The first week back to public school hasn't been kind to me; it's been harder than usual to get to sleep early and get up early, my allergies are working overtime (abetted, I'm sure, by our continual rollercoaster temperatures here in North Texas), and when I got up from a nap this afternoon (which should have been helpful), I found myself with almost no voice left, despite that not really being a problem when I was teaching all morning. Needless to say, this will be an early night tonight; even though I have a few unfinished posts from the past couple of days, they'll have to wait.
But I do have to toss out a little rantlet about gas prices, which have gone up quite a bit in the past week. The linked article says that some distributors or dealers may be "testing the market" to see how high of a cost it will bear, but the bottom line is that everything's still really volatile right now, and prices can turn on a dime.
I had to go a little bit out of my way, but I found regular for $1.58 in Plano tonight (while in Richardson, about a mile to the south, it was almost uniformly $1.69). Anybody found a better deal out there than that?
Back with more (and hopefully a voice) tomorrow.
Thursday, January 08, 2009
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4 comments:
This morning I heard that the rise in gas prices was directly linked to the fighting in Middle East. I didn't realize that the Gaza Strip had oil wells/refineries!!?? Any excuse will do, I guess.
BTW...hope you feel better, but you can always let your horn do the talking for you!
Yeah, I heard the same story. I sure don't remember reading much about Gazan oil either... :-P
Thanks for the good wishes; the weird thing about colds, congestion, etc., is that, since it temporarily changes the shape of the inside of your mouth, it makes the horn sound different as well. I could talk through the horn, but it wouldn't quite sound like me, either.
".....changes the inside of your mouth....." How do you know this stuff? I figured stuffy nose/congestion would affect your breathing ability, and of course the pressure would cause major discomfort or even a cold sore could do a number on you mouth position/shape, but inside your mouth?
Sorry--I missed the email that said this latest comment had come in...
Anyway, everything I've ever learned about the saxophone suggests that our method of tone production is very similar to that of vocalists (which is why it's so hard to replicate us on a synthesizer), because we're manipulating not only our air and tongue, but also the openness/not-so-openness of the throat. So, in the same way that excessive congestion can change the sound of your voice, it can also change the tone of your saxophone (though admittedly in more subtle ways than it does to your voice).
The same thing can happen if the natural shape of of the saxophone is adjusted anywhere down the length of the tube; you should hear what some of my students sound like if they get something open but still obstructive (usually mouthpiece caps or end plugs, but on one occasion the entire mouthpiece!) stuck in the horn...
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