I made SaxStation.com today. That will be my site devoted to music.

At combo we’ve been playing Chick Corea’s Spain. It’s a cool tune. I had played it last year too, so I knew it a little better this time around. A good version of the melody is in the real book volume II, but the old real book has the intro to the song. Besides that one we’re playing ‘Someday My Prince Will Come,” Ladybird, and Sugar.

I was listening to Miles Davis on “Bye Bye Blackbird” he has a cool intro.

Yesterday at jazz combo we played a few new songs to start getting ready for when we play on the 20th. We started off with some Charlie Parker- Confirmation and Moose the Mooche. Since I’m playing tenor, Moose the Moose feels a little better at this point. I do have the Charlie Parker omnibook in both B flat and E flat. After that we played Chick Corea’s Spain, which is a cool tune. I had played it a last year, so it’s somewhat familiar.

The Joe Viola chords book I have been using to practice site reading has helped me get better reading crazy keys, ie the exercise I’m on is C flat diminished, so the chord starts on C flat and each chord tone has a double flat.

I was thinking about the chords in Spain as A flat instead of G sharp and E flat instead of D sharp. I’ve heard people say that most horn players like flats more than sharps. I played in orchestra on clarinet for a few years, which helped me get used to sharps though. Really I ought to be able to read them both without any problem, so I need to keep working on that. After Spain we played Someday My Prince Will Come which is a cool song as a jazz walz.

Last night I was practicing sax and then suddenly my reed stopped playing. My sound had been a little funky the last few times I had played and when I looked at it the reed was warped. My reeds have warped before, but never while I was playing them. It had lasted me maybe two weeks.

At this point I soak my reeds (vandoren v16’s) in a mixture of about half scope and half water for 10 days- until they sink. After that many days I put them in a plastic bag and seal it. When I finish playing I rinse it in the same sort of mixture. Occasionally I’ll take them about after less then 10 days if I need to play, but they’re not completely wet at that point. The reason I do all this is something that many other players have told me- that the moistening and drying out process is what destroys a reed. When I started playing a reed would be one way on a particular day and then change on me. If it’s always wet the chances of this happening are reduced.

I’ve seen special moutpiece caps with a little sponge that gets the reed a little moisture when you just set it down. Some people just leave the reed on the moutpiece and put it away like that, but it can get kind of nasty. With the process I use it’s disinfected and the reeds last about two weeks. It’s time-effective if you play a lot since playing also wears down the reed. So far it’s given me good results.