I have finally overhauled my websites and combined them, and now all of my content lives here in a much simpler format. I prioritized ease of use, quick load times, and a simple design that was inspired by early internet. Still using WordPress as a site builder, after a dalliance with a simpler but less user-friendly (as far as administration) format called Hugo. This website redesign is now pretty much complete as of this posting. There is even a new logo, adapted from the old Open Source Saxophone Project. Last thing to happen on the backend is migrating to a faster server in the next couple weeks. My website is so old it has been operating on actual hard drives vs. SSDs, and that will change.
One major step in the website rebuild was the creation of an index that organizes all of the saxophone repair content I have created so far. I was surprised to see as of September 2022 I have created over 230 videos and articles. I hope it has been helpful to folks. I try to create the kind of stuff I wish I had when I started.
I remain very busy at saxophone repair work, and am working my way down my waitlist to completion before I accept any new clients. When that happens, I will post a news item here and also change the landing page to point to that news item.
I am continuing to make saxophone repair information in the form of youtube videos and articles on this website, and I plan to keep doing so, and I will add whatever I create to the index as I go along. The next big project is a youtube video series that documents a saxophone overhaul in real-time. Not because I think it is especially interesting to everybody, but because even with all the information out there now (so very different than even 20 years ago when I started) one of the things that is missing is the experience you get actually being in a shop and looking over the head tech’s shoulder while they overhaul a horn. My videos will clearly be inferior to that, but they will be more widely accessible, and hopefully that is a positive contribution. Honestly the whole thing is a bit anxiety-inducing, especially after I had to take an unexpected break from making it this past spring after getting covid pushed my timeline back and made me behind at work. I will pick it back up soon though, and after that series is done (hopefully before 2022 ends) I will likely take a break for a bit, as that will be a lot of work and a lot of content and it sort of feels like a good place to take a rest and look back over it all think about what to do next. But I will get back to it.
Life in general has been good, and in my free time I am spending a ton of quality time with my kids, also working on an 87 Ford Ranger, and building a 17 foot sailing dory that needs to be finished by our springtime campsite reservations at the lake. Summer was insanely great and fun (and more time off than I have ever been able to take, including both a trip to Mexico and an 18 day 2000 mile road trip with my home-built camper and my girlfriend and my kids), and I am looking forward to a few months of relative quiet as we pass the winter staying mostly at home and catching up on work.
You may or may not have noticed I am not on social media much anymore. I am still alive, and all is quite well. Just not sure that stuff is great for us in general, and I am trying to model good behavior for my kids by spending less time looking at screens. It does feel weird not to share fun stuff with people in that way, but the fun stuff exists whether I share it on social media or not. I won’t proselytize too strongly, but I do recommend giving it a go. At the very least, having dinner with a friend you really get to actually catch up.
Anyhow, that’s the news for now. Feels like a big step to get my website organized (first redesign since 2012), and it feels good to be making steady progress down my waitlist and soon I will get back to the overhaul series, which will feel like another milestone behind me once its complete. Thanks for reading, and as always, feel free to get in touch if I can help you with anything saxophone.
-Matt