On Becoming a Saxophonist

I found myself counting the minutes. My saxophone teacher is scheduled to arrive at 8.30pm. By 8pm I am officially paralyzed, doing nothing except browsing through saxophone pictures on Google Image over and over again and peering over my shoulder to track the minute hand on the clock against the wall.

He arrived much earlier than promised, which helped tame my anxiety tremendously. He then retrieved a brown rectangular box and handed it to me. It was heavy, but I am not complaining. I stood still for a few seconds to savour the moment. It was a milestone.

I don’t recall exactly when I decided I wanted to play the saxophone so badly, but it was definitely Kenny G’s music who inspired me. It was his superb demonstration of the singing quality of the saxophone, especially evident in his version of “My Heart Will Go On” - emanating the emotion of story of  Titanic (which was one of my favourite movies) with his skillful manipulation of the texture, tone color, and timbre of the saxophone, that I vowed to play the saxophone like him one day. 

However, for much of my teenage years, playing the saxophone was a remote possibility. Sometimes I nailed my eyes on that shiny gold-plated horn through the glass windows at the music store, only to be turned off by those terrifying digits printed on the price tag. “So close, yet so far”. A beginner’s saxophone starts at RM2000 and above, while a good one starts around RM4000 and above. And don’t get me started about my parents’ reluctance to support me through this, at least financially, because apparently music is “a waste of time and money”.

Years go by. I got a pretty decent job with pretty decent income. Unknowingly I had saved enough to be able to afford a saxophone. But the saxophone dream was somehow suppressed by the sheer amount of work load and the busy schedule. Then one day, about a month ago, I happened to watch a live performance performed by a jazz band. Needless to say, I was concentrating on the saxophonist, eyeing his every single gestures and moves, picturing myself on that stage instead. Musically, his playing exudes the singing quality which rekindled my predilection for the artistry of Kenny G, reminding me of those days where I hid behind close doors and suspend my fingers on air to mimic a saxophonist while blasting Kenny G on the stereo. Soon, I was asking myself what is stopping me from taking the first steps – getting a sax and start learning,  to be where he is. And much to my delight, playing a saxophone suddenly became a feasibly possibility.

I spend a few days deliberating, and taking into account my improved financial condition following my new role as a regular pianist, and voila, I decided to play the saxophone. Within a month, I researched online for the best saxophone for me, I patronized every single instrument shop in town, and best of all, I met an old friend who is willing to be my teacher. This teacher is also kind enough to borrow me his saxophone for a month or two because the saxophone that I intended to buy, a Yanagisawa A901 Alto Saxophone, is still in Japan, and still beyond my financial ability. It costs RM6200 and I have to work for another month to be able to afford it. 

So imagine the moment my facial expression as I unlocked the brown case to find that golden bling-bling is right in front of me, without any glass window seperating us. It is right there, ready to be picked up. There was an inner urge to assemble that right away (heh, already I knew how to assemble it even before I got the sax, thanks to Youtube and Google!) and play around with the buttons, or look into the mirror to see how awesome I look with the sax. But I managed to maintain my decorum, and to avoid freaking the teacher out, I asked him how to assemble it while scratching the back of my head.

I can’t wait to own my very own saxophone, but right now I am just trill to have one golden horn lying next to my bed. It is a huge part of my fantasy fulfill.