09/22/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 265)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 265

Date: 09/22/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

This improvisation used a multilayered “diving” technique I’ve been working on a bit lately.  During this piece I continuously articulate pitches indeterminately in the lower to mid registers, while “diving” pitches down with my voice simultaneously.  During this piece I tried to phase between periodic sections of more and less control over which pitches would be played and sung.  The improvisation opens with a more balanced level of volume end density between what is played and what is sung, but as I explored further this balance ebbed and flowed.  As the piece progressed I began balancing indeterminate singing with occasional unison singing alongside the fingered pitches.  At about the 2/3 mark there is a slower section in the improvisation where the initial attack on the pitch I sang was in unison with the pitches being played on the horn.  But from this point forward I began getting more aggressive with the gruffness of sound being explored and referenced the unison sound pretty infrequently.

During the bulk of the piece every pitch that was sang was also followed by an articulation.  Depending on how quickly I moved in my fingered pitches, sometimes the pitches would move at a ratio of 1 to1, but at other points I would play several fingerings while doing one attack of the voice dive.  This ratio could then increase to 1-2, 1-3, etc.  Throughout there was no set articulation pattern whatsoever, but there are periods of increased repetition, and even some small tonal development in the form of arpeggiation.  As the piece evolved I also began using some double tonging to increase the ratio of “played” versus “sung” pitches.

-Neil

The image “Untitled” accompanying today’s post by Lennart Olson (1940-53).

09/21/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 264)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 264

Date: 09/21/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA Whidbey Island)

Notes:

I spent the day composing and fleshing out parts for an upcoming performance.  On days like this I spend far less time on my horn, but I find that I walk away feeling not only artistically fulfilled, but also fulfilled in my practicing.  I decided to wait until the compositional phase of my work today was finished, and recorded right as I ended.  The improvisatoin has little to do with the composition work that came before it, but I found that the spirit of this work highly influenced this piece.  I felt calm, relaxed, and the figures I worked with felt very comfortable and familiar.

The theme of this piece in my mind was the creation of a sound landscape.  This improvisation used a simple, patient melodic shape above a higher density torrent of chords and clusters beneath it.  I used two fingerings, both of which shared two common tones, the Ab and F.  The two fingerings used the Low Bb and Low B traditional saxophone fingerings, but were played with sound cycles by opening and closing the B key (left hand) and the side F key (right hand).  The fingerings used were as follows:

Low Bb fingering with the octave key depressed.  Cycle open and closed the B key and side F key.

(Left Hand) 1-2-3, Octave, Low Bb  // (Right Hand) 1-2-3, Low C.

Melodic shape: Ab-F // Ab-D

Low B fingering with the octave key depressed.  Cycle open and closed the B key and side F key.

(Left Hand) 1-2-3, Octave, Low B // (Right Hand) 1-2-3, Low C

Melodic shape: Ab-F // Ab Eb

The Ab and F were common tones between both chords.  I approached this piece at a mid-quiet level of volume.  The above pitches are part of the overtone series, and the flexibility while moving between them is similar in mouth shape and air speed to simply playing the traditional fingerings without the sound cycles incorporated.  As the improvisation evolved, I occasionally opened the octave key in both fingerings to allow the lower tones in the overtone series to speak.

-Neil

The image “Untitled” accompanying today’s post by William Gedney (1966).

09/20/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 263)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 263

Date: 09/20/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

While on a break between students yesterday I flipped through a terrible coffee table book on the history of music.  There was a brief mentioning of the importance of Steve Reich’s music in the development of minimalism, particularly his use of the phasing technique; offsetting rhythmic cycles to create new sets of rhythms, harmony and melodicism–all in a near constant state of evolution.   Phasing is a compositional tool very important to me in my solo playing, and in today’s improvisation I worked on a new phasing technique using vibrato.  I selected a split tone fingering which has different pitch content depending on the octave the fingering is played in.  If I treat the fingering as though it were an overtone and adjust my embouchure and air flow, I can move between these groupings of pitch content with small moments of overlap.  It’s in these moments of overlap where I focus my energy in much of my solo playing.  I generally use a combination of mouth shape with alternate fingerings to create sound and rhythm cycles, again, often with some degree of phasing.  In today’s improvisation I used a continuous flow of vibrato to maintain a fairly static rhythmic pulse while phasing between octaves.  This vibrato not only maintained rhythm but as also use to blend one section of the horn into another.

This improvisation was extremely challenging, and specifically the split tone chord which begins the piece.  I needed a wide and very focused air flow to speak both pitches at once, and while doing vibrato it’s very challenging to find the core shape needed to allow the pitches to speak.  Another challenge was finding an overall mouth shape that could work in all registers.  I did adjust a bit to pull out the different sound regions in this piece, but I needed a core base of muscle control to build from.  

