12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 60
Date: 03/01/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)
Notes:
The saxophone can create a storm inside itself. Specific fingerings allow pitches to wobble or bend, or smear from one note to another. But the fingering itself is hardly the complete picture. Air flow, embouchure, and in the case of this improvisation, tongue position, can all play critical roles in creating new colors in music.
This improvisation uses the following base fingering: (Left Hand) B-G Keys and Low B (Right Hand) F# key and Low C. I also trill the low F, Middle C and low Bb fingerings at different tempos from one another. Over the past several years I have worked towards making a single finger in each of my hands trill at different tempos. This is virtually the same concept used in playing a piano, as the two hands are capable of playing completely different shapes at the same time. I am very excited about where this can take my music in the future.
I approached this improvisation by using the opening 10 seconds or so as my root gesture. I maintained a similar pulse throughout the entire piece, varying it at will, but mainly retaining the original shape. I also aimed to incorporate circular breathing during this piece. I’m still working on this skill and my ability is at a very novice level in this area.
My tongue does the bulk of the work during this piece. To pull out the high smears and swipes I created the movement of “ah-yee” in fast repetition with my tongue. I tried to untether my mind, and to allow myself to see my sound in the upper and lower registers at the same time. I’ve found that as I’ve trained my hands to be able to move at different speeds while doing a cyclic pattern, my mind has also been strengthened to experience two separate sound fields at once.
-Neil
02/28/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 59)
12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 59
Date: 02/28/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: Practice Room B at South Whidbey High School. Langley, WA (Whidbey Island)
Notes:
Today was an extremely long teaching day with a full studio of students, classes and ensembles. I find that on days such as this I wake with a feeling of complete calm in my body. This may be because I know that to maintain a high level of focus, energy and productivity during these days I must pace myself from lesson to lesson. I had a half hour break in the middle of the day, and I felt a desire to play an improvisation that reflected this calm state of mind and body. I decided to play a common fingered pitch that used the Perfect 5th and the Octave. These intervals are incredibly powerful, stable chords that have an intrinsic quality of strength in them.
Certain saxophone fingerings are capable of easily played overtones. They function like partials on a trumpet, where adjustments in air flow and mouth position allow a fully new pitch to blossom. My improvisation today uses the traditional fingering for a Concert F# to create separate notes using this “partial” model. But, as is the case with this particular fingering, two pitches can be playable at once.
I maintained a steady quarter note pulse with my tongue and air, and used this gentle articulation to help pull out the desired tones. I begin my articulating the Concert F# (tenor middle octave G#), and then introduce a Concert C# a perfect 5th above. Mid-way through the improvisation I decided to introduce the octave below middle G#. Like its counterpart in the middle octave, this low G# is capable of simultaneously producing a high octave C#. My body is in transition today, and I’ve felt a cold coming on for a few days. I actually found it difficult to execute this piece today, but the horn called me to it.
-Neil
02/27/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 58)
12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 58
Date: 02/27/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)
Notes:
Today I felt the impulse to create a cyclical improvisation with more traditional pitches. I wanted to create a solid, steady chord progression that balanced melancholy with joy.
In the past few years I’ve been developing specific fingering exercises that allow me to play three to four pitches in extremely rapid succession. Unlike when traditional fingerings, these pitches can be played at such a rapid speed that a much bigger harmonic shape begins to take form. I am just not able to play these pitches with such speed otherwise. This improvisation uses four harmonic worlds, each with a different fingering. The first chord is a Concert Ab minor shape, with the second sounding like an inversion of the Concert Eb dominant, the third a Gb Major chord and the fourth the Gb dominant. These are definite approximations, because the fingering system used does not allow for specific tuning.
During this piece I would also apply more embouchure pressure against the reed and raise up my air flow to turn these chords into multiphonic shapes. The cyclical effect is achieved by playing the desired pitch, then opening the B key, the Side C, and returning to the initial pitch. There is essentially an incredibly fast triplet shape being repeated over and over.
My goal in this improvisation was to negotiate a balance between the busy nature of the triplet effect with the intrinsic beauty of the chord progression, I’m intrigued by the idea of pairing melancholy with joy. It seems to me in daily life that this combination just seems ever present in me. It’s not as though one overpowers the other, but more the two find a way to co-exist. It’s like speaking to joyous old man–the kind of human that finds happiness knowing that time is finite.
-Neil
The image “Dusty Field” (watercolor on smooth paper 300gsm) by Alice K. http://aliceapril.deviantart.com/art/Dusty-Field-63297371
02/26/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 57)
12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 57
Date: 02/26/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: Small theater, Chief Sealth High School in Seattle, WA
Notes:
My improvisatory impulses today lead me towards the upper end of my horn. I dedicate a great amount of time to expanding my altissimo range, as well as working on creating higher whistle tones. However, I rarely find myself as interested in working exclusively within this range during an improvisation. Today I carried with me the desire to sit squarely in the upper range, and my improvisation centers around a few select pitches from an altissimo Db and up.
This improvisation uses only one fingering: (Left Hand) Fork F and C keys, Octave, Low Bb // (Right Hand) F-E-D keys, Low C. I set my embouchure with my lower teeth near the soft, pink part of my inner lip–far higher than a traditional shape. With a good amount of pressure applied, this fingering yielded a very clear altissimo Concert Db. By adjusting mouth pressure and air flow, a Concert D, E, and F also spoke very easily. Very tight, clustered pitches would occasionally emerge when I centered on the Concert E, which I believe are the Concert D and Db simultaneously. Further colors were achieved by using a bit of vibrato and approaching the overall playing style by using the saxophone as more of a bugle. This perspective helped me to feel more inclined to freely bend the pitches upward and downward.
Photo by agnes-cecile
http://agnes-cecile.deviantart.com
-Neil
02/25/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 56)
12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 56
Date: 02/25/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)
Notes:
In my practice session this morning I centered my attention on the use of singing while playing a pitch. I am able to sing from the tenor low Bb up to the high F with consistency, but beyond that range it becomes extremely difficult. While practicing I came upon a fingering that, when sung into the horn at particular intervals, very suspended and overtone-rich tones would emerge.
This improvisation uses only three sung pitches with a single “chord” fingering. The chord will not speak as you hear it in this improvisation unless I am singing into the instrument. In concert key, the sung pithces are C#, D, E (each about a quarter step low). While playing the fingering and singing into the horn, I found that on the fifth of the chord many new tones emerged. During this improvisation I played very conservatively, and this chord and singing combination could yield so many other colors. The fingerings used are as follows–through most of the piece, I use: (Left Hand) B-A-G Keys, Low Bb, Octave // (Right Hand) F-E-D Keys, Low C, side F. On the “second” pitch, a Concert D (quarter step low), this fingering and singing combination created many contrasting colors you hear during this improvisation. There were however a few times when I wanted to hear this second pitch played and sung in the unison, and I would also open the Fork F key to enable this to happen. I would then put it down again when moving back to either the first or third pitches.
During this piece there is about a 10 second period where a new tone emerges in the upper register. In addition, there were also extremely high pitched whistle tones that would occasionally enter the sound field as a result of the combination of singing and fingering the above notes. A fascinating result of this entire process is that the horn seems to create the same kind of timbre as the human voice. This is similar to when a saxophone or human voice, etc. is played into a piano. Because of the overtones, you will hear what sounds like the instrument itself being resonated into the piano. While practicing this piece today, for just a moment in time I actually believed that the horn was singing a minor third below my own sung note. It was an extraordinary feeling to believe even for a moment that the horn could actually be speak these two pitches clear as day as though they were coming from my own body and not the horn itself.
-Neil