Notes about my efforts to learn Tenor Saxophone - and some of the tunes I'm doing, practice sessions, etc - with my 1966 Selmer Bundy Tenor sax - "Bello."
I'm trying to get this down, and Rosie is cooperating a lot better than my fingers! Lol.
I plan on working on this for the next month or so - and it'll be a bit different than in the vid, because I naturally strum with my right thumb instead of picking. I've got one heck of a callus on the left corner of my right thumb, and it's only getting more so. I also tend to grow out the left corner of that thumbnail so that I can pick with it when I need to.
Here's the lesson:
And here is Rosie with my little First Act MA-104 4-watt practice amp:
I love the blues, so the new theme I just finished here on 66 Sax is hitting me just right.
I love the starfield background, and I've tweaked the fonts and colors to go with a "blues night club" kind of feel.
In that spirit, here's a really classic blues number from the year I was born in, 1962. I only discovered this amazing artist this past month, which really shocks me. I give you the amazing Barbara Lynn, who was so far ahead of her time:
Some Sweet Old Soul-Blues Fusion:
I first heard this song last year, but had no idea who sang it. I
listen to a lot of blues and soul on Sirius XM radio. Love those sounds.
I
heard this again just yesterday, and got the chance to look it up on
Google. It turns out to be a very rare bird indeed - Ms. Barbara Lynn,
who was a female lead vocalist and lead guitarist, and songwriter in the
1960's.
I love this song. To me, Barbara Lynn's voice is as
smooth as butter half-an-hour out of the 'fridge. I want to practice a
baritone version of this song and sing it for karaoke.
For now, let's just enjoy some righteous ear candy.
Phillip, I want to thank you for this vid. I bought a MIM Strat a few
years ago because it was what I could afford. I absolutely love my
little red "Rosalita". (Yeah, I named my guitar after the gal in the
Springsteen song)
Rosy cost me $350 with a stand, hard case, Crate 25W
amp, cable, tuner, picks, and extra set of strings included. While I
want to support American labor, I work for a living, and I just couldn't
shell out the 2 grand that all the US gear would've cost me.
Rosie
plays like a dream, and in a kind of mystical fashion, holds her tune
for a year at a time. I'm serious, I can check her with the tuner and
she never budges except for a tiny tweak on the 2nd string once in
awhile. I'm using Fender Super Bullet strings and have never used a
whammy bar with this guitar, even though I have it.
Hats off to those
guitar makers in - I believe - Esmerelda, Mexico, because they allowed
me to get a guitar I could only have dreamed of otherwise. It even makes
me feel better knowing that many of them play guitar as well. Now, if
only I could play as good as the guitar I love! I have a lifetime to
work on that.
FYI, I did spring for a Roland Cube 40XL amp a little
later, and that thing is fantastic.
Most evenings, I just use a little
4-Watt MA-104 from Toy-R-Us for simple practice, however.
It's nothing
to carry and keeps my fingers on the strings. The thing is the size of a
hardcover book. I can run that in my garage at 2am and bother not a
soul.
