[Dixielandjazz] Playing without practicing

[Larry Walton Entertainment - St. Louis]

I was in a repair shop one day and a guy brought in an alto sax that had 
obviously been in the basement for years.  He said he hadn't played since 
college and had played a bit professionally but hadn't played for 30 years. 
He wanted to give it a try but wanted his horn looked at.  He got out the 
horn and proceeded to produce a sound most sax players would kill for.

It can happen.  I know a trumpet player who sounds great and has good range 
and never plays except on gigs which are only occasional.  I haven't a clue 
as to how he does it.  I have known him for years and he doesn't practice 
but rarely.

Unfortunately most of us don't fall into that category.
Larry
St. Louis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kent Murdick" <kmurdick at jaguar1.usouthal.edu>
To: "Larry Walton" <larrys.bands at charter.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2007 9:10 AM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Playing without practicing


> I've known people who almost get away with this (note the word almost). 
> The sax player with the New Orleans Jazz Vipers bought a sax about 20 
> years and wandered into the streets and started playing with people - 
> badly at first and then better and better.  But I'm sure that he worked a 
> little bit at home and probably does a lot of prepartation now days.
>
> If you have perfect pitch or very good relative pitch and a lot of talent, 
> I don't see why you couldn't play reasonably well almost immediately 
> without much practice on, say, an alto sax .  That octave and half  on the 
> alto (d' to a'') is pretty easy to get.. I was playing "Fly Me To the 
> Moon" on the second day  I picked up a sax.
>
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