The Sax Quartet gig yesterday was fun. I think I scared the little ones with the Bari though. It was louder than I thought it would be when I honked at them and Shannon said they jumped out of there skins. Little kids are a great audience. We played all the classics, Maple Leave Rag, The Entertainer, the Pink Panther; the fun stuff. It was my first quartet with a Bari and I really liked kicking the bottom and pushing the tunes!

On the CD / Studio stuff. More progress and more stupid Greg stories. I spent the afternoon and early evening trying to figure out why I had NO sound at all on the protools files. I thought something had happened to my mixer set up and was reading manuals and checking forums for help. It took me hours to realize I must have bumped the knob on the M Box that sets volume for Playback or Record to 100% Record so no sound when I hit the play button was heard. User error - AGAIN!

SO, very late last night and all day today - Steely Dan Horn arrangements. They are turning out really cool. I have the new track for Shannon's CD loaded in Protools and I have the session set up with Reason open to a Rhodes and Brass to check voicings. I then play around with the EWI for lines that sound good with the track and then write them out in 4 parts. Once I have the 4 parts down I track rough EWI parts to be able to hear the parts in real time and against the track. The finished product has been quite nice!

I am taking a break from it to post here and have started the Bridge so the A sections and B sections have parts if I want to copy paste some of the preexisting parts into the rest of the song. I guess that means I could almost be done.

The amount of time this takes me is pretty stupid but I don't really know what else to do. If the gear could stay put and not change on me - or if I could stop screwing it up; everything would go a lot faster.

Gottta get back to it. I hope reading these little confessions help you all realize that making and recording music is more about your focus and dreams than raw talent. I know I am making some cool music, even though I am not an A list arranger, writer or producer. It might take me a bit longer than some guys but I am learning more skills, beyond the saxophone, and having fun too. (most the time)

SAXBOY
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