Sax Shed

[soulsax]

What's the sax in you been up to? What did you do with that sax in the last 24 hours or 24 weeks ? I got a few leaks fixed on my tenor. (last night) Mostly been an alto player lately because of those leaks. Time to tend to that tenor. As much as I dig it, ,because of those leaks it's been alto alto alto for some weeks now... My sax shed get's used most everyday, nothing fancy, just a homey place to blow when ever I want. Cool neighbors, a few stray cats(more than a few) that stop by for some left overs. Three saxophones, and some clutter here n' there. But organized clutter! Always clean for company. Well,,, that depends on who it is. Share a thought or a secret about your shed, or what you shed? For me it's songs and more songs.

[MikeS]

My shed is a walk-in closet. It has hung clothes on one side and a cupboard with wooden doors on the other. I shed there because: a) I don't disturb the neighbors and feel free to play as loud or as long as I want, and b) the acoustics are really good. The clothes absorb echos, but I can stand in front of the wooden cupboard door and get a real good bounce back. (Ever noticed how great you sound when you do that?) I practice every day I am in town for as long as I think I can get away with it before the wife starts complaining. Practice is the normal mix of technical stuff, long tones, Tim Price exercises, and tunes. But Friday night is all tunes night--my reward for practicing hard during the week.

[kcp]

Our shed is our living room wich has been permanently turned into a kind of home studio. The computer is there, sound system, sound console, microphone, wires, our saxophones and other instruments are there waiting, ready to be picked-up and played. My husband and I got rid of the couch two years ago because it took too much space (and it was ugly)
We're lucky to have excellent neighbours. They never complained, in fact in summertime when the widows are open, neighbours often gather on the balcony and listen to us practicing. The advantage of living with another sax player does that I rarely get to practice alone :) All it takes is for one of us to start playing and the other one join in quickly. There are almost always other musicians who are staying at our place, so our "practice" time almost always develop into jam sessions. I like that but sometimes I wish I could have more time to practice stuff on my own.

[Lowell]

Kim: I envy your situation. I practice alone always. One night per week I rehearse with the group. I have sat in my back yard and played on those rare, warm, windless days and I can't honestly say if my neighbors even noticed. I usually practice midday on my days off or on night shift at work so my wife rarely hears me. I would love to have other musicians nearby to jam with on an impromptu basis. One member of our group lives a few blocks away but he is a traveling salesman so is rarely home during the week. Cochrane is an affluent bedroom community for Calgary so most of the adult population is not home during weekday business hours. My music doesn't bother anybody ( yay! ) nor does it interact with anyone ( boo! ).

[barisaxx]

My bari and my daughter's alto are in the shop for a check-up/leak repair. Should be able to pick them up today. During the last 24 hours I spent more time on my arrangement of "Makin' Whoopee" for a Sax quartet. My shed is a room in the basement we affectionately call "the Jazz room". It has tongue & groove knotty pine on the walls and plaster/lathe cieling. The sound is pretty raw in there. In the summer, when I shed in my back yard, I am always surprised at how differently the horn sounds. When I lived in a different house, the shed was the garage because the sound did not carry to my baby son's room and wake him up. Neigbors could hear it though. On several occasions, the neighbor's son would walk out on the sidewalk outside the garage and play his trumpet as loud as he could. There was more than one impromptu jam session with a garage door seperating the two of us.

[soulsax]

Sax sheds based on whats available. I can relate man. All the above. Kims crib is close to mine in the front room. It's sorta big so I let my son set up my oldest son's drums a few months back. I don't play. Sax kicks my butt so why should I try to be a drummer? Theres a keyboard and a Fender acoustic guitar. I work at keeping it clean but it is always needing some straighting up. I never shedded in a closet. Or a basement. Blowing in a corner is cool, gives you a good feel for your tone. Mirrors have benifits too, something about "watching". I mostly work at a big song list. My brother has been coming by and has helped me sequence a bunch of tunes on keyboard that I put on tape. I picked up a trio of roommates a few weeks ago. They fit in very well. I can blow at 2am (if I must) and they don't care. 8) Spring is here. Time to play at the beach . A goal for next weekend. Its all good.

