Archives for November 2023

90 Day Challenge: Week 8 Review – Building the distance

November 24, 2023 by

Week 8 has proven to be a really good one for me in my ongoing progress back after the strain to my side. I managed to complete 2 x 12km runs throughout this week!

The week started with only doing a short 5km run. This was mainly due to me running at a much later time due to not being able to get to work until after 7:00am. I still wanted to get both my personal prayer and saxophone practice in before the start of the teaching day which meant that would only be possible with less time on the path. The run went quite well, completing the 5.2km in a time of 26:22 which is 5’04 per km.

Tuesday saw the first longer run, I was quite apprehensive about this one! I managed to be on the road running before it clocked over 5:30am. This is just as well due to the expected high temperatures, I really wanted to get it all done. Overall, the run went well. My calves did feel tight at various points throughout the run which was to be expected as it is almost a month of lighter running. I did, however managed to do a reasonable time, averaging a pace of 5’16” per km which meant the 12km was done in 1:03:40. Tuesday night saw me pull out my new compression sleeves for my calves for the first time. I actually slept in them throughout the night to try and help in the recovery after the run.

Wednesday saw me return to a lesser distance, the 5km circuit. This was not due to soreness but because of practicality. Band rehearsals start at 7:00am and there’s no way for me to get in the run plus my personal prayer time that I have been having in the school chapel everyday. I had hoped to get up 30 minutes earlier (4:30am) but, yeah, that didn’t happen – something to work for over the Summer perhaps? The run went well, but a bit slower than Monday’s time with me coming in at 30:01 for the 5.34km which is a 5’37” average pace.

Thursday saw me undertake my second 12km run for the week. Again, I had hope to get up a little earlier than normal to ensure that I’d have a good practice session as well on my saxophone. Unfortunately, the alarm went off at 4:30am, but I didn’t get up. My time was good and consistent compared to earlier in the week, completing the 12km in 1:03:24 which is an average pace of 5’17”.

Friday has seen me finish with the shorter run of 5km. I had a lot of work to get done before a planning day which meant I needed to get out there and get back in – the extra 30 minutes would be valuable. The run kept the consistency in pace to my other runs of the 12km, but a little slower the the 5km pace with me coming in a 5’33” per km with 5.33km completed over 29:40.

Next week is going to be different again as I am out on Professional Development for a Lote of it. This means a few different run courses, and who knows, maybe I cam stretch that distance a little further as well once or twice!

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Simon Montgomery Music: Weekly Practice Reflection November 13 to November 19

November 20, 2023 by

The last week of practice has proven to be really good in its consistency and also the content that was covered. Overall, I am satisfied with the progress that I have made, committing to four solid days of practice being Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

My main focus for the week has still been preparation towards the Funk Club 20 Year Reunion Show that was held on Friday the 17th of November. All of my sessions were aimed towards ensuring that the repertoire for the evening was well practiced and fluent by memory – this was my goal, to play the show totally from memory.

In reviewing my practice diary for the week, there are a few areas still needing some attention that have been highlighted throughout the week:

  1. Longnotes for tone and intonation.
    I kept working on the development of my tone and intonation through 15 minutes of long tones at the beginning of each practice. My metronome has been set to 72 BPM with an aim of completing 16 beats per note. Each day I have chosen a different interval to focus on but have always started on G1 and ascended until playing F#3 and then returning to G1 before descending to Bb1. This week saw me using a different alto saxophone, using my Selmer MKVI rather than my YAS62 Series 1. I found that the intonation on the horn was pretty good, I needed to use some alternate fingerings for the high notes (especially from D3 up to F3) with the tuning going sharp. My front fingering for E3 and F3 were not as strong as the other notes, more work will be needed particularly regarding embouchure and the direction of air through my horn to strengthen the sound. In the bottom range I am still running out of air from D1 down to Bb1, only completing 12 counts before running out. Tone wise, greater work will be needed on my overtone series. I will aim to start this in two weeks time. On three days I managed to have this finished with enough time to start a review on some Hindemith technique, particularly looking at irregular interval movements as semi-breves, minims, and crotchets. I will aim to develop this further as I progress in my regime.
  2. Set repertoire.
    The work for the gig is coming nicely. I have managed to get a lot more comfortable with all the repertoire from memory and by the end of the week it was only fine tuning that needed to be done. Highlights for me have included working on the arrangements for “I Believe in Miracles” and “Fever”. “Natural Born Lover” and “Cleanup Woman” proved a little challenging due to the poor intonation on the recording (it is all a quarter of a tone out of tune due to being a copy of an LP I think). I have also started working on learning the solo for “Hip Drop” my aim is going to be to make this the solo to transcribe in the next week.
  3. Solo transcriptions.
    I have really enjoyed getting back into the Funk side of things. I am planning on completing the solo transcription for Hip Drop and then proceed into studying Maceo Parker in depth for the next few months. I would like to eventually work up to transcribing one solo a week, but this might take a little while to work up. I also need to complete the solo transcription for Lou Donaldson’s “Blues Walk” that I was working on prior to the Funk Club gig coming along. My aim by the end of next week will be to have both Hip Drop and Blues Walk completed and recorded with me playing them.

