12/01/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 335)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 335

Date: 12/01/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

This afternoon I practiced out of the book “Repository of Scales and Melodic Patterns” by the great saxophonist Yusef Lateef.  As is often the case, I chose one specific page and made it the focus of my practice session.  This particular exercise used the B diminished scale in various melodic and rhythmic permutations, including notes groupings of 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10 tuplets.  The challenge for me was to execute these passages with solid articulation, phrasing, and time.  I specifically struggled moving in even time between sixteenth note groupings of 5 and 7.  In trying to shift between these odd phrases, I decided to re-visit a compositional model I have explored I believe a total of 3 times now during the 12 Moons project.  I tackled a partially improvised, partially composed model based off of 10 melodic sets that were combined at-will.

Previous versions of this model included the following: composed material played strictly fast, little dynamic shifting, flexibility to choose melodies at will, wide intervals at all times, and disjunct rhythms.  I stayed true to some of these ideas but stretched the boundaries of others.  During this piece the melodic material was very intervalic overall, but I did include more diatonic langue here.  I also used more dynamic shaping from loud to soft, specifically within the same melodic gestures.  Unlink my previous models, I made the 10 figures flexible in their tempo throughout the piece.  Finally, I also used silence.  The use of silence became a particularly important, spur of the moment improvisational shape.  Near the mid point of the piece I would sporadically interject a half second or so pause between some figures.  I then decided to dive head first into longer bouts of silence, and maintained the flexibility to include this at will until the piece’s conclusion.

-Neil

The image accompanying today’s post by Warburg, depicting the Magritte Museum at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Belgium, Brussels. 

11/30/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 334)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 334

Date: 11/30/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

While at a used bookshop this morning a book cover caught my eye that immediately brought me back to my childhood.  It was a children’s book called “The Big Book of Cross-Sections,” and it had an image of the Titanic sliced up into five pieces, exposing all the compartments inside.  I don’t have any recollection of having actually owed this book, but I remembered looking through it at a book store when I was a kid.  I remembered being fascinated by the idea that tiny worlds could exist inside a much larger “body."  This fascination never really went away, and music has always helped me give voice to this mystical concept.  Today’s improvisation was directly inspired by this nostalgic memory.

When I finally began my practice session later in the day, I sat down with the aim of finding a quiet sound world that I hadn’t noticed before.  After an hour or so I stumbled into an area that I remember discovering several years ago.  When moving chromatically from the mid register G (with octave key) upwards to the high register F (still with the octave key), if I blow with a good amount of back-pressure and nearly no pressure against the reed, a second series of chromatic pitches emerges below.  These pitches begin exactly a Major 6th below, and start slowly creeping downwards in their ratio of distance from the upper pitch, until the final interval, the fingered High F, has a tone a Major 7th below (F#).  These lower tones are extremely muted and very difficult both to hear and to maintain.  

After re-familiarizing myself with this second layer of chromatic pitches, I dug even further, and found buried within two of the fingerings a third layer.  From the fingered middle octave G to A (again with the octave key), the lower tones C to D spring out.  However, there is an octave key exchange from the main octave key to the lower octave key when moving between these two standard fingerings.  I explored moving from the A to the G fingering very, very slowly, and was able to identify 4 distinctly different tones below.  In order of execution, they were: C, C#, Bb, A.  The C# occurs only at a slight moment where both octave keys are barely raised above their key cups.  After working with these 4 pitches for some time, I recorded an improvisation that explored them melodically.  Like the Titanic book from my childhood, I wanted this tiny world to be fully developed, despite originating from a body of traditional fingerings that begged to speak at all times.  At the mid point of the improvisation, I began incorporating these "body” pitches–the A and G above the 4 melodic tones below, creating harmony above the melody.  

This was by far my quietest recording yet during the 12 Moons project, and possibly the quietest recording I have done at all.  Sticking with the spirit of the project, I did not manipulate the sound in any way besides increasing the volume for listening purposes.  I tried to breath as quietly as possible during this piece and to move my fingers very fluidly to as not to distract from the music.  A sense of just how quiet the actually music really is can be heard in its ratio of volume as compared to the volume of my breathing, and the occasional spongy sound of the key closing against the body of the horn.

-Neil 

The image accompanying today’s post is a cross-section blueprint of the hull of the Titanic.

11/29/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 333)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 333

Date: 11/29/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

Before heading out for a long rehearsal, I sat down to practice for a bit this morning and was inspired to work on singing into the horn.  In what eventually became today’s 12 Moons improvisation, I wanted to explore singing static pitches inside a static multiphonic chord, while opening and closing the octave key.  With the particular multiphonic I chose the lower octave key was used as a necessary element of the fingering.  I found while singing almost any pitch in any register, some slight pulsation in the otherwise static chords came to be.  This single fingering was as follows:

(Left Hand) Fork F, 2-3, Octave, Low Bb // (Right Hand) 1-2-3, Low C.  This is a very common multiphonic fingering with the following pitches (in the tenor key of Bb): Eb, Ab, Gb

I did not have a pre-determined shape for the improvisation in mind or any pitch material to be sung.  My singing tended to ascend in pitch, though there were a few moments where I moved up and down in a more irregular shape–breaking this overall trend.  

