Meh saxophones

I've always had a love-hate relationship with the saxophone. When we started band class, I thought the saxophone was the coolest instrument, and it was my first choice. Unfortunately, the reeds and I got on like second graders and cooties. My face was better suited to brass, they told me, so instead I played the French horn. After that, I bounced back and forth in instrumental musical tastes between jazz and classical; the saxophone vs. the orchestra. My first boyfriend played sax- baritone, to be specific. He wasn't amazing, but he had the attitude for the instrument; kind of weird, but loveable all the same. Just like the instrument, he eventually worked his way out of my reach.

The real passion of this bipolar feeling between the saxophone and me came with another musician. He was an amazing player, taking a plethora of solos in jazz band and tons of awards. We dated for over a year, and I was beginning to think my hopeless romantic dreams about us could be more than fantasy. We considered it the most successful relationship thus far for both of us, and we were happy together.

All good thins end. He left me to focus on music- his saxophone. That damned hunk of metal is how such a great relationship died. How many girls are left for a musical instrument? I had a hard time listening to jazz at first; I loved the songs, but they all made me miss him, even though I had liked the songs before we dated. I switched to Chopin and Bach for a while.

But that wasn't the end. We were still friendly, even if we didn't talk that much. After college, I started going to as many of his shows and I could. I owned all his albums, and even after dating around, I could never quite shake him from my psyche. He was a great friend to me a few times when I really needed someone, usually after particularly nasty breakups.

The saxophone began to make amends to me. It showed him real results from hard work, but it couldn't fill the void in his life. See, he left me because he knew he couldn't support someone and make it as a musician. After he found his success, he gave me a class and asked me to dinner after one of his shows. Thanks to that damned saxophone and the success it brought him, he finally felt that he had the time and energy for another go.

The instrument has a strange sense of humor. First it yanked itself away from me as a musician, but it gave me a guy. Then it pulled me away from him when things got bad, but eventually brought me a better one. Even then, things didn't work the first time because of the saxophone, but his success with it brought us back together.