This is my Blog for music related things that happen to me. Useful articles posted by other people will be linked from the Music Info page.
I will only post on here when I feel that there is something of interest to say, rather than trying to do something everyday.
Please feel free to leave comments and feedback
Best wishes
Dave
Hi Folks
Due to unforseen circumstances, 2 people have had to drop out of the Manchester playday, and so I have 2 paid for tickets to give away rather than let them go to waste.
Its on a first come, first served basis, so give me a call on 07736 471861 or staxofsax@gmail.com
regards
Dave
We have got 10 players booked for our first workshop outside of Leicester, 2 sops 4 altos 3 tenors and a Bari, If any Bari players out there are looking for something to do on Sunday 27th May, why not come and join us for a fun day of music making. Of course all other sax players are very welcome too.
We hope to have loads of pics to show and will keep you updated as we go.
Cant wait to set the sat nav and meet you folks face to face.
see you soon
regards
Dave
If you have been reading my posts on here or cafe saxophone, you may have noticed that I played at my first wedding in June 2011. Because of buying the amp etc to do that gig, I then tried busking which I love doing. From the busking has come some more gigs, including 3 weddings and a golden anniversary wedding to play at. I have also had enquiries for a funeral, retirement party and various village fund raisers.
As these gigs have all come about due to busking, and the weather at the moment is awful for that, I thought that I would get an on line presence to see if I can generate some more gigs.
I know I need to put some recordings up as examples, and hopefully on Tuesday I will be borrowing some recording equipment to get this done. I have looked at other players sites to see what sort of tunes are good to know. I have about 50 tunes so far and more in progress.
My main question is what do I call myself? eg wedding saxophonist? I don’t want to limit myself to just weddings because of my description. Any suggestions for name, tunes or ideas would be gratefully received.
regards
Dave
We are pleased to announce the next workshop to take place in Leicester is on Friday the 8th June.
We will be using the Leicester South Salvation Army Hall as usual and the day will run along similar lines to the last event. We will have a large ensemble session, small quartet/quintet session and the afternoon will be devoted to the improvisation session.
This session is probably aimed at the beginner/intermediate improvisor rather than the advanced. Also this time we will have players stay on in their small groups rather than one large group. This means everyone gets more chances at soloing and we get to explore more tunes.
The day will run from 10am to 3pm and the cost of a ticket is £30.00 per person. If you aren interested on joining us or would like more info then please contact me here or at staxofsax@gmail.com and I will answer all of your questions.
Hope to see some of you soon
regards
Dave
The 11th of April was the 11th StaxofSax workshop in Leicester. We had a great day with 19 people joining us. Players travelled from Malvern, Solihull and Bunny (Nottingham) and from the post day comments, everyone had a good time.
Chris’s arrangement of Your Song (Billy Paul version) was very funky and considering we worked on it for an hour, a good presentation was made of it.
The Small groups played tunes like Jericho and Looney toons with some of the groups adapting their tune to suit the ability of the players in that group. This is how you develop musicianship and make the best of the circumstances you have.
In the afternoon, Nick joined us again and for a change we stayed in the smaller groups for the jazz session. Nick had arranged four tunes so that the performances at the end made a mini jazz concert, rather than have a large group all playing the same tune and everyone having to wait a long time for their chance of a solo.
This was a big success and was appreciated by all that attended.
Thanks to Mandy for the recordings of the small group and improvisation session, I will get them posted here as soon as I can.
It was great to meet Clare, Pauline and Peter for the first time, and I hope that they will join us again.
3pm seems to come around pretty quickly on these events, but at the end of the day we are all ready for a cup of tea or something stronger.
I hope that some of you will join us for the next one on Friday June the 8th for our next Leicester event, I will keep this site updated with details. Let me know if you are interested.
Keep blowing and see you soon
Dave
As you probably know if you have read my blog that I am a busker. Well one of the problems that buskers face is finding out if they need a licence for a particular town.
I am going to start a list of towns with licence details and the date that it was added to the list.
Leicester (city Centre)-no licence needed (2/4/12)
Market Harborough -no licence needed(2/4/12)
Northampton- no licence needed (at the moment, but it may be changing)(2/4/12)
Rugby- a licence is needed (2/4/12)
If you have knowledge of any other towns please let me know and I will add them to the list.
The information is correct on the date it was added, but you may want to check with the local council incase anything has changed since.
I am pleased to announce that we are running our first workshop outside of Leicester. We are going to Manchester and the date is 27th May (Sunday) at
Maunders School of Popular Music,
Wilson Park,
Monsall Road
Newton Heath
Manchester
M40 8WN
The day will start at 10am and finish at 3pm, it will include large ensemble, small ensemble work and a Jazz Improvisation session in the afternoon. The day is aimed at players over the age of 11 with a minimum of 12 months playing experience, but is also suitable for players of all abilities. Our arrangements are written specifically for the people who are attending, so grade 1 or grade 8, you will be sure of not being out of your depth, whilst having a challenge too.
We have run 10 of these events so far and they are going from strength to strength with 22 players joining us for a fun days music making on our last day.
Check out the StaxofSax facebook page for details of previous events.
Cost of the day is £30 per person
We hope that some of you can join us for the day and look forward to a good days sax playing
Regards
Dave