-Neil

The image accompanying today’s post by Willard Van Dyke (1933).

11/28/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 332)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 332

Date: 11/28/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

On Thursday mornings I’m generally scrambling to get work done early before beginning my long teaching day.  But today is Thanksgiving, and I woke early to do my own work in my own time.  On this day of family, friends and relaxation, it felt wonderful to rise first thing in the morning and play music, a wonderful ability I am so grateful to have.  My improvisation today reflected this calm, quiet gratitude on this day of Thanksgiving.

While practicing, I decided to work with extremely simple, two-note chord voicings.  I gravitated towards two chords, the first of which was a Major 6th interval, and the second a split octave.  Though they were incredibly simple in their structure, I decided to embrace their quiet beauty and sculpt an improvisation around them.  These are notated below are Chords 1 and 2.  I wanted these two chords to make up the bulk of the material in the improvisation, so I made constant reference to them, at first playing each in pure and un-ornamented style, while later on adding more rhythmic variety between them as well as occasional leading tones.  

To further magnify the stark simplicity of these two chords, I used two additional chord shapes, labeled below are Chords 3 and 4 which worked to offset the established harmonic landscape.  Chord 3 was played near the middle of the piece, at 1:38.    Throughout the improvisation, Chords 2 and 3 were directly related harmonically to Chord 1, which I viewed as the key center in G major.  However, due to slight differences in intonation, Chord 3 opened an opportunity to shift the key center at the piece’s conclusion.  I reserved Chord 4 as the final statement of the improvisation–the only time this chord was played.  It was in the key of Bb major, but sonorously I felt it was a beautiful compliment to Chord 3 and the entire piece overall.

The fingerings as well as pitch content for Chords 1-4 are notated below in concert key.

Chord 1.  Pitches (in ascending order).  D, B

(Left Hand) 1, Octave, Low Bb, Palm Eb key only // (Right Hand) 1-2-3, Low C

Chord 2.  Pitches (in ascending order) F, F (each a quarter step flat).

(Left Hand) 1, Octave, Low Bb, Palm Eb key only // (Right Hand) 1-2-3, Low C, High F#

Chord 3.  Pitches (in ascending order) Db, Bb (with a slight passing tone of B natural in the upper register).

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

Chord 4.  Pitches: D, Bb.  I also used my embouchure to flex between a Bb and C in the upper octave.

(Left Hand) 1-2, Octave, Low Bb, Palm D // (Right Hand) 1, Low C

-Neil

The image accompanying today’s post by Marcel van Eeden.

11/27/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 331)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 331

Date: 11/27/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

A few days ago I discovered that there is a leak in my Low C# key.  The key sits flush against the key cup normally, but if I fully open the key and gently put it back down, it sits about a millimeter above the tone hole, causing a small amount of air to escape.  However if I let go of the C# key with a bit more force it will fully close, completely eliminating the leak.  There are two small pins that help this key close, and on an old horn like mine every so often the rods that the pins are connected to become sluggish and need to be cleaned and re-oiled.  I decided to use this leaking pad in today’s improvisation, and while practicing I worked to develop a piece that incorporated the fully open C#, as well as the partially leaking C#.  

During this improvisation I used a total of 3 fingerings, each with its own sound profile.  I used fluctuations in my air flow and embouchure to phase tones in and out, and to create momentary sound worlds that would emerge and disappear.  To help illuminate slight differences in the tuning captured in each fingering, I slowly trilled my octave key open and closed through the entire piece.  Fingering 1 was a stable, common multiphonic chord that creates a Concert G major triad.  After working with this multiphonic/fingering, I carefully put down the C# key, creating the slight leak described above.  I then moved on to Fingering 2, which is possible only with the leaking C# key interacting with my air flow.  This fingering created a Perfect 4th interval with the pitches B and E in the upper register.  It can heard for the first time at 1:10.  Finally, I began playing Fingering 3, which had a rich sound profile that easily enabled me to explore the pitches contained in this overtone series.  I explored the following pitches (in ascending order) B, F#, B, D, and F#.  The B acted as a drone in the middle octave as I explored for of a melodic profile in the upper register.  This series of pitches enters at 2:07.

The fingerings for these chords were as follows:

Fingering 1.  Pitches D, B, G

(Left Hand) 1-2-3, Low C# // (Right Hand) 1-2-3, Low C.  Trill the octave key continuously.

Fingering 2.  Pitches B, E

(Left Hand) 1-2-3, Low C# // (Right Hand) 1-3, Low C.   The low C# key is slightly open, having done so by moving from Fingering 1 into Fingering 2.  Trill the octave key continuously.

Fingering 3.  Pitches B, F#, B, D and F#.  

(Left Hand) 1-2-3, Low C# // (Right Hand) 1-2-3, Low C.  Same as Fingering 1, but again the low C# key is slightly open.  Trill the octave key continuously.

-Neil

The image “Little Brancaster” accompanying today’s post by Norman Ackroyd.