulled a Samantha before?
In fact, I think I remember lying about this to avoid lessons I wasn’t particularly prepared for.
…in college.
I studied classical saxophone with Dale Underwood, who is a badass. But it wasn’t jazz and my heart wasn’t in it AT ALL. I had a hard time showing up for my lessons prepared. Actually, I had a hard time showing up for my lessons. Period.
I probably tried every excuse in the book to avoid lessons and I’m sure he saw through all of them. I just wanted to play jazz and couldn’t wrap my head around the idea of the saxophone as a classical instrument. It didn’t sound right to me.
I don’t know that my opinion has changed much in the past ten years but at least no one is in the position of having to force feed the stuff to me.
There are 2 schools of thought here.
-#1 is to put the lesson plan before the learning experience, and chew the student out for not obeying instructions, along with some exercise meant to frustrate or humiliate. Old school authority.
-#2 is to make the best of things and say, “Let’s play this instead.” And then the 2 of you do some real creative, constructive work. But you are no longer the boss and your lesson plan no longer law.
The C’s, F’s, Bb’s, Ab’s, etc… that Bernard Heiden, and Paul Creston wrote, are the same C’s, F’s, Bb’s, Ab’s that Rascher, Mule, Coltrane, Parker, Adderly, etc… all played. There’s only 12 notes.
Totally. The music and style just never resonated with me. It doesn’t excite me.
Which one(s), Dusty? Which music? Which style?
Classical saxophone literature.
Ah. I always preferred hearing it to playing it.
Yeah, my listening, playing, and study of classical saxophone music started simultaneously. It was probably a wee bit doomed from the start.