I have been recording all my practice sessions currently and will start looking at ways to share some for these videos. I am thinking I might do it as a private YouTube Channel which links from each weekly post. That will be my next challenge from a technology point of view to overcome.

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90 Day Challenge: Week 7 Review – 5 day week

November 20, 2023 by

Last week proved to have some good steps forward towards recapturing the early form of the challenge, particularly in being able to run five days in the week. Hopefully, Week 8 will see me be able to start to increase the overall distances that I am covering.

Monday’s run was probably the most challenging to complete, not due to it being the beginning of the week but rather due to a bout of food poisoning. I didn’t sleep well on the Sunday evening, up for a significant part of the night with stomach pains, sweating and feeling really hot and flushed. When I got to my usual running place, instead of heading straight out, I needed to find a toilet where I was for next twenty-five minutes before being able to get started. I had intended to do a 10km run, however this got reduced to 5km just incase I needed to get back to the bathroom in a hurry. Luckily I didn’t.

The remainder of the week went quite well running wise. I kept with maintaining the 5km rather than pushing limits. This was done for two reasons, firstly to just give that one more week of ease for my side strain, I really don’t want to run into complications with that one, and secondly because of my upcoming gig scheduled for the end of the week and wanting to get as much extra time on my saxophone as possible. The positive is that I got through the five runs, and no injuries.

Looking forward to what can occur in the next week!

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Simon Montgomery Music: Weekly Practice Reflection

November 10, 2023 by

The past few weeks I have been reflecting on my practice routine and working on ways to continue to improve and develop effective habits. The last few years have been challenging for me from a personal practice perspective, other commitments, particularly working on further studies has really impacted the time available to work on my musicianship. As that has now started to draw to a close, I have managed to reallocate that time I was using for that purpose towards my practice regime – the routine and structure was in place, so why not keep it going?

I remember watching a video a while ago from a musician who talked about his keeping of a daily practice diary and that this has been an item that has really encouraged growth in their own playing as it caused them to stop and reflect on what they are experiencing at that moment of time, maps the things that are working / growth that is occurring as well as elements still needing more work. It seems like such an obvious thing, after all, as a music teacher we always have practice diaries for our students where we write down what we would like them to work on – why not have something similar for me personally where I record what I am working on and how I need to progress and develop? I made a couple of decisions as I commence this routine, some things that I am going to experiment with to see if it helps my progress and development, both of which will be quite confronting at the same time:

  1. Keeping a daily diary: I have been keeping a record of my practice and exactly what I am doing each day in a little book, I have include a picture of it below. Every day that I practice I am recording the exercises and repertoire that I am learning and what needs more work.


  2. Recording myself playing for reflection: At least twice a week I am going to record parts of my practice time. This is a practise that I have used many times before to help me improve, however this time I am wanting to do it a little different. I am hoping to post some videos of me playing to try to show progress and development, particularly looking at the beginning and end of each week. Being honest, this really scare me taking a step like this, but I feel that for my own development and personal growth it could be a good move.



  3. Keeping a weekly blog / reflection on how the practice and progress is going for each week: I will aim to share a reflection on the things that I have been working on each week on my website. It will probably be in this space that I will include the videos. In time, there are a number of technical exercises that I am planning on working that I will also look at sharing and developing. Again, this will be more for my benefit rather than anyone else’s. I am just looking to grow and develop in my personal music journey, the older I get the more I realise there is a lot that I don’t know and so much more that I can learn.

I am currently sitting at the end of Week 3 of this new regime and I have been really happy with how it is going. The first week saw me commence my practice each day just after 7:00am and I managed to get close to an hour and a half completed on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Wednesday I missed due to having a band rehearsal at school start at 7:00am making it not possible. I did find the exertion after the long break challenging, my lips copped a hammering as I completed 15 minutes of long notes at 72BPM for 16 beats over the range of the instrument. I like to incorporate aural elements by selecting specific intervals of focus, this included ascending major third, descending minor third; ascending major 2nd, descending minor 2nd, and chromatic ascending. I found that the notes D1 to Bb1 were only held for 12 beats, something that I will need to work on more. Additionally the front E3, F3, F#3 were not as clean as I would like. After completing this, I moved into scale work for the next 30 minutes. I focused on Majors in 12 keys over the range of the instrument. With the metronome on 100BPM completing 16th notes, this was followed by ascending thirds, descending thirds and then a thirds pattern turnaround (1-3-4-2-3-5-6-4 etc.). The keys of E, F and F# proved challenging at the top, needing me to slow down what I was doing to 100BPM as 8th notes and then building back up to the set tempo of 100BPM as 16ths. My sessions finished with working on Lou Donaldson’s Blues Walk, revising the head and solo from memory. By the end of the week I had gotten the entire solo down.

