03/16/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 75)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 75

Date: 03/16/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)

Notes:

The blues is on my mind tonight, and for this improvisation I decided to work with a patient, calm spirit I explored in my first month on this project.  

I chose a slow pulse in a four beat cycle, with two pitches as the foundation.  The pitches are a concert E and a concert G.  I depressed the Low C key for both notes, and when playing the concert G I would also leave the F# depressed as well.  In specific repetitions of the melody I began to quickly open and close the low D keys as well, opening the sound field to include clicks, clacks and overtones to accompany the melody.  

When the improvisation began I used little or no tongue at all, but as the volume begins to climb the tongue becomes more essential in escalating the energy of the piece.  About two thirds the way into the improvisation I began articulating harder and blowing more air while opening and closing the low D key.  This began to pull out the gritty overtones and wails that become introduced with the melody.

-Neil

03/15/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 74)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 74

Date: 03/15/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)

Notes:

I felt an immediate impulse to conjure gritty, gravely clusters out of my horn this morning.  Like most young students, when I started playing the saxophone I would explore this sound by doing bluesy growls in my horn.  More often than not I would end up hollering or humming into the horn before I could control more of the wheezing sound necessary to growl.  It was years later that I backtracked to start gaining control over the other colors possible by throat manipulation of different sorts.

This improvisation uses a single, common mulitphonic fingering that I’ve used in a prior day on this project.  (Left Hand) B-A-G keys, Octave, Palm Eb // (Right Hand) F-E keys, Low C.  This multiphonic creates a wide range of tones all its own, and in this improvisation I hummed either directly within or slightly against specific pitches within the chord.  Humming in tandem with pitches tends to create more low difference tones that broaden the chord, while humming slightly above or below pitches tends to create more grittiness in the chord.  It’s also the case that humming into the horn in the middle to upper register weeds out many of the lower tones and begins creating more high pitched buzzing tones.  The mid section of this improvisation focuses in this mid to upper range.

-Neil

Image accompanying this post by Alberto Giacometti

03/14/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 73)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 73

Date: 03/14/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Practice Room B at South Whidbey High School.  Langley, WA (Whidbey Island)

Notes:

Today I explored my instrument to find a gesture, sound, rhythm, melody, etc. that when augmented in a slight way could become something quite different altogether.  In this improvisation I attempted to explore this idea in terms of duplicity, and to balance the two opposing worlds in equal measure.   The two worlds are fundamentally different.  The first uses only a simple single note melody, and the second becomes a coursing, undulating world of chords.  The only fingering difference between the two included adding the octave key to create the second world. It’s also of some note to say that there was a harpsichord in the room with me today. Though, as per the nature of this instrument there was little to almost no sustain in the strings as a result of my playing.

World 1 (pure pitches)

A grouping of 4 fingerings that created the concert key pitches G–C (quarter step low)–G–Bb.  The fingerings were as follows:

1.  (Left Hand) B-A keys, Low B // (Right Hand) F-E

2.  Same as fingering 1, but add the Palm Eb

3.  Same as fingering 1

4.  Same as fingering 1, but add the Side C

World 2 (chordal sounds)

Same fingerings and order as above, but add octave key

-Neil

The image accompanying today’s post by Mark Rothko.

03/13/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 72)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 72

Date: 03/13/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)

Notes:

A combination of abstract sound and concrete sound has been of interest to me lately.  Striking a balance between two contrasting musical worlds is a difficult challenge, and in this improvisation I aimed to try and balance the two in equal measure.  The “abstract” sounds in this piece I defined as the swooping, reverse-pedal sounding melodies, and the notion of “concrete” sound being represented by a scale.  

The scale used in this piece is as follows: Ab G Gb F D Db Bb B Ab G Gb F E.  I approached the execution of the scale in rapid single-tonging.  In my brief study of Indian music some time ago, I was fascinated by the idea that a raga could have multiple directions within the same scale.  Previous to this I thought that scales would either be ascending or descending only and could have no other path within them.  As with that model, I view this “concrete” sound as a scale and not as a melody per say.  The swooping, reverse-pedal gestures bared no harmonic relationship to the scale, and I attempted to play the scale with the same phrasing and articulation each time is was used.

I often paired the abstract sound directly against the concrete sound, but at other times left space between the two.  This included playing the concrete scale two or three times in a row, or leaving a few seconds of space between repetitions.  In the mid point of the improvisation I began to augment the scale by playing either a melodic fragment or changing specific notes within the scale altogether.  I viewed this as a sort of bridge between the two contrasting worlds, and therefore during this period in the piece I became a little more loose with the execution of the scale.  

-Neil

03/12/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 71)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 71

Date: 03/12/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone/Trumpet cup mute
Location: Choir Room wardrobe closet at Chief Sealth High School. Seattle, WA

Notes:

After a frustrating, two hour period of recording, I stumbled upon this improvisation. Seeking inspiration, I decided to begin recording in different rooms throughout the Chief Sealth High School music department. I ended up in the wardrobe room next to the choir room, where I happened to find a storage container full of brass mutes. Each mute had some kind of effect on the horn, though most seemed limited to either the predictable muting of my sound, or some kind of sonic manipulation in the extreme lower register. This is logical, due to the rich overtones present in the saxophone’s lower end. After a bit of searching, I found that a trumpet cup mute seemed to do the trick.

I found that a traditional low B fingering created the widest range of colors. The sounds captured in this improvisation are really not possible without having a major interruption in the air flow. I set the cup mute right inside my bell, and because it was made out of thin aluminum metal, the cup mute vibrated against the horn as I played. The low B fingering creates a rich, full note under normal circumstances. The saxophone is a conical bore, and by fingering the low B there is almost no interruption in the flow air from the mouthpiece to the bell. The only exception is a single key–the Low Bb, which remains open. I found that having this key open, and therefore allowing for some venting of the air flow, helped to create an amazing range of sound. When fingering the low Bb, which has all of the keys down, there was not nearly as wide a spread.

-Neil