05/27/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 147)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 147

Date: 05/27/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

In my improvisation today I worked with the theme of tone color exploration within a specific mutliphonic.  I used a single fingering as the primary point of departure and focused on an increase in volume to allow internal pitch clusters to create their own sound universes.  I approached this improvisation by focusing on the counterpoint created by tones coming in and out of the sound spectrum, and as a result ecurring themes immediately took shape.  For example, a common occurrence was the Concert C in the upper register, which my embouchure seemed drawn to at the end of an increase in volume.  It seemed that the peak wanted to gravitate not towards the upper tones but towards this comparatively lower pitch.  From this Concert C I would then create fingering cycles of semi tones around this pitch.

As the improvisation evolved, I also began incorperating tongue articulations that would abruptly end the chord.  I would then immediately either begin the chord again or chose new tones to bring out, the end result creating a “push and pull” texture.  The single, primary fingering used was as follows:

(Left Hand) B-A keys, Octave Low Bb, Palm D // (Right Hand) F key.  In tandem with this fingering I also cycled the follow fingerings: F, E and F#, while trying to simultaneously maintain some harmonic shape in the upper register.  

-Neil

The image “The Meeting Place” accompanying today’s post by Conrad Marca-Relli (1982).

My friend Andrew Olmstead sent this to me today.  Andrew was listening to my recording of Song Cycle for Missouri when it started skipping.  In standard hyper-creative Andrew form he decided to record it.

05/26/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 146)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 146

Date: 05/26/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: My family house where I grew up.  Edmonds, WA

Notes:

In today’s piece I wanted to explore the idea of tiny variations within a predictable form.  While improvising I tried to focus on the constancy of evolution, and the idea that life may appear to be static but even the most predictable of human actions continues to evolve in time, often without our knowing it.  To represent this idea, I chose a two-part figure as the primary building point, and then introduced a second two-part figure that slightly augmented the first.  The First action was the concert Ab, played with a false fingering against it at a consistent tempo.  The Second action was the complimentary major chord mutliphonic, which I played at will after stating the First action for a duration of time.  Instead of allowing one action to dominate the other, I approached the playing of each figure in a natural way, simply moving from one to the other as I saw fit.

The variation occurred in the Third and Fourth actions.  The Third action included the use of a multiphonic that had a similar pitch and range distribution as the Third actin, but also included a more gritty half-step motion in the lower end.  The Fourth action included the same concert Ab fingering as in the First action, but also used momentary dots of lower register concert Ab’s.

The fingerings used were as follows:

First action

(Left Hand) Bis Bb key, Octave, Low B.  Trill open and closed the F-E-D keys in the right hand

Second action (major chord multiphonic)

(Left Hand) B-A-G keys, Octave, Low B // E-D keys

Third action

(Left Hand) Bis Bb key, Octave, Low B.  Trill open and closed the F-E-D keys in the right hand, and also occasionally take off and reapply the Octave keys in the left hand.

Fourth action (multiphonic with half step in the lower range)

(Left Hand) B-A-G keys, Low B // E-D keys.  Same as the fingering in the Second action, but without the octave key.

-Neil

The image accompanying today’s post by Milton Resnic

05/25/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 145)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 145

Date: 05/25/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

After spending time working with a variety of textures during my practice session today, I arrived back at a familiar technique of singing into the horn while playing.  This technique is relatively simple with some pitces, but depending on what range is chosen the horn can fight back with an incredible amount of back pressure and physical discomfort.  Today I worked in this uncomfortable range and allowed my body to become acclimated to it’s new physical reality before recording this improvisation.  I sung a static drone and worked to maintain it from start to finish, though I drifted about a quarter step flat by the end of the piece.  I sang a concert Db in middle register and used a single fingering to cull out a variety of colors from my horn.

The fingering was as follows:

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

This fingering natural speaks a concert B in middle range, making the sung pitch a whole step away from what my ears heard as the pitch center.  Keeping my ear focused on the intervalic relationship of this whole step and trying to keep it in tune was a focus throughout the piece.  Weeding out all the other sounds at times and trying to zone on a simple two-note harmonic relationship helps me to maintain better intonation.  As the piece evolved I also created rhythmic and melodic cycles by opening and closing the B key (left hand) and the side C key (right hand) one at a time.

-Neil

The image “Screw You Peek-A-Boo” accompanying today’s post by artist Yuri Masnyj (2003)

05/24/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 144)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 144

Date: 05/24/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

After an amazing afternoon spent outside in my yard watching birds darting around the trees and overhead, I went inside and was transported to a very different place.  It dawned on me that I needed to take care of an insurance issue, and my high spirits suddenly became plagued and ill by searching online and making phone calls.  This improvisation was a response to the aftermath of this abrupt shift and my attempt to transition myself back to a place of calm and control.   I decided to work with delicate textures, using only a few pitches in the difficult altissimo range of the horn. 

This improvisation uses primarily the pitches Ab, Bb, and occasionally C.  I tried to play these pitches as carefully as possible, and they were recorded at a very low volume.  When returning to the Ab at the end of a phrase, I would use my embouchure and the slow depression of keys closing to bend the note evenly downward some distance.  There were pitches that seemed to naturally speak on their way down, and at a few points during the piece I paused and held one of these lower tones out to let it resonate

-Neil

The image accompanying today’s post by artist Kunie Segiura