Blow, don’t suck!
I went over the recent recordings with one of my fav instructors and plan to do that with my other instructor when we meet again. I hate listening to myself, but in addition to being very humbling, it is the only way I’m gonna get better. And my instructors work hard to keep me invested and optimistic. So I present an example of a short solo that I would have thought I could have nailed, but didn’t…
When Sonny Comes Home
Certain notes didn’t sound the way I heard them. The intonation wasn’t quite there. The effect was something less than pleasant. I talked to my sax/improv instructor who talked about both the improvements that have been made in my sound over the last year and where the playing wasn’t as good. I spend a lot of time with both instructors working on sight reading, rhythm and more on improv. It would seem that I could spend an equal amount of time on sound and embellishments.
It is said that most Americans won’t work on improvement if they don’t sound like a pro from the get go. That is of course ridiculous. So I practice on and strive for that killer sound, a sound that takes hours a day to achieve over the lifetime of a musician. I think I’ll go practice my next solo. :o)
The Bis Key Chronicles 
I thought it all sounded rather good, but what do I know about it? LOL
I like what you said here. It is too true that most people..or I will amend that, many people won’t go the route to improve because their expectation was to sound like a pro almost right away. When they found that music requires hard work and diligent practice…they quit.
I don’t know if it is a fault of americans – For me, I loved the sound of a trumpet-but that doesn’t mean I could ever be really good at it :D A modem here is directly connected to the DSL phone line…If you don’t have cable internet.