[BayviewSax]

My shed is either the unfinished portion of the basement with a nice, bare concrete wall to bounce the sound off of, or the stairway from the finished part up to the ground floor, which has a slightly darker, but nice resonance. Depends on my mood.

[Hurling Frootmig]

My shed is either the family room in our downstairs or the living room upstairs. On a few occassions it has been the garage. It depends on if my wife actually wants to hear what is on T.V. or not. I also have to find time to play in between our sons nap time or sleep time.

[Gandalfe]

A friend of mine sound proofed a room in the basement of his house. But he is obsessed with the sax and can practice more than four hours a day. He sez he just bought insulating styrofoam from the local hardware store that that it really works well.

I just pick a time when it doesn't bother anyone. My grandson plays Xbox right through my practice. My dog, on the other hand, runs as soon as she sees the sax case come out.

[jd]

i had the bomb shed. it was a 12 by 12 foot shed converted ito a music room that sat on 7 acres of land in sagamore hills ohio .not closed to anything and 200 feet away from the house.. complete with stereo ,cd , tascam recorder mics headphones etc.. .all the toys. i trenched 200 feet to put electricity back there. noone heard anything!! 2 ,3 in the morning id be blasting. get home from a gig and wanted to work out something no prob. the house was too little and i started having kids with the wife so we bought a bigger house. now i have a basement yes. much warmer !! but i cant blast at all hours like i used to. thinking about one of those steel buildings but i dint think the wife will go for it.

[Frank D]

jd, drop me an email when you get a chance. I grew up in Sagamore Hills, graduated from the local HS. Wonder if we know some of the same people?

[jd]

hey frank. i actually grew up in cleve hts married a girl from sagamore hills and that house was on rollingbrook road. you may know my wife . a 77 grad of nordonia, ive been in this area for 11 years so we may know some of the same folks. your lucky to be living in az. i love pheonix! we visited last year and i have a close friend from cleve that also lives there. great place!!

[sd7915]

jd,

i used to live in brunswick before i moved about a year ago. have you ever heard of a guy named kevin scalley? he has a studio in middleburg hts now where he teaches lessons. quite the player.

adam

[Jazzophone]

my shed's the living room too, like Kim -- it's got this huge bay window in the front though so anyone walking by basically can see and hear whatever is going on shed-wise in there (not a good thing sometimes). It's not soundproof at ALL so the entire house and those in close proximity to the front door can hear what is going on -- but it's what we call the "music room." We have the stereo and CDs and stuff in there, plus the Indian drums (tablas) and electric keyboard, AND any combination of my instruments (flute, Bb clarinet, tenor, bari, trumpet) in there. And stacks of music books and a stand and all that jazz. Usually you'll find old reed cases or cork grease round too ;)

[Hurling Frootmig]

My shed has now moved to our guest bedroom which works out a lot better in that I can shut the door and blow as loud as I want. The downside is that it is right next to our 15 month old son's room so practice time is still limited to when he is awake.

[Troy]

Living room, with occasional forays into the upstairs extra room that looks out over Snohomish valley. Quite an inspriational view. Too bad it doesn't make my playing any better. Although, the cat doesn't sprint for the door anymore when I start. I guess that's a good sign. :)

Mostly playing songs that will later be used in church. I'm working my way slowly -- very slowly -- through the DeVille book. Also through Tim's blues stuff. And some Abersold exercises that I play over my Band In A Box blues jam tracks. Nothing fancy, but plenty fun for me.

[sd7915]

My shed is in my bedroom until our basement is done. Along with my bed and closet, there's a stereo, all my cds, a table with reeds and things on it, a chair and stand, and the flute, Bb clari, alto and tenor. It's pretty cool.