During this improvisation I primarily used a single fingering.  At about the mid point I began adding the octave key, which shifted some of the pitch content up a half step. I would then move between the original and this secondary fingering, all the while maintaining the wide vibrato.  Overall I heard the sound divided in Fingering 1between 3 sections, which are written below.  I did move a bit higher up the horn, but this area of the horn was only fleeting. The pitches and fingerings (in the tenor key of Bb) were as follows:

Fingering I  (primary fingering)

(Left Hand) 1-3, Low B // (Right Hand) F-E-D keys, Low C.  This fingering allowed for the following sound areas.  

-Ab/B  split tone (mid register)

-B.  (mid register.

-A (upper register) Ab/B (mid register).  Same as the first split tone grouping.

Fingering 2 (secondary fingering used sparingly)

(Left Hand) 1-3, Octave, Low B // (Right Hand) F-E-D keys, Low C.  Same fingering as above but with the octave key added.

-C (mid register).  This pitch moved ½ step up from the B (sound 1) in fingering 1.

-A (upper register) C (mid register).  This split tone maintained the same upper note voicing as the A (sound 3) from fingering 1.  However, the Ab in the bottom drops out and the B moves up a half step to become a C.

-Neil

The image “Untitled” accompanying today’s post by Richard Diebenkorn (1950).

09/19/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 262)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 262

Date: 09/19/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

I wanted to create a sound landscape in today’s improvisation that brought to life the amazing feeling of being up well before sunrise, where you feel like a participant in an alternate world no one else knows about.  I love being awake while much of the world is asleep.  I feel like the day is full of possibility and can be shaped as I want it to be.  Generally these days I’m up at about 5:45am, but this morning I slept in until 6:30am.  I looked outside and saw that it was already light out.  A car were driving by, and lights were already on in other houses.  This entire morning I’ve felt like the world is 1 hour ahead of me, and I wanted to capture in sound that extraordinary feeling that I was unable to experience today.  A new day in early morning.

During this improvisation I simulated the use of reverb by using both muted fingerings and split tone fingerings.  The only editing I do to these tracks each day is clipping off the dead air at the beginning and ends of the improvisation, and occasionally boosting the volume a bit.   Other than that there is zero editing.  I actually re-edited this piece after finishing it because I was convinced that I had accidentally added reverb at the beginning of the track.  The bleeding of the the pitches in this piece, particularly in the first 30 seconds sound so beautiful to me, and I was amazed at the horns response to my shaping of the sound.

I wanted to capture the calm, clear-headedness of early morning.  The melody used here is somewhat melancholiac, and I worked to create harmonic support for it that contributed to a floating, malleable sound world.  The pitch content in the melody used three pitches/chords and was as follows (in the tenor key of Bb):

A (quarter step flat)

A/B split tone (each a quarter step flat)

Eb/F (the Eb in the upper register was a quarter step flat)

E (upper register), A/B split tone (each a quarter step flat)

This last chord was added to the end of the phrase as the piece evolved.  This was the sustained chord that breaks away from the primary melody.

The fingerings for these pitches/chords were as follows:

A (quarter step flat)

(Left Hand) 1-2, Octave, Low Bb // (Right Hand) 1-3

A/B split tone (each a quarter step flat)

(Left Hand) 1-2, Octave, Low Bb // (Right Hand) 1-2-3

Eb/F (the Eb in the upper register was a quarter step flat).

(Left Hand) 1-2, Eb and D palm keys, Octave, Low Bb // (Right Hand) 1-2-3

E (upper register), A/B split tone (each a quarter step flat)

(Left Hand) 1-2, Octave, Low Bb // (Right Hand) 1-2-3.  Same as the second A/B split tone chord fingering, but apply more pressure with the embouchure and focus on a gentler, higher air flow in the mouth.

The image “Christmas at Kennedy Airport” accompanying today’s post by Joel Meyerowitz (1968).

09/18/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 261

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 261

Date: 09/18/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

This is an energy piece that emerged at the end of a practice session.  During this session I focused on much more subtle, controlled elements of combining chords and split tones at quiet to medium loud dynamic levels.  It felt like a natural impulse to bring this concept into my recording today, but I decided to try an energy piece with fresh ears instead.  During this improvisation I used a split tone (two-note chord) fingering, but instead let only the bottom fundamental pitch speak.  I sang a single pitch, plucked from a major triad above this fundamental, singing either the root, 3rd or 5th each time.  This allowed a much more dynamic chord to emerge than would have with only the split-tone fingering.  The fundamental pitch itself is a quarter step sharp Concert A.  Between the held out major shapes I played aggressive sound-textures with an unrelated harmonic base along with humming, screaming and growling.  With this fingering I flicked open the Low C key to help the sound travel more aggressively up the horn.  The fingerings were as follows:

Split-tone fingering (with pitches sang in unison on the root, or harmonically on the 3rd or 5th):

(Left Hand) 1-3, Octave, Low B 

Sound-texture:

(Left Hand) 1-2-3, Low B // (Right Hand) 1-2-3, Flick the low C key closed and then open.

-Neil

The image “Untitled” accompanying today’s post by Barnett Newman (1946).