Our Student of the Week is Marijn Kleijer from the Netherlands. We loved Marijn’s video of “City of Stars” – that beautiful tune from the movie “La-La Land”. Marijn had transcribed the melody himself and played it from memory as part our February Challenge – pretty awesome for his first ever video!
Marijn has been playing Sax for 14 months and he’s been a member of Sax School for just 3 months.
Scratching the Saxophone Itch
“I’ve always liked the sound of the saxophone. When I was young I played the sax for a couple of months, but I didn’t stick with it at the time,” explains Marijn. “Then a while ago I started to get the itch to play sax again. Every time I heard a sax I was reminded how cool the instrument is, and that I wanted to play it.”
Marijn decided to take the plunge and buy a sax. “It’s been a very good decision so far,” he says. “It’s always nice to leave the day for what it is and have fun playing the sax.”
“It’s always nice to leave the day for what it is, and have fun playing the sax.”
Genres in Sax School
Marijn’s already making great progress and playing lots of different styles. “There is so much music I like to play, from Jazz to Pop, to Disco! With Sax School I am really encouraged to play all kinds of different tunes, and this helps me with developing a solid foundation of saxophone skills,” he says.
Sax School has introduced Marijn to playing classical music too, with the Classical Mini Course. “It teaches me a lot about the subtle expressions that are typical of classical music – valuable skills to learn, although I am not necessarily a fan of classical music,” he explains.
Structured Learning
Even though he’s only been a Sax School member for a short time, Marijn is already diving in to explore what it has to offer. “The thing I like best about Sax School is that it provides me with all the necessary tools that I need for learning to play the sax!” he says. “On platforms like YouTube there is also a lot of content, but what I like about Sax School is that it is very organised. I know exactly which next steps I can take to improve my playing. The different pathways and courses really help out with this structured learning experience.”
Saxophone Tone
Marijn has shared the challenges that lots of players face when they start out with the sax. “It takes time and effort to develop a mature tone with the saxophone, and to strengthen your embouchure before it actually sounds pleasant,” he says. “This is something I still want to improve. But I think it’s one of the great things about the saxophone, because it means that everybody develops their own personal sound!”
“The thing I like best about Sax School is that it provides me with all the necessary tools that I need for learning to play the sax!”
Future Plans
Marijn has lots of plans for his saxophone this year. “I want to continue to improve my basic saxophone skills, like tonality and technique. I want to discover all kinds of music styles, and to practice more with improvising. I’m curious to see what I am going to learn from Sax School this year!”
We can’t wait to find out too Marijn! Congratulations on being our Student of the Week!