05/15/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 135)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 135

Date: 05/15/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

During my improvisation today I worked with the theme of selected focus.  When I improvise it’s sometimes the case that I will zone in on one or two main ares of the shape being explored.  I will of course listen to the entirety of the sound around me, but it becomes helpful for me to ground myself on a particular focal point in order to almost liberate my mind to explore deeper.   Sometimes this is done for the sake of improving the main area of focus, and other times it is done out of necessity.  The fingering system may be extremely difficult, or the overall sounds being explored may be so abstract that they require a very concise area of focus.  For example, while screaming through my horn and creating blasting tones, I might focus on the sheer energy of the piece versus the extreme particulars of its parts.  In this improvisation I explored two fingerings with a  consistent pulse, and while doing so I tried to meditate on the pitches C# sand A.  

The two fingerings used in the improvisation create chord clusters all their own, but I decided to place my mental focus on the two main pithes as well as the constancy of pulse.  I maintained an even tempo based off a quarter note pulse during the improvisation.  I freely altered the rhythms at will, but none-the less always remained focused on the quarter note pulse.  The fullness of the chords was also on my mind along tones within the chords, but while doing so, again I focused my energy on the two pitches C# (quarter step high") and A (quarter step low) as my main point of departure for exploration.

The two main fingerings used in the improvisation were as follows:

Fingering 1: C# (quarter step high)

(Left Hand) B-A-G keys, Octave, Low Bb, Palm D // (Right Hand) F-E keys, Low C

Fingering 2: A

(Left Hand) B-A keys, Octave, Low Bb // (Right Hand) F-E keys, Low C

-Neil

The image “Off York Island” by John Marin (1922)

05/14/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 134)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 134

Date: 05/14/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Choir room at Chief Sealth High School.

Notes:

Today is my first day home from tour, and I was back in the classroom early this morning.  In the choir room at Chief Sealth High School there’s an air duct that emits a steady flow of air with a constant murmur.  Strung up on the ceiling against the back wall are shredded plastic streamers, and the air duct blows directly towards the streamers at one point in the room.  I recorded an improvisation standing beneath he air duct, immediately below the streamers.  Using an unbroken air flow with tongue articulation against the reed, I balanced the constancy of the air flow with the gentle grazing of the streamers and air duct.

During this improvisation I used exhaling and inhaling while articulating against the reed.  There is no lull in the air being emitted into the horn, and I varied how quickly I would inhale and exhale.  I used a variety of tonging techniques, including: using the tip of my tongue against the center-tip of the reed, flopping my tongue from side to side against the reed, trapping saliva in the mouthpiece, and creating high-tone pitches with my air flow while articulating.

-Neil

The image accompanying today’s post is an airplane model inside a wind tunnel.

(05/13/2013) 12 Moons Solo Project Day 133

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 133

Date: 05/13/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Above a ravine at the base of Mt. Shasta.  Mt. Shasta, California

 Notes:

Now on the final day of our tour, Chris and I woke up in Mt. Shasta, an hour or so South of the Oregon border.  We drove up an access road about 5 miles to get a better view of the mountain, and found ourselves at a vista point near the base of the.  After doing some recording together on a trail, I headed farther up the service road by foot.  I climbed up a hillside to get a birds-eye view of a deep ravine that had an open meadow beyond it.  I was inspired by the reverberant space beyond me, and I responded to the acoustics by working with the naturally occurring delay.

The forest was alive with bird songs, ants scattering their energy on the ground and the ever-present wind.  During moments of inaction from my instrument, I tried to listen equally to the delay, as well as the environment I was interrupting.  In this improvisation I decided to use a single fingering, played with embouchure adjustments in order to pull out two main pitches and various overblown sound clusters.  The two fundamental pitches were Concert Db, and Eb (quarter tone sharp).  The fingering was as follows: (Left Hand) Fork F, A-G keys // F-E-D keys, Low C, Side Bb.

-Neil

 The image accompanying today’s it Mount Shasta.

(05/12/2013) 12 Moons Solo Project Day 132

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 132

Date: 05/12/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Oroville Dam in Oroville, California.

Notes:

Now on day 7 of our tour, Bad Luck plays tonight in Chico, California.  On our drive up from Sacramento, we decided to burn some time exploring the Oroville Dam.  After a bit of searching we eventually arrived at the massive vista point we were searching for.  We set up camp to do some playing on the South facing side of a massive man made river that flowed hundreds of feet from the top of the dam.  The platform for the river appeared to be of concrete, with six or so enormous cubes breaking up the water’s flow before it pounded into the river below it.  We shot a few music videos, one of which was a solo improvisation that accompanies this post. 

During this improvisation I approached the piece more from a place of energy than any pre-scripted model.  I focused on the massive torrent of water in front of me, and from the outset of the improvisation I gravitated towards a sound gesture with medium intervals that was created using a multiphonic fingering with a trill key set against it.  Later in the improvisation I used an alternation of trill keys in the right and left hands to create the quick, cyclical cycles heard throughout.  Near the end of the piece I began watching the water flow from the top of the river shoot towards the bottom where it slammed against the man-made, massive blocks of concrete.  This helped to inspire the fluctuation in range towards the upper register squeals. 

-Neil

The image accompanying today’s post is a man-made river descending from the Oroville Dam.  

05/11/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 131)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 131

Date: 05/11/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: A hallway in my brotherâs apartment. San Francisco, California

Notes:

This afternoon I spent a bit of time practicing in my brother’s apartment. The unit is in the top floor of a building constructed in 1904, and as I practiced throughout the space I found that the hallway wall was playing back at me. In the top center of the wall I discovered what I assume must be old doorbells that reverberated as I played. The bells responded with full resonance on the concert pitches F and C. Perhaps because this is a perfect fifth interval, they seemed to hold the resonance of any pitch, though far more diminished in not the F or C. 

In this improvisation I explored tight, puckish pitches, and multiphonics, and intermittently zoning in on the F and C. I found that these two pitches would respond far better if I was very accurate with my pitch, and this was particularly true of the top altissimo concert C. As the piece moved forward I began to create focus areas, including multiple repetitions of specific pitches, and eventually at the piece’s conclusion, a melody with some regularity in shape. 

-Neil

The image “Saturn’s Small Moons” accompanying today’s post courtesy of NASA.