This semester, one of the things that I am proud of is my improvement in playing the tenor saxophone. I started learning the saxophone at the beginning of this school year. I made quick progress in the beginning, but my growth started stagnating around the end of semester 1. When we were given an assignment to learn more about one of our instruments, I chose to focus on the clarinet. Although the videos I watched were meant for clarinet players, I found that the things that I learned could be applied to the saxophone as well. I was able to improve my embouchure and improved my tone. Doing the saxophone sectionals were also very helpful, as I was able to receive advice from more experienced saxophone players. Something that they helped me with was how to play more in tune, which greatly benefited my playing. 

One thing that I improved with the clarinet is playing high notes with a more consistent tone. Something that I struggled with was playing high notes with a consistently good tone. Because many of the songs we played had high notes in them, this was an area that I needed to improve in. I watched YouTube videos with tips on playing high notes and found that it greatly improved my tone in high notes as well as lower notes. 

Something else that I became more mindful of was listening to others and adjusting my playing so that I blend in more with everyone. The warm ups that we did in the beginning of the class was very helpful for this. I tried to pay attention to more than just myself and the people immediately next to me and tried to listen to the whole band. This is still something I need to work on, but is also an area that I grew a lot in.