12 Moons Solo Project Day 16
Date: 01/16/2013
Instrument: Alto saxophone
Location: Home studio (Clinton, WA on Whidbey Island)
Notes:
My deepest roots as an improviser coil back to the music of John Coltrane. In his music I found liberation. It represented to me artistic freedom and the glorious truth that an artist will push themselves, time and time again into uncertainty in their craft, only to emerge stronger for having done so. It was not a conscious choice today, but there is no question in my mind that the source material from this improvisation begins with Coltrane. I have always loved Coltrane’s melodies, and particularly those from his final period. Though his music was tense and aggressive, his melodies almost always retained a very folk-like, strongly pentatonic sound that seemed to always add a universal quality to all that he played.
In this piece I explored melodicism in a folk-like melody with the following pitches: Gb Ab Eb Ab Gb. These pitches were played with non-traditional fingerings in order to create a fluid and breathy melody. This melody begins in a fairly steady rhythmic pattern, but I worked to keep the melody loose and the meter malleable. As the piece progresses I augment the melody by playing surrounding pitches, and higher and low pitch punctuations. With the fingerings used in this melody and by adjusting my embouchure, a variety of natural split-tones and two note clusters entered into the sound spectrum as well.
-Neil
01/15/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 15)
12 Moons Solo Project Day 15
Date: 01/15/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: Chief Sealth High School/Denny Middle school performing arts hall. Seattle, WA
Notes:
During a practice session or performance, I work to tame my mind and to control my focus on a task at hand. In many ways I feel that practicing music is engaging in a process similar to traditional meditation. Attempting a subtle, thoughtful activity such as meditation requires a calm mind, but also a very active engagement in the process of this “clearing.” My improvisation today explores this reailty and my own internal tendencies while engaging in any highly focused activity.
When I sit to practice, there is always “mental particulate” clouding my mind and preventing my ultimate goal of clear and vigilant focus. When I practice, it generally takes me about 1 hour to arrive at a state where I feel fully invested in my activity and I can begin to find these focus points. In this state I feel creative, in control and calm.
In this improvisation I attempted to create an atmosphere that represents this particulate. I play a variety of flighty quartertone pitches centered around a concert D. Some of these pitches are muted and cloudy, while others are brighter and more direct. As the piece progresses, I begin introducing two mulitphonic chords, which in the context of this improvisation represent my ultimate focus point. As this piece progresses the two chords become more and more a center of the overall sound. Near the conclusion of the improvisation they become the only subject matter, or rather, the ultimate area of focus remaining.
-Neil
01/14/2013 (12 Moons Project Day 14)
12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 14
Date: 01/14/2013
Instrument: Tenor Saxophone
Location: Home studio (Clinton, WA on Whidbey Island)
Notes:
My piece today uses no extended techniques, but focuses instead on traditional pitches and a repetitive rhythm in a cycle of 5 beats.
I centered this improvisation around seven interval sets: Minor 9th, Octave, Major 7th, Minor 7th, Major 6th, Minor 6th, and the Perfect 5th. I attempted to keep the tempo steady throughout, and use a repetitive rhythm of a 5 note grouping with the following shape: down, up, down, up, up. I was careful to try and establish a definite mood with all of the above possible intervals, and in order to aid this I limited myself to select specific pitches. My range expands chromatically from a middle octave concert Bb to a high octave Db.
Though this piece is very repetitive, I made an effort to create specific events.. For example, I played the “Octave” interval of a concert Db only after having played either one the two dissonant intervals: Major 7th or a Minor 9th. At two points I also move up a whole step, then down a half step before beginning a wide interval. This was to try and punctuate the distance in the other intervals played throughout the piece. Also, there are only a handful of times I play the Perfect 5th interval, and after doing so I immediately move down a half step and play a minor 6th interval. Throughout this improvisation I gave unequal weight to specific intervals and pitches. There are some intervals and pitches that are played only once or twice, where others are repeated many times
01/13/2013 (12 Moons Project Day 13)
12 Moons Solo Project Day 13
Date: 01/13/2013
Instrument: Soprano saxophone
Location: Home studio: Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)
Notes:
This is my first pre-dawn improvisation, recorded this morning at 6:30am. I hope to record throughout this project at some point during each hour in a 24 hour period.
This improvisation utilizes a single fingering played on a low Bb. This is a very “overtone” rich note on the saxophone, and through embouchure and air control there are bright, brittle tones, clusters and bends that become possible. With this fingering I alternate between periods of exploration with just air/embouchure movement, then the use of rapid single tonging. I tried to maintain the same area of range I explored before entering with the tongue, and then once I begin this rapid motion I worked to elaborate the color even more.
01/12/2013 (12 Moons Project Day 12)
12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 12
Date: 01/12/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: Home studio Clinton, Wa on Whidbey Island)
Notes:
In my practice session today I worked at slowly building strains of melodic material. This is a technique I practice often, and I always find it to be incredibly difficult but very rewarding. Essentially I begin with a single pitch, repeat it with a second pitch, repeat those two and add a third, and so on. If these pitches were given numbers, the sequence would be as follows: 1 // 12 // 123 /// 1234 // 12345 // and so on. I find that I do very well with repetition up to about a figure of 12 pitches. To challenge myself even further, I often add quarter tones or multiphonics into the sequence as well.
This melody utilizes tempered pitches and quarter step pitches. The quarter step pitches are approximately ¼ step above or below (depending on which direction you choose to think about it) a traditional note. In this sequence, I begin with the pattern described above, until I reached a total of 12 pitches. At this point I choose a small fragment of the melody, repeat it 3 times, and move back into the full 12 note sequence, which I again play 3 times but always one after the other. Sometimes I choose to put space between the small fragments and the full 12 note melody, or in other cases I move directly from the fragment into the melody.
This was a challenge for me! These particular quarter step pitches were difficult for me to play fluidly as part of a melodic line. It’s worth noting that although the original 12 note sequence was improvised, I worked at trying to get a solid take of this idea for at least 2 hours. The take used here is not perfect, and in fact I chose a natural stopping point to end the track, but during this take I attempted to keep going and made a major blunder in the melody. I hope to revisit this idea in the future during this project!
-Neil