Within the last twenty four hours I have worked on Donna Lee on tenor, started memorizing iiV7I licks in different keys, read some of the Mark Levine book and had a flute lesson. I've only been on tenor because the alto's in the shop. I get it back saturday though :D

[Mike W]

Basements must make good sax sheds. Mine too is in the basement. Stereo for play alongs, soprano, alto, and tenor on stands, and just bought a tool box with drawers that sits on the same table as the saxes and holds mouthpieces, reeds, etc. Other horns and instruments stored in cases under the table. I can play anytime except after my wife goes to bed. My computer, roland digital studio, and electric bass with amp live in my basement office down the hall along with the file cabinent with my sheet music collection. I have to admit I have it pretty good. When I was a kid in school I used to walk a mile and a half to a patch of woods and practice under a live oak tree where no one would be bothered. The basement is better.

[bari_sax_diva]

First, let me say that I'm REALLY lucky. Interest rates were so low that we refinanced the house (which needed work anyway), and added a 23' x 28' studio on the back of the house--just big enough to stuff in a big band if everyone bathes regularly. Haven't tried that yet, but it's still the next best thing to heaven. My better half is a vibes player (also doubles on trombone and drums), so we have to coordinate shed time, but that's not too hard. And since we moved musical activities back there, we haven't had any new complaints from the neighbors. That said, I still knock off practicing baritone by 10:00, since that horn can really rattle things and the closest neighbor's house is only about ten feet away on one side. You can't really hear any of the other horns from outside.

Incidentally, before I moved here about two years ago, I lived in an apartment and my practice time was usually outdoors, in the park-and-ride lot of a state hospital a few blocks away. I'd go there every night and work out on alto for a couple hours--the facility police had a little station at the bottom of the lot, so they got to know me and I was perfectly safe. But the funny thing--and I didn't know this until several months after I got into this habit--was the facility staff and residents would hear me up there, but because the grounds were spread out and hilly, they couldn't tell where the sound was coming from. Finally, a woman was motivated enough to hike up on her lunch break, and told me that hospital residents were starting to refer to me as the Lanterman "ghost." That cracked me up for days.

Have fun in your sheds!
-Leanne

[warmdaddy]

My sax shed has always been my bedroom, although recently I have moved to my bathroom with the door closed so no one can hear me. I used to practice my alto with some jazz cd on full ball, completely disregarding my neighbours ! What a fool I was ! Now I'm more considerate, only practice about two hours a day, during the day, even though I haven't practiced in three years. When I am at my father's house, which is out in the country, I have the freedom to practice in my room as much as I want, depending on when my family is home. I am also living in an apartment complex, so I really can't practice my sax there, but I do do a bit of acoustic guitar softly. I would really like to make myself a cool sound proof practice studio, but I've only been back into sax for about a month now, so maybe if I get any good. In the last twenty four hours, musically speaking I have practice my Yani alto for about two hours, surfed this infernal machine for about two or so hours in total, read some of the Russell bio of Charlie Parker, perused through my latest edition of Downbeat and listened to artists ranging from Art Pepper to Parker to Desmond.

[sax_appeal]

I'm lucky to have a large family room with excellent acoustics and a piano! I have an indoor pool, so that room is also interesting for practicing. I try to vary where I practice as where you perform will never match your practice environment acoustically.

[schnibs]

I have an indoor pool, so that room is also interesting for practicing.

pssssshhhh!!!! :shock: i want one!!!

[warmdaddy]

I try to vary where I play to match my playing conditions acoustically

I like to practice where the acoustics are horrible, like my bathroom, because that way I can hear my sound at its worst and work on it from there (excuse the expression)

[saxeT]

I purchased am old post office building in a tiny rural community that is walking distance from my house. I gutted the building and rebuilt the interior myself (every wire and nail). Although I use it to record other musicians, I mostly spend my evenings woodshedding the the sax now and record my practice sessions for critical listening. The place is like a dream come true for me. Here's Pics;

http://coyotedream.com/Pics