Picking Up the Sax – and a Stage Name – at 50

I have always loved music but could never express myself musically in a way that seemed authentic. We had jazz, folk and classical music in the house growing up, and my father played the piano. I took piano lessons for a few years when I was young, so I knew how to read music but I never could quite get that right-hand left-hand thing.

In high school I took up the guitar. I could make sounds but it wasn’t me either. In college I was a dj, spinning jazz and free-form sets. The first cut I played was Charlie Parker, “Scrapple from the Apple.” The last one in my career was “Born to Run” with Clarence Clemons’s rockin’ sax. Sax was my favorite instrument to listen to but it never occurred to me to play it. My creative outlet was playing other people’s music in innovative combinations.

Some years later, married and with a family, I bought a piano to go with the first house we bought. I played it occasionally but not any better than when I was in junior high. Eventually I was  divorced, 50, and feeling like a newly hatched independent person.

The piano was with me but no matter how hard I tried, I could not make it sing.

I happened to read somewhere that the sax is relatively easy to learn how to play. Something clicked. I loved to listen to it, and I needed something to play. My younger sister had played the sax in school band. In fact, she still played sax in a town band, so there was some precedent in the family; I could get musical advice from her.

So I borrowed a colleague’s son’s very old and very hard-to-play sax. But when I played, it sang. I could see myself playing what I could hear in my head. I sold the piano and bought a good quality instrument.

I taught myself to play, then took lessons. The more I play the more I love it. When I play it feels right, and I am inspired to practice. In fact I wish I could practice all the time.

The breathing itself is very therapeutic. I now listen to music in a totally different way, because I can imagine myself trying to play. I have a long way to go to play like Bird and the Big Man (and no delusions I’d ever get there) but the journey is something I’m enjoying immensely.

Mostly I play by myself but occasionally with others (including my dad). I have a cool saxophonist hat and a stage name for when I get to the stage.

Q
Female, 50-something
Philadelphia, Pa.