08/04/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 216)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 216

Date: 08/04/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

The use of singing through my horn as a means toward sound-color creation is a concept I’ve worked with for some time now.  In today’s improvisation, I began with a steady chord created by singing a Concert Db through my horn.   This Db became a drone throughout most of the improvisation, and then I focused on 3 sound areas that incorporated the drone in order to create an environment dependent on the sining.  The first sound area created was an open, almost tuvan throat-singing pitch series built off of perfect Fifth and Fourths.  By taking away a single key, an opposing, second sound world emerges with tight pitch clusters and fainter, more dissonant overtones.  I generally moved between these two fingerings/sound worlds during this piece.  Lastly, a third pitch series with still tighter, but more muted tone clusters emerges.  

At the mid point of the improvisation I began fracturing the first sound world by incorporating pockets of higher tone clusters.  From this point I also began to diverge from a more controlled atmosphere and began to create busier, more fractured pitch relations.  I then began to sing between the constant Db drone and an Eb a whole step above it, before returning at the improvisation’s close again at the Db.

-Neil

The fingerings used were as follows:

Sound world 1.  Pitches in ascending order: (Sing the low Db constantly.  Above it were Ab, Db.  The Db in the mid register was also sung at times along with the Db in the lower octave).

B-A-G keys, Low Bb // (Right Hand) F-D keys, Low Eb, Side Bb

Sound world 2.  Pitches in ascending order: Sing the low Db constantly.  Above it were Eb and G

B-A-G keys, Low Bb // (Right Hand) F-D keys, Low Eb

Sound world 3.  Pitches in ascending order: Sing the low Db constantly.  Above it were Low octave Eb and middle octave D, E and upper octave Bb).

B-A-G keys, Low Bb // (Right Hand) F-E-D keys, Low Eb, Low C.  

-Neil

The image “Metaesquema No. 179” accompanying today’s post by Helio Oiticica (1957).

08/03/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 215)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 215

Date: 08/03/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

In today’s improvisation I focused on the use of continuous double-tonging with crescendoing shapes.  The piece maintains a root fingering system that sustaines the Concert C heard throughout.  The continuity of the sound becomes momentarily interrupted by sound dots from additional grace note pitches, as well as longer interruptions on slightly de-tuned Concert C pitches.  I generally used the longer pitch interruptions to sustain a false Concert C fingering by adding the palm D to the root fingering.  This false fingering has a much brighter tone color, and was used to help accentuate the fingering sound as I crescendoed through it.

(Left Hand) B-A-G keys, Low B // (Right Hand) F-E-D keys.  Open and close the B key in the left hand, while simultaneously opening and closing the side C key in the right hand.  

While performing the cyclic action above, this fingering creates a muffled, ambient sound when the tongue strikes the reed.  This can be heard immediately as the recording begins.  It however does not seem to occur when the Palm D key is added.  I suspect this is because the root fingering has a great deal of back pressure, whereas the inclusion of the Palm D has very little back pressure.  This results in the tongue striking the reed more easily by comparison.

-Neil

The image “The Communicating Vessels” accompanying today’s post by Diego Rivera (1938)

08/02/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 214)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 214

Date: 08/02/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: The rec room of my childhood home in Edmonds, WA

Notes:

This afternoon my horn, reed, and body conditions were aligned for me to discover a new chord fingering.  This fingering, notated below, allows for only a brief spark of energy before the sound dies.  To create it, a great deal of lip pressure was required against the reed.  The chord could be held out to sustain itself, but only if I used an excessive amount of pressure.  However in order to incorporate other, more nuanced chords shapes around it I could only momentarily grip the reed harder.  This resulted in a major chord sound world that reminded me a particle accelerator, where light particles collide with each other in a hyper controlled environment near the speed of light.  Though the encounter is extraordinary, the explosion can only happen for an infinitesimal amount of time.  In my improvisation today, I explored the concept of creating melodies and sound shapes with momentary interruptions of this super-charged sound world.

