As well as the ongoing fundraising for Band one Wall we have just donated £1000 towards flood relief in Pakistan. Earlier this year we donated £500 towards the Haiti Earthquake fund and £400 to the Sax On The Web Saxothon which buys saxophones for needy students.

I am very happy to be involved with Band on the Wall

Let’s get back to mouthpieces and how this fits in

When a saxophone player wants to emulate the sound of one of his or her heroes, they often try to find out the exact same setup (saxophone, mouthpiece, reed combination) in order to achieve this. And then practise until they can get the sound

But it doesn’t work like this

In order to equal the sound you need to factor in the human element. A big part of the sound is based on the internal dimensions of a mouthpiece, but another big part is based on the internal dimensions of the players mouth (and possible throat and lungs).

So, unless your mouth is shaped the same way as John Coltrane’s, getting the same mouthpiece won’t help to get the same sound, it may even hinder because the equalisation process may mean that although  Coltrane + Coltrane mouthpiece = Coltrane sound, it does not follow that You + Coltrane mouthpiece = Coltrane sound (even if you had the same blowing technique)

But it is quite possible that You + some other mouthpiece = Coltrane sound

Does this make sense?

Then I had a brainwave, turn the mouthpiece upside down – like you see many models doing when posing with a saxophone for an ad.

Worked wonderfully, I sounded really crap. Sorry I don’t have any soundclips.

Band on the wall is committed to helping in the community, especially with music education projects. Initially the money I’m raising from the site is going towards helping the Gorton Education Village project. This is a radical new way to work with disabled children by getting them together with non-disabled children to work on music projects. This way they feel more included and not patronised.

So far we have raised  £4500 to Band on the wall bring the total raised to over £20,000 with giftaid.

Now, after finally finding out how to embed Youtube videos in a blog without messing up the entire page, I hope this is the vid:

PS. If you double click on the video, it takes you to the Youtube page where you can leave a rating and some comments

If you double click on the video, it takes you to the Youtube page where you can leave a rating and some comments

Trek Photos

Click Here for photos

Training Schedule

The schedule starts with a couple of 2 hour walks (easy). (A normal walk is about 3 m.p.h. but with a few stops and gradients it usually works out a bit less – more like 2 m.p.h. when walking up and down hills). The main bit of training means a 4 hour walk one weekend, then two 4 hour walks the next with a couple of brisk 1 hour welks on the weekdays. This progresses to one 6 hour walk at the weekend, then two 6 hour walks the next weekend with brisk 2 hour walks on the weekdays. Then on to the 8 hour walks, ending up with 2 consecutive 8 hour walks (aaarghh!). We are trying to make the walks as “realistic” as possible, ie lots of gradients as you might expect on the Inca Trail, but I imagine there is not the same type of pub for lunch. I’ll also be taking my panpipes on the training. But not up the Andes, I’ll leave that to the locals.

The good thing about this trek was the food. The local porters and cooks did an amazing job. A nourishing breakfast of coca tea, quinoa porridge and pancakes was ready by 6.00. We set off, they then packed up camp and set off (with all the tents, sleeping bags etc, food, water and toilets) and overtook us in time to set up and cook lunch, we ate a hearty meal, they then packed up and set off with all the stuff, overtook us and set up the evening meal.

All that in sandals and no Goretex.

Firstly on arriving at Cusco we were told that instead of walking The Inca Trail (which we had thought we were doing from the start) we were going to walk An Inca Trail. Apologies to all those who sponsored me to walk The Inca Trail, however the trail we did (the Lares Trail) is actually higher and tougher than the actual Inca Trail. Instead of nicely paved Inca tracks it’s mostly quite nasty rocky or treacherously dusty and slippery terrain up and down very steep slopes, with mountain passes that deceive you with every twist and turn: your feet, calves, thigh, stomach, lungs and brain are saying “STOP!”, but the end of the climb is in view. Only to find that as you get to the top and turn the corner it was only the first stage of many on the way to the pass and there is another and another impossibly steep and gruelling climb. You have to walk/climb very very slowly or the altitude sickness and exhaustion take over. I wish we had been better briefed about this, perhaps the training schedule was right for The Inca Trail, but it was nowhere near adequate for this kind of climb and possibly for this reason a few of the party had to stop and be taken down.

Still we saw some great views and memorable experiences. Camping at -5 degrees (note minus) being one of them. We had the privilege of visiting the home of one of the locals. This was a real eye opener, A family of 8 living in one small room, dirt floor and guinea pigs running around the kitchen (see photos).

A note to those who very kindly sponsored us to walk The Inca Trail:

Until arriving at Cusco we weren’t made properly aware that we were going on the Lares Trail rather than The Inca Trail. I think if you knew how much tougher than the Inca Trail this was, then you won’t mind (and you might even possibly pay more!), but if you feel conned (as I did slightly), I can happily refund you and still pay the charity.

More to come soon as I get over the jetlag and a stinking cold.

Bye