12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 26
Date; 01/26/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: Home studio in Clinton WA (Whidbey Island)
Notes:
The evolution of our life is a fascinating process, and we all share a desire to understand this process. We carry with us inevitable degrees of expectation, things accomplished, things forgotten and undone. I heard a study on NPR recently which asked the question “do you expect your life to change dramatically over the next ten years.” Study members ranging in age from their 20 to 70, across the board believed that answer to this question was “no.” But when asked to look at the circumstances of their lives from 10 years prior and to compare where they are today, nearly all members of the study recognized that their lives were now very different. However, again nearly all of the participants believed their dramatic shifts were coincidental and not likely to happen again in the next 10 years. The end result of this case study showed that we do change, in very, very fundamental ways with each year that passes, yet at every stage in our lives we believe we’ve stopped evolving. My improvisation today was inspired by this topic.
I chose two different chord sounds, each produced with different fingerings but common links. Both chords have the same upper register tones and both chords can only be produced by manually opening and closing a single key. This key is located directly above the F key, and is normally only depressed when playing either an F, E, or D. In order to close this key only you must use an unnatural hand position to manually close the key, and then allow an existing spring to open it back up. This is the light tapping sound you hear throughout this improvisation.
I considered a notion that the past is viewed only from a current perspective, and the past lacks the clarity and finite qualities of the living moment. This is represented in the muted tone in the first half of the piece, which uses slight overtones that are barely audible. The second half of the improvisation I view as the present, and is a blossoming of the “past” or first section. The tone is full, the chord is full, and there is a more equal balance in all the pitches. The first section finds a common link to the secondary or “present” section in the overtones, but the second seems more focused and resonant.
-Neil
01/25/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 25)
12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 25
Date: 01/25/2013
Instrument: Soprano saxophone
Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)
Notes:
As a saxophonist there is no question that I identify most strongly with the tenor. However, each horn has its own personality and at times there are colors I can create on the soprano or alto that I can’t seem to capture on the tenor. My improvisation today captures of bit of this reality in a simple finger system that, when played on alto or tenor will not speak nearly as resonant.
During this improvisation I aimed to capture a melody and a system of chords simultaneously. Uncovering a system of polyphonic (multi-tone) possibilities has been my practice focus throughout the last half a decade. It it one thing to create a cluster of chords but quite another to try and link chords together in a seamless fashion. I’ve discovered that if you do successfully link chords together natural melodies seem to emerge. In this case, a melody on the scale degrees 1-b3-1-b7-8-b7 becomes quite clear when moving between two chords. The first chord is a mulitphonic and the second is an overtone fingering with the octave key on.
-Neil
01/24/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 24)
12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project
Date: 01/24/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: 4x6ft practice room at South Whidbey High School (Langley, WA on Whidbey Island)
Notes:
There is a practice room at South Whidbey High school that I often spend time in while teaching each week. The space is approximately 4x6ft with 8ft ceilings, and a maddeningly tight reverberation in the room makes it virtually impossible for me to play in for more than about 20 minutes. Paired with this is a persistent whoosh of air being pumped into the room from an air duct, making the room feel claustrophobic. About 50% of the room is taken up by an old upright piano, which became my source of inspiration for this improvisation.
I placed my mic setup into the belly of the upright, directly in the center of the piano and about an inch from the strings. My foot remained on the sustain pedal throughout the duration of this piece. Though the lid was open, the sound of my horn is captured from outside the piano itself, so the sound you hear is strictly from the piano’s perspective. In this improvisation I use two fingerings, the first of which creates a single pitch and the second is a complex multiphonic. I discovered the fingering this morning while practicing between lessons and felt compelled to give it a shot on this recording. This multiphonic seems to only be produced with a loose but very controlled embouchure and a very breathy approach. I felt this breathiness would be well suited to the atmosphere of this space, particularly given the persistent sound of the air duct. This fingering for this multiphonic is as follows: Fork F and Middle C in the left hand // F and D keys in the right hand // Octave key // Palm Eb // Low C // Low Bb // Side Bb.
-Neil
01/23/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 23)
12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 23
Date: 01/23/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)
Notes:
I spent my practice session today dedicated to the use of “quarter tones.” Within an octave, there are traditionally 12 chromatic pitches. These are called half steps, but with the use of quarter tones you can double the number of pitches possible to 24. This is however a very imperfect system, as you you will hear in my piece today. In my study of Hindustani music, I learned that classical musicians can recognize up to 10 pitches within a half step. My ears are simply not this finely attuned, though I hope to someday have this level of sensitivity.
Quarter steps on the saxophone are achieved through not traditional fingerings or bending with the embouchure. To my ears, I have found quarter step fingerings from the saxophone’s low D up to altissimo C, with a gap between a G# and an A because of the particulars of the saxophone’s construction. However, when these pitches are played melodically, it is clear that these are not true quarter steps at all, but are instead a few cents sharp or flat of a perfect quarter step. I may achieve a quarter step above a middle C, and then play what sounds to me like a quarter step above a C#. If I had truly accomplished this, my interval would be an exact half step. As you will hear in my improvisation, this is not the case at all.
In this improvisation I aimed to create melodies that use quarter tone fingerings exclusively. As you will hear the end result is a kind of de-tuned piano result. As stated above, this is partially due to the finite relationship from one pitch to another, but also because many of my quarter steps are actually a bit out of tune. The vibe captured through playing with these fingerings is a kind of suspended, free tonality sound even if I am play a consonant melody. As a player, my ears become more and more attuned to this sound as I practice these fingerings and I find that I fall into a kind of dreamlike state while playing. When I move back to traditional fingerings it sounds so structured and limiting!
-Neil
01/22/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 22)
12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project
Date: 01/22/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: Chief Sealth/Denny Middle school performing arts auditorium. Seattle, WA
Notes:
Many of my improvisations come to reflect work that I’ve practice that day or a conceptualized theme that led to an improvisation. My piece today does not use either of the these models. Besides drive time in my car, my only available recording time today was a 20 minute window between teaching students. Despite being under immense pressure to create this piece quickly and to perform it well, I felt quite relaxed and free to create.
This improvisation uses several “muted” tones centered around a concert Db. I tended to rely upon a particular fingering that is a favorite of mine. This fingering, when a balanced but firm amount of pressure is applied in my embouchure, produces a split-tone chord a major second apart: Concert Db and Eb. By using various tonging and embouchure bending techniques, I am able to make these tones very malleable. This accounts for the wide range of upward and downward bending used throughout. During the peak of intensity I utilize double and flutter tonging to help harden the beginnings of these pitches. I end this improvisation with the aforementioned fingering that produces the major 2nd split tone.
-Neil