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How a musician became a pilot
Yes, that's me posing with a very beautiful Beechcraft Bonanza A36, about to head off from home to teach a saxophone
clinic in the Dallas, TX area. And yes, I flew the plane myself.
How does it happen that a musician is a pilot? While I've been asked that question many times, and also told that
those are very unusual activities to find being actively pursued by the same individual, my experience is that music and aviation
are quite complimentary. And, there are quite a few musicians who are or have been active pilots at one time or another.
Further, there are a number of professional airline, corporate and charter pilots who are or were very accomplished musicians.
So there must be something about the two activities that attracts people of the same mindset.
As for my own aviation activities, you can read the stats & ratings elsewhere on this page. My Dad obtained
his private pilot license in 1961, and used that priviledge to travel from his home base in the Philadelphia area to various
places for business and fun. When our family relocated to the Southern California area in 1965, he continued to fly
for awhile until, like many pilots at the time, family obligations and a diminishing need to travel by lightplane led him
to stop, albeit reluctantly. He turned to model airplanes as a way to enjoy aviation, which allowed the two of
us to enjoy it together. We built everything from stick-and-paper models all the way up to large (in one case, 10 foot
wingspan) radio-controlled sailplanes, and I continued to build and fly those on my own for many years after moving out, getting
married, and starting my music career.
On at least two occaisions during college, I took a flying lesson in a real airplane. I quickly realized two things
about the activity: one, it was very expensive for a college student, and two, it was going to take some serious study and
commitment to learn to fly. Those of you who are professional musicians or studying to be one will know what I mean
when I say that I just didn't have either of those resources available at that time!!
But I also knew that I loved doing it, and that I was only putting it off until such time as I had enough dollars and
extra time for lessons. Then, in 1984, my dad began flying for his business again. Newly married, fresh out
of music school and self-employed, my dad offered to hire me to help in his business whenever I was available, to earn
some much-needed extra cash. The REALLY cool thing was, his business had moved to Pacoima, CA. Right in the heart
of the San Fernando Valley, and a stones-throw from Whiteman Airport. He and I both lived well south of there, and so
he was commuting by light plane between Long Beach or John Wayne airports and Whiteman. Often I would get some stick
time commuting with him to help out at his shop, and would let my musical colleauges know that I was in the area available
for rehearsal bands and such too. So I was getting to meet and play with some of the LA area musicians, earn some extra
bread, and get to ride (and occaisionally fly) in an airplane.
Things got better for my wife and I, little by little. She was working, I was beginning to get more and more work,
and so one day I went out and signed up for lessons at our local airport, John Wayne (SNA). After three lessons,
I was hooked on the flying, but didn't like the school or the instructor(s). So I began to search for a teacher that
I could enjoy working with. I believe the Good Lord put Tom Kinda and I together for a lot of reasons. Though
based at Long Beach airport, I was commuting all over the LA basin, and managed to earn my pilot license in 5 months, between
gigs and family time. Tom and I really hit it off, and that made things a lot easier for me during the training.
From there, I moved back to a flying club at John Wayne airport, closer to home. And what did I do? Why of
course, I started commuting to work when I could, just like my Dad did!! And it worked just often enough to cause me
to realize that, under certain conditions, this was a real tool, as well as just being a whole lotta fun. One night
a fellow player and I commuted to a gig, and when we headed for the airport to fly home, the weather at home base was cloudy
and misty, weather that I was not able to handle. So he went home with another player, and I had to stay with the airplane.
I tried a hotel room, but this was Octoberfest weekend in a mountain resort north of the LA area. It was, shall we say,
a bit noisy. Unable to sleep, I threw on my tux, and hiked back to the airport, got in the plane (Cessna 172), where
I had a space blanket in my flight kit, and curled up to sleep there. Next morning the Sherrif awakened me by banging
loudly on the airplane door and shouting "we don't allow people to sleep in airplanes here!!" To this day I can't duplicate
the look on his face when I crawled out from under the silvery space blanket in my tux. Priceless.
Anyway, on the trip home that morning, once things had cleared, I decided to get my instrument rating (to allow me to
fly in clouds and weather). My lovely wife Kim had tired of me stressing about getting home from a flying dinner-date
(one of our favorite activities to this day) before our ever present Los Angeles marine-layer would come in too, so she endorsed
the training.
To be continued.....
2005 Woodwind Masterclass Notes
For the past several years I've been teaching classes on various
saxophones and woodwinds, to students and groups at both the high school and college level. Most recently I've been
teaching on this subject at CSU, Long Beach, both in ensemble groups and a masterclass format. Below is a summary of
topics and, I hope, most of the questions and answers that have come up during those sessions. If you were a student
at any of these events, and especially if you asked a question, THANK YOU for participating and giving us all food for thought.
-Develop a philosophy of playing woodwinds. You must learn the nuances and peculiarities
of each instrument, and the best way to do that is through study with a teacher on each specfic instrument. However,
there are certain things that are indigenous to all woodwinds, including the saxophone (which may be, in my opinion, the hardest
woodwind to master). These include:
1) wasted motion: fingers flying off of keys, rather than moving with them. Also pressing
them down too hard. Fingers should move only as much as necessary, and the smoother that motion, the better.
2) The tendency to run from certain notes in a group of fast notes. You must play evenly
from note to note. Most woodwind players tend to rush a note that changes the direction of the musical line (the lowest
note, for example).
3) Mastery of "the break". Every woodwind has one. Often the notes on either side
of the break don't match in tone quality, but they must match for really great sound and fluid technique.
4) How you pick up your fingers is just as important as how you put them down. This
gets back to the wasted motion problem.
5) Mouth playing: too many players "Play at the mouth", meaning they manipulate their
airstream/tongue/throat/embochure more than they realize, often to the detriment of their sound. Try this exercise:
play back and forth between two easy notes on your instrument, say A and B, or G and A. While going back & forth
continually, listen for the following: are the notes even? Do they match in tone color and are both centered the
same way? Does one sound sharp (usually the upper)? Is one accented (usually the upper)? Now try it going across
the break on your instrument; ask the same questions. Those things need to be worked out, on all your woodwinds!!
-It is imperative to spend time with a teacher on each specific instrument. In doing
so, you'll learn the voice of that particular instrument or group of instruments, and the things that make it different from
the other instruments. Additionally, during my own studies with flute, oboe, and clarinet teachers, I kept hearing a
lot of the same "woodwind philosophy" that we discussed earlier. Stated differently by each person, yet still the same.
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