Vocal training
As an experiment I’m going to see if I can train my voice to hit notes in a scale. I’m going to do this by sounding notes (”singing” 
) into my chromatic tuner for 10minutes every day for 21 days.
Today has been day 1, wherein I’ve ascertained my vocal range is F#2 to C4 (ta da). I’m not sure if the C4 my tuner reports is Middle C or not. If it is I think that makes me a “bass” according to this definition of vocal range.
After a bit of practice it didn’t seem to hard to keep the note within about 10cents, so this project feels at least do-able…
I’d love to see an FFT (spectrum analysis) of my own voice, and how it changes up the register.
Low register C
Flute: Practised C Maj low register, with a bit of second. Really just trying to get solid tone out of low reg, sometimes succeeding. Other times the note doesn’t even strike. Did low C to E transition which is fiddlly with the little finger switching over. C->E OK, E->C had the D flap in briefly. Got a few low reg C Maj arpeggios out.
First sax practice
After the astoundingly helpful Richmond Music furnished me with some new reeds and a copy of the famous Jimmy Dorsey book I whipped out the sax out today and had a blast.
Got to grips with the basic low octave fingering which is essentially the same as the flute’s (woot). I spent quite a bit of time with my electronic tuner, ending up both alarmed and enthralled at how much the sax’s pitch can be varied by the embouchure and lips’ pressure on the reed. It’s quite easy to slide up and down an entire half step, while the flute more or less just plays a note. At least to my naive ear 
Slightly frustrated by not getting a consistent solid 2nd octave C. I had to jam the mouthpiece all the way up the cork and put quite a bit of pressure on the reed to get the pitch up. At that point the timbre was thinned and not at all juicy like the other notes, all of which themselves proved reasonably straightforward. I really need to find a sax teacher to tell me WTF is going on. (Emailed one so far.)
No flute today - can’t wait ’til tomorrow!
Interval trainer
Demoralised after <40% scores on the whole range, backed way off to super-easy level:
(II, III = Major 2nd, Major 3rd, etc; asc = ascending notes, sim = simultaneous notes)
II, III asc: 30/30
II, IV asc: 31/31
Cool, bolder now:
II-IV asc: 28/50 (56%); III, IV confusion
Oops, back off again:
III, IV sim: 29/40 (72%)
III, IV asc: 28/40 (70%)
I-III sounds reasonably complete, I-IV sounds plaintive like it needs something more (probably a V).
Surprisingly tiring. It’s worth leaving a gap between each pair as I found that they can interfere/I don’t always separate them.