Week 2: My focus for week two shifted due to the upcoming Funk Club 20 year reunion being held a the the Leederville Hotel on the 17th of November. I will be rejoining up with the Funk Club House Band and have needed to shift my repertoire focus to revising the repertoire. The week saw me continue with the 15 minutes of long-tones, slowly improving in the intonation and also tone quality before moving onto the repertoire. Considerable progress was made with a number of the songs helping me prepare for the rehearsal held on the Saturday at the end of the week. One hiccup is that the extra exertion on my lips has caused a few splits and blisters to start appearing, it hasn’t stopped me practicing, just some discomfort as I toughen everything back up after the long break.

Week 3: The rehearsal on the Saturday went remarkably well, after a 10 year break everything felt really good and it was like there hadn’t been any time off. I have continued to practice the same days (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday) and managed to feel comfortable with all of the repertoire now. There’s a few small things still needing to be worked on, but feel that over the next week I can polish these up s that all the charts are down from memory. My focus for the next week will now turn towards some additional transcription work of various funk solos. I have few Maceo Parker albums that I have been wanting to work through / spend some time revising – time for woodshedding.

I have found the whole getting back into things really beneficial for my personal wellbeing. The first three weeks I feel that there’s a lot of stuff coming back quickly, there’s a long way to go to back to where I have previously been, but I also feel that I now have a really good system in place to see me not only get back but, more importantly, grow and develop.

This coming Friday (17th of November) I will be playing my first gig for quite a while. I am very excited about this one. If you’re in Perth and want a great night of Funk and Soul I can’t recommend enough how amazing the night will be for the Funk Cub 20 year reunion. I’ll be taking the stage just after midnight with the House Band. Tickets can be purchased via the link, I hope to see you there!

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90 Day Challenge Week 6 Review: Consistency is key

November 10, 2023 by

My goal for this week was to build some consistency into the legs as I continued to work back after the setbacks over the past few weeks. This had mixed results, with the beginning of the week being definitely more frustrating than how I managed to finish up.

Monday saw me decide to only stick to the 5m route that sees me run on the track between the Canning River and the Freeway from Salter Point and across Manning Bridge. I had aimed to keep my pace around the 6 minutes per km as a good starting point to ensure that I didn’t cause any additional soreness in to my abdominals after the strain that had occurred. Overall, I was satisfied with how a pulled up, however I notice an increase in tightness in my left calf. This caused some concern as this is a muscle that I have had some difficulty with over the past ten years and was concerned that I might end up straining it if not careful.

In reflecting on why it was so tight I think it is not to do with running at all, but rather from the way I have found me sitting either when working at my desk or at home on couch. I have been crossing my legs on a specific angle that has been pressing on the specific part of my calf – this will be a habit that I need to break.

The tightness resulted in me taking Tuesday off running. This is an unplanned move as originally I had hoped to increase the distance to 10km for this and my Thursday run. Instead, the remainder of the week I remained at the 5km distance – hopefully next week I will be able to return to some longer distances, possibly looking at a 12km run on the Monday and Friday, 10km on Tuesday and Thursday with a 5km on the Wednesday. If this goes ok, I will look at increasing distances again in the following week. I’m still working towards hopefully completing a 19km run in the next few weeks.

So far, this challenge I have managed to run 205.3km of the 700 that I was hoping to achieve and I have 50 days left to complete it in…I’m still fairly confident that I can get there – it will just take a little bit of additional push due to the injury setbacks!

Weekly distance and times for completed runs.
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90 Day Challenge – Week 5 Review: The road to recovery

November 4, 2023 by

Week 5 has proven to be one of recovery and slowly building to manage my body after the slight niggle I experienced in Week 4.

I decided that this week I would set myself a goal of running five days, as long as my body was up to it, and only a distance of 5km each day. Intensity wise, I was aiming at completing my runs at a 6 minute pace, this being a minute per km slower than what I had worked down previously. As I said, my aim has been to slowly build again and monitor my body to ensure that I am not going to cause any further damage to the strain as this would take me out of running for even longer which would be incredibly frustrating.

Monday’s run started ok. I did feel a little sore through my right abdominal side but it wasn’t painful just not comfortable. I decided to try to compete the run and am glad I did. While not setting the world on fire, I did manage to complete the 5.32km course in 32:09 with an average of 6’02” per km.

The remainder of the week saw ongoing improvement in the times but also how the body was feeling. I have found that the first km I am quite stiff sore am taking a little longer to warmup and get up to speed, I also did not really push myself, keeping to an average pace of around the 5’30” per km. The time throughout the week were as follows:

I am not going to attempt any runs over the weekend, instead taking the time off to give a few days recovery for the body before increasing some distances next week. My aim will be to complete 2 x12km runs on Monday and Friday with only 5km runs on the other days. If this goes well, I will look at increasing the distance again in the following weeks.

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