Tag: saxophone

Memorable Monday: Happy Labor Day [2026]!

The Portly Politico1 Comment

Ah, yes, another Labor Day here in the United States. Now that I don’t work full-time, every Monday is Labor Day, except since today actually is Labor Day, Dr. Wife is home, too. I might have to swing by Food Lion and pick up some hot dog and hamburgers and baked beans—’tis the season!

Today represents the spiritual end of summer throughout the nation, although most students have been back to school for three or four—or even five or six!—weeks already. It’s an odd, late Labor Day, as 1 September fell on a Tuesday. I imagine the kids and their teachers have been eager for this brief reprieve.

We’re still a good ways away from dog days of summer being over, but I’ve already begun detecting that crisp bit of autumnality stirring in the early mornings and at night. A little over a week ago I took a late walk as a storm was approaching, and it positively felt like I was walking through a Ray Bradbury story. I was positively chilly. It was the howling wind and swaying tree branches, though, that saw me cut my walk short and scurrying home to Dr. Wife and Nugget. I kept praying that the Lord Would Spare me from a massive widowmaker branch falling from one of the town’s ancient oak trees. He Saw fit to spare me for another day—and I’m sure I’ll take other walks in dubious weather again!

Fall is also a great time for music; if you haven’t already, you can still pickup Koi Dance for 90% with promo code koipond. You totally should!

With that, here is 1 September 2025’s “Memorable Monday: Happy Labor Day [2025]!; New Releases!“:

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New Music Tuesday XXII: “Clusters”

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I had a bit of staff paper and some time Saturday afternoon, so I jotted down another little piece. I wanted to do something in the chorale-vein I’ve been mining lately, but also change it up a bit. The result is today’s piece, “Clusters.”

I imported the WAV of the finished product into Audacity, where I applied a “Medium Room” reverb filter; a “Wide Synth Pad” chorus effect (one of my favorites); and a “Vintage” master effect.

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New Music Tuesday XXI: “Deep Chorale”

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Yesterday morning I had a little bit of free time and a little bit of staff paper, so I jotted out a little chorale. I decided to write one in the bass clef, which I don’t usually do, and while I followed some of my own “rules” for these chorales, I also took quite a few liberties with them.

I imported the WAV of the finished product into Audacity, where I applied a “Medium Room” reverb filter; a “Wide Synth Pad” chorus effect (one of my favorites); and a “Firm Bass” master effect. The result is this enigmatic, low-end-heavy chorale.

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New Music Tuesday XX: “Chorale for Single Reeds”

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Sunday morning I jotted down another chorale—I’ve been on a chorale kick lately—and decided to experiment with 9/4 time. I really just wanted to see how composing for longer measures might affect the final product. I did find that my “grammar” changed a bit while composing in this unorthodox time signature, with more subdivisions of three popping up.

I exported the WAV from Noteflight and imported it into Audacity. There I applied a “Large Room” reverb filter; a “Wide Synth Pad” chorus effect; and a “Lush High-Ends” master effect.

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scale model toy of a woman figure

Open Mic Adventures CLXIV: “Ride of the Valkyries”

The Portly Politico8 Comments

I had a gig down in Charleston this past Saturday night. A young man from Connecticut was proposing to his girlfriend (she said yes, by the way), and he’d hired me to play a Lewis Capaldi song before he popped the question. It was a really fun, touching moment, and I’m grateful I could be part of it (he paid me pretty well, too).

In practicing for that little performance, I had fun flipping through my music, and came upon a piano arrangement of Richard Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” that I play on the saxophone. Since I’m playing unaccompanied, I don’t have to transpose the music (saxophone is an Eb instrument, meaning that if an Eb is played on a piano, it’s a C on the saxophone), so I just read the right-hand piano melody straight off the page.

I had fun with this version, which I’m sharing today:

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Open Mic Adventures CLXIII: “1979”

The Portly Politico2 Comments

The siren-song of Old World called heavily to yours portly, luring me with its addictive, “just-one-more-turn” gameplay to crash upon the rocks of sleep deprivation.  It’s also drawn me away from artistic pursuits.  My plan is to compose at least one, but preferably two, more tracks for Koi Dance, and then I’ll schedule it for a release.  Given my recent acquisition of some Japanese Trapdoor Snails, I’m brainstorming a composition about these enigmatic, quiet pond dwellers.

That said, I haven’t composed anything since “Sturgeon,” so I’m featuring an “open mic” mic performance of sorts.  The “mic” is my fading second generation iPhone SE; the “adventure” is singing a cappella in my bathroom; the “open[ness]” is my thick, meaty tongue “shalalalalalalalalalala-ing” the riff to The Smashing Pumpkins’ hit “1979”:

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TBT: Short Sax Starter Pack Recommendation

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Note:  this post contains several Amazon Affiliate links.  I receive a portion of any purchases made through these links, at no additional cost to you.

My students and I are back at the SCISA Music Festival this morning, and yours portly has a saxophone gig tonight.  As such, it seemed like a good time to look back at my “Short Sax Starter Pack Recommendation” post from 12 March 2025—one year ago today!

The thrust of last year’s post was that, for under $400, you can purchase a decent—not great, but serviceable—alto saxophone.  Indeed, I’m playing at this very same saxophone tonight:

Here are the updated prices for the items I listed last year; remarkably, the price is lower than a year ago; however, Slade seems to be phasing out the horn, as there is only one sax available at the time of writing:

Grand Total:  $290.67 (down $33.18 from the typical price in 2025) before taxes

With that, here is 12 March 2025’s “Short Sax Starter Pack Recommendation“:

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Open Mic Adventures CLXII: “I Found Love (Cindy’s Song)”

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Last week I made a big deal about how I’m shifting Open Mic Adventures into New Music Tuesday, and how it’s inaccurate to call these features “Open Mic Adventures” because they’re not really at open mics—blah, blah, blah.  All of that is true, but this week, I have a bit of a conundrum:  what do I do if I don’t have any new, original music, but have a cover of a song?

Well, my hasty solution is to use the old “Open Mic Adventures” label for those pieces that covers, as 1.) anytime I feature a cover, it’s me playing it, even if it’s not at an open mic night; and 2.) I don’t want to further muddy the waters with some other title, like “Saxophone Covers Tuesday” or whatever.  What a nightmare!

So, here’s how it’s going to be going forward:

  • Any performance that is a cover of someone else’s work will be an Open Mic Adventures
  • Any live performance will also be an Open Mic Adventures
  • Any original music—whether electronic or me playing a piece I’ve composed—will fall under the new New Music Tuesday feature

Shew!  Hopefully that’s all sorted.

With that tedious business out of the way, let’s get to this week’s piece!  A potential client is booking a saxophonist to play the BeBe & CeCe Winans song “I Found Love (Cindy’s Song)” for their wedding.  The piece will play as the bride walks down the aisle.  At the time of writing, I’m still waiting for the official booking (fingers crossed), but I recorded a quick, abbreviated version of the piece on my alto sax Sunday afternoon [read my full guide on buying a budget sax if you, too, want to start your saxophone empire—TPP].

Here’s my humble attempt at noodling out this smooth gospel/R&B classic:

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