01/09/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 9)


image


12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 9

Date: 01/09/2013

Instrument: Tenor Saxophone

