I'm a father, husband, marathoner, half marathoner and regular runner guy hoping to promote a healthy balanced lifestyle especially in the African-American community.
Re-Learning How to Play the Saxophone
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It has been more than 7 years since I played my saxophone on a regular basis. Even then, I only played twice a week for church services. Maybe you can call it the seven year itch, or maybe it's just the musician/artist within me looking for an outlet for the talent within me.... but I've decided to jump back on the saxophone recently.
Let's be honest, I really wasn't a piano/keyboard/organ player seven years ago.
My testimony is that God stirred up the little gift within me when my church needed it. My father was a great organist and musician. he understood the meaning behind the notes and how to make different sounds by just changing one note in a chord.
i never really made it to that level. Of course i never really had any formal training on the keyboard either. Most of what I played was mimmickry. I play by ear. Which is good up to a point, but I needed some lessons to reinforce the knowledge that I already had of the instrument.
Anyway, for years my saxophones have taken the back burner. They had to. Each week, I was learning one, two sometimes four or five new songs. There was no time in the day to fit in an extra note.
Now, I find myself in a new place, new church, and the void that God used me to fill in my home church is not there. So, I have to do something with my time. We all know what the bible says about the men and the "Talents." The true translation of the word talents in the NIV seems to be "bags of gold".. but for a long time that word has meant more to me than just how we deal with money. Jesus is trying to show us how we should treat any talent/ability/gift that God gives us. I believe praise is a gift.. as valuable as silver and gold to God.. and I never want to stop praising him. That's why I'm getting back on the saxophone. I probably didn't need to record each song,... but why not. I put everything else on line right?
After sitting so long, unused... I was surprised at how well each instrument (tenor sax and alto sax) aged. The tenor only has one pad that needs to be replaced. They both have a couple sticky keys. Anyway, I've created a youtube playlist where I'll be posting each video. In the beginning, I think it'll sound pretty bad. There was a lot of squaking and squeeking in the first video... Video number two was better. But I hope to do some duets with myself eventually. It should be like getting back on a bike, right? We'll see.
I don't think I'll get yelled at by too many people for this.. But I decided to take my Camera Completely apart to fix a problem inside. OK, relax -- It was my dad's 20 year old EOS 630. It wasn't a 70D, 5D or 1DX. This camera is the very first SLR that I learned to take pictures on. So its pretty special to me. I''l probably never junk it...or sell it on EBay. So, It's been hanging around in the back of a closet somewhere collecting dust. But the digital camera age isn't the only thing that killed this camera. It's the battery drain issue. You can put a brand new 10 dollar battery in this thing.. and it'll be dead the next morning. I did some research and found a write up below on how to fix it. I also tried to record a video of the fix. This is from ... I've shortened the directions on how to fix it just a tad.. but here you go: my camera with the latch plate off the latch plate Here's a link to
So, since diving into the world of Photography, .. I've heard of this extravagant expensive pieces of machinery that take Amazing photos. They're usually reserved for fashion and product, photographers. They're called medium Format cameras. I won't be reviewing one of those things today -sorry. But, I'll get pretty close. A friend of mine kept telling me about this camera that she had collecting dust in a closet somewhere. So, Naturally - as a fan of Pawn Stars and American Pickers-- I had my hopes really high for something cool and unique. When she finally got around to bring this camera kit around... I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. The name is familiar.. the camera was not. But I was still surprised. Mamiya. A big, huge name in Medium format cameras .. next to Hasslebad and Pentax.. also used to make SLR cameras. In my opinion they seemed to be some pretty good quality cameras too. But the much smaller company folded under the pre
I've always been intrigued by the mystery of the Underground Railroad. Like the black inventors I featured earlier this week, these are stories of people who beat the odds stacked against them to reach a goal- their freedom. They all risked their lives for freedom, preferring almost certain death and a chance to be free over slavery. Some cases were more extreme than others.. traveling in shipping boxes to safe houses on the UGRR. A lot of those travels were documented in the account of The Underground Railroad Records. These are not sad stories. They are testimonies of triumph written sometimes in their own word in letters to "The Father of the UGRR(Underground Railroad) William Still . Still often used his Philadelphia home to help hundreds of slaves to escape. He kept detailed records and maintained stayed in contact with man of them.. becoming a contact between escaped slaves and those left behind. These people exhibited tremendous courage e
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