Jr. brings back memories

Jr. joined the Jazz band at her school. This is a group from the regular band that spends extra time practising Jazz music. They stay back after school and improve.

Last year she had a lot of other classes and refused to go audition. This year, she has more confidence in her playing and it has been an interesting ~2 months.

She asked me many times to come see her perform at an informal "Pizza Night" and I simply could not disappoint her.

It was great to watch her play so confidently and how the Jazz band did in this short a time. 

She definitely did not disappoint me. "Oye como Va" brought back so many memories from 25 years ago when I first listened to Santana's version of it. It was much later during my dancing days that I learned that the original was actually written many decades earlier. 

My sincere hope is that Jr. keeps playing the Alto Sax and enjoys it!

West and East

Jr. gets to practice saxophone over the weekends. Her teacher is making sure an email goes out saying she practiced and Jr. knows she has to, if the email has to go out!

I am also making her practice Carnatic music when we get a chance. She knows the songs by heart and it is a question of being able to follow the notation in the paper and translating instantly in her head from a different south Indian classical notation. 

She does a great job of both and has improved a lot.

Next week, Nagumomu in Raga Abheri.. at least the first few lines!

More than her practicing, these videos end up with some funny outtakes. Hope the kids have fun watching this years from now.

The Alto Sax Diva..

That is my darling daughter, posing with an attitude when I requested a photo of her playing Saxophone.. 

We then switched gears from the Carlos Santana mode to Carnatic Sangeeham mode and here is the result..

She is getting better with more practice. Have to say a heartfelt thanks to Candida Connolly and Kadri Gopalnath for publishing a book that brings these almost 400 year old tunes to Western notation. Initially she was playing it staccatto and now that she heard the CD that came with the book, has figured out that the notes are to be played slurred and there are tie'd notes where she lips only the first note! 

It is an interesting experience for me watching her figure this out as well as helping her figure this out! 

A funny conversation after we listened to the amazing Kadri play Nagumomu..

me : you see how he just floats that note for a fraction of a second? can you do that?

Jr. : how long has he been playing the saxophone?

me : 30-35 years?

Jr. : Let me guess. That is what he does for a living?

me : yes. I think he is a full time saxophone musician.. not some part time bank employee playing saxophone on the side.

Jr. : I AM A BEGINNER! I DON'T FLOAT NOTES LIKE THAT APPA!

Well, that came out of nowhere! If I had only captured that dialogue on video, it would have made the videoblog even better..

Here's to my diva!