11/01/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 305)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 305

Date: 11/01/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

This morning a fellow islander and VW lover drove over to help me with some mechanical issues plaguing my 78 Bus.  Owning an old Volkswagen I’ve come to get used to long periods of mechanical problems with this car.  In every conversation about vintage bugs and busses, it invariably is discussed that VW’s are intuitive and easy to work on, and that VW’s are infinitely fixable.  VW owners talk about how simple these engines are, yet the smallest mechanical issue can stop it dead in its tracks, and conversely, many issues are so simple they can be fixed in minutes.  It’s an elegently understated machine, with an amazing network of variables that makes it operate properly.  In today’s improvisation I wanted to explore this same theme.  I chose a sound profile that on the face of it appears to be very simple, but the actual combination of fingerings and mouth shapes used to create them were very complex in their execution.

The improvisation uses 4 actions, each added to the figure that came before it.  This improvisation is one of my shortest yet during the 12 Moons project, as I wanted to present the piece in a very compact fashion.  The improvisation centers around 2 fingerings which were each played at the beginning and end of the improvisation.  They were as follows:

Fingering 1.  Pitches: F (quarter step flat) C, E (quarter step sharp)

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

Fingering 2.  Pitches: F#, F#

(Left Hand) 1-2, Octave, Low B // (Right Hand) 1-2, Side F#

-Neil

The image “Decors De Theatre” accompanying today’s post by Alexandra Exter (1927).

10/31/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 304)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 304

Date: 10/31/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

The weather has been colder this past week, and last night there was finally a bit wind to go along with this change.  The winds tend to blow like mad in the Fall on Whidbey, but the days and nights have been so still from the Summer clear through the beginning of Fall.  Before going to bed last night, I stepped outside for a few minutes to feel, smell and listen to the wind.  I stood on my porch motionless and let the wind whip around me.  While beginning my recording this afternoon I found that this experience was still with me and I decided to record an improvisation that explored these conditions last night.   In my improvisation I used a fixed fingering and moved the air flow up and down the horn with my voice, exploring various colors at every point between.

During this improvisation I used mostly unbroken phrases while singing.  I sung within a comfortable range that allowed me to maintain control, and did various executions of the same ascending and descending shapes to see how the colors would change with repetition.  At times I also focused within a particular range of the horn, trying to learn what overtones I could expect in this area and to allow these overtones to interact in new ways once I had moved on.  The fixed fingering used in this improvisation was as follows:

(Left Hand) 1-2-3, Low B // (Right Hand) 2-3, Low C, Side F#

-Neil

The image “The Sleep of Reason” accompanying today’s post by Bill Viola (1988).

10/30/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 303)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 303

Date: 10/30/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

I fell into a very strange mood this afternoon, trapped between exhaustion and a kind of brooding feeling.  This lasted for a few hours without any kind of precursor, but simply came and went.  I recorded this improvisation in the midst of this experience, which included time during my practice session.  In this improvisation I wanted to impart my mental state of mind during this experience.  I wanted a clean, clear-minded approach, without any sadness or mellencholy but the simple recognition of a passing phase.  

In this improvisation I worked with a minor melody in concert F#, played with a combination of heavily bent tempered pitches and chordal accompaniment.  In the chordal accompaniment I chose sombre, beautiful chord shapes, as well as a single, far grittier multiphonic used to break up but none the less compliment the overall texture.  The piece was improvised freely once I had decided on the key center, and finally the chordal accompaniment.  The fingerings used during the chordal accompaniment were as follows:

B/A

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

A/F#

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

G#/F#

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

Multiphonic (leaning heavily on the G#)

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

-Neil

The image “Independent”, from “August 12, 1999"  accompanying today’s post by Douglas Gordon (1999).

10/29/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 302)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 302

Date: 10/29/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: The performance hall at Chief Sealth High School.  Seattle, WA

Notes:

In today’s improvisation, I worked with tightly contained bright tones in the upper register of the horn.    I wanted a thick, densely woven sound texture with an overall pitch distance of less than 3 half steps.  I used some dynamic variation, but overall maintained a steady stream of medium-loud volume.  I did occasional dip particular sections in volume or slightly accent specific tones in order to alter the rhythmic profile betting explored.  The tones in this improvisations centered around a concert F and F#, both of which are at the bottom of the altissimo (extreme upper register) range of the horn.  By using false fingerings, I pulled further microtonal pitches that existed between the F and F#, as well as some drifting slightly higher than the F#.  By cycling these pitches in a variety of combinations, I improvised different polyrhythms.

The root fingering from which all the sounds are originated was as follows:

(Left Hand) 1-2, octave, Low Bb // (Right Hand) Side Bb, High F# key.  To create the pitch variations and microtones, I cycled opened and closed the C key, Side C key and side Side F.

-Neil

The image “Kansas” accompanying today’s post by Tod Papageorge (1969).

10/28/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 301)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 301

Date: 10/28/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

I approached the horn first thing this morning with eagerness, but despite this my focus was very scattered.  Often while practicing, I work with an abstract texture for some time, and then move on to something extremely different, and at various points in my practice session return back to the original material in an effort to essentially quiz myself.  I do this in order to embed these sounds firmer into my playing.  Even after having worked with a single sound area for 15 to 20 minutes today, I found it more difficult to go back and recollect how I had achieved it.  Somedays a lack of focus is just a simple reality I have to fight against, but today I decided to work with the theme of “scattered source material” in my 12 Moons improvisation to better characterize this reality of my morning. 

During the improvisation I worked with three isolated sounds areas.  I wanted these areas to be distinctive, but none the less complimentary when indeterminately set against one another.  For this reason, I chose more muted timbres.  These areas are described below:

Sound Area 1:

Quiet, quick pitch cluster flutters, followed by a static middle octave Bb chord with a steady pulse of punctuated pitches inside of it.  The pitch flutters were played indeterminately, followed by the Low Bb fingering, with the G key in the left hand trilled continuously.  This is the figure that opens the improvisation.

Sound Area 2:

Muted, and quickly articulated pitches centered around a middle octave F.  I wanted to achieve an echo effect with this sound area, with ascending volume, followed by a mirrored decline in volume.  This area used the middle octave F fingering with the Fork F key also depressed.   In the right hand, the F, E, and D keys were then opened and closed at will.  This figure is first played at :25

Sound Area 3:

Oscillation back and forth between two densely voiced chords.  The top voice begins on an A, then descends to a E.  In the mid register, the top voice begins in an E, then descends to an Eb.  This figure is first played at 1:52

-Neil

The image “Yellow” accompanying today’s post by John Paul Jones (1950).