The momentary chord in this discussion can first be heard about 6 seconds into the improvisation, and then throughout.  The fingering used to create it was as follows:

(Left Hand) Octave Key, Low Bb // (Right Hand) Low C

This created a Concert G major chord with the pitches (in ascending order): D, B, and G.  The chord spoke the most easily when momentarily flicking the F key in the right hand.  I thought of my air as the force traveling behind the sound action, and the flicking of the key as akin to the final pressure exerted on the sound particles to make the explosion finally occur.  The melodic shapes explored in this improvisation, most notably a triplet figure with the pitches: D#, E, B, D, B were created by using the above fingering, but also flicking open and closed the side F#, Fork F, and Palm F.

-Neil

The image “Eye from Oaxaca” accompanying today’s post by George Ortman (1966)

08/01/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 213)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 213

Date: 08/01/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Practice room A at South Whidbey High School.  Langley, WA (Whidbey Island)

Notes:

Between students this afternoon, I recorded in my teaching space at South Whidbey High School.  The past several days my improvisatory focus has laid more on conceptual process with little melodicism, and I decided to try and tackle both fronts today.  In this improvisation I developed two chord progressions, each with slightly different fingering systems but with a common melodic shape.  In the two chord systems, written below as Sound Cycle 1 and Sound Cycle 2, I explored parallel minor and major resolution.  I define them as “Sound Cycles,” because though they are definitive chord shapes, their application relayed more heavily on the creation of evolving sound scape’s rather than plainly stated chords.

I approached the improvisation with the feeling of a definitive pulse taking place at all times, but I tried to let this area evolve naturally.  This included increases/decreases in tempo, areas of more dominant presence in one of the Sound Cycles over the other, and the addition of more ornamentation such as trills and grace notes, all of which affected how I would approach tempo variations.

Sound cycle 1 (total of 4 actions, with the notated pitch below being the primary melodic focal point in my mind)

Pitch E

(Left Hand) B-A keys, Octave, Palm Eb, Low Bb // (Right Hand) E-D keys, High F# key

Pitch D#

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

Pitch G#

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

Pitch B

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

Sound cycle 2 (total of 4 actions, with the notated pitch below being the primary melodic focal point in my mind)

Pitch E

(Left Hand) B-A keys, Octave, Palm Eb, Low B // (Right Hand) E-D keys, High F# key

Pitch D#

(Left Hand) B-A keys, Octave, Palm Eb, Low B // (Right Hand) E-D keys

Pitch G#

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

Pitch C (quarter step flat)

(Left Hand) B-A keys, Octave, Palm Eb, Low B // (Right Hand) E-D keys

-Neil

The image “Welcome III” accompanying today’s post by Hurvin Anderson (2004)

07/31/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 212)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 212

Date: 07/31/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: A small practice room adjacent to the orchestra room.  Chief Sealth High School in Seattle, WA

Notes:

Before beginning my teaching schedule this morning, I attempted to record in two separate locations.  The first was the back alley behind a massive Target store at a nearby mall, and the second was the main orchestra room at Chief Sealth high school.  In both cases, interruptions prevented me from feeling fully committed to my improvisations.  In the back alley, several cars would drive by and, rightly so, stare at me and wonder what I was doing with a saxophone in an alley behind a mall at 7:30am in the morning.  After leaving and attempting to record in the high school orchestra room, I found that I had unfortunately chosen the half hour the custodians needed to wash and wax the floors.  I ended up in the small practice room I teach in each week.  This room is fully padded and insulated with specialized sound absorbing material.  The tiny room swallows up the rich overtones of the saxophone and leaves behind the most barren sound I think I’ve ever experienced in a room.  I recorded an improvisation that utilized the deadness of the space, and paired this against the false illusion of reverberation by creating comparatively richer sound colors.

I opened the improvisation with a tempo that I devoted to throughout the improvisation.  As in yesterday’s improvisation, I explored cross-fading from one sound-scape to another.  However unlike yesterday’s piece, I also utilized abrupt sound transitions.  I maintained a repetitive cycle of opening and closing the Side C, High F, and Side F# keys.  This acted as the binding agent for the various sound colors I chose.  Some of these sound colors had a reverberant quality, while others had a dryer, more arpeggiated sound.  Part of this was due to working with a fingering and then either applying or taking away the octave key.  Doing so helped to gently alter the chord by either introducing more high tones or low tones respectively.  The fingerings chosen were determined in the moment, but were based on an initial fingering:

(Left Hand) B-G keys, Low Bb // (Right Hand) F key, Low C

The image “Untitled” accompanying today’s post by Carlfriedrich Claus (ca. 1988)