Taking Lessons

I have been taking lessons on Skype with Tim Price over the last two months and it's one of the smartest decisions that I've made in a while.

The Story

Roughly six months ago, I was in a musical rut. I was gigging quite a bit (and still am), but I wasn't inspired. I was playing the same tunes, the same way every time that I was on a job. That's what music had become – a job.

I started to resent my horns. I was only really picking them up when I was on going to a gig and the time that I did have the horn out at home, I noodled for hours – but never played anything meaningful.

After talking to my fiance about my options, the topic of lessons came up. I thought that if I could regain some focus into my practice habits, that I would become interested in learning again.

I emailed Tim Price after seeing his posts on Sax On The Web for his Skype lessons and he said that he could help.

I was not familiar with Tim's playing – I had his Blues-eum recording with Sue Terry (definitely worth checking out), I had watched the YouTube videos and I had read his blog, but I hadn't done any real extended listening or exploring.

Our first lesson was great – Tim had me play over a bunch of my favourite tunes and then he started emailing me the exercises and concepts.

I really felt (and still feel) like Tim really understands what I'm looking for in my own playing. We have discussions, tell jokes, swap stories and after every lesson I have a huge amount of creative energy that I can pour directly into my horns. One of the biggest challenges and one of the things that I look forward to every week is the spontaneity. I'm not saying that the lessons lack direction or that they are unstructured, Tim has a system, but it's not a cookie-cutter system. Every exercise or concept that we talk about or apply relates directly to what I'm doing as an artist. This extremely personal approach makes me think about these concepts deeper and I take much more initiative than I have taken in the past to make these concepts my own.

Over the last two months I can feel the direction in my playing has changed. I have a positive outlook on my practice time and I'm truly interested in the music again!

If you have any questions, please feel free to comment or email me.

Check Tim out on his website - http://timpricejazz.com/