I’m in Sri Lanka right now.

Before leaving, I had studied a little bit of the language.

But now I find that certain parts helped and other parts were completely useless.

Similar to ‘Spanglish’, Sinhala has a few elements of English.

In the material I studied, ‘Good Morning’ is ‘subha udasanak’

They just say ‘Good Morning’ though.

In music, you’ll practice things- scales, exercises, patterns, etc.

You’ll have to apply them in a real musical situation on your saxophone.

Sometimes they work well, other times they’ll seem outdated.

For example, your Rubank Method book might teach you all the trill fingerings.

In a contemporary jazz situation, however, you won’t be using these too often.  It wouldn’t quite fit in the same way it does in classical music.

A lick from a reggae song could be modified and used in a completely different style of music.

So things you learn from studying music will help you musically, but to be a great saxophone player you need to figure out which pieces to apply and where.

By the way, Sri Lanka’s a sweet place to travel.  Went in the Indian Ocean and then saw wild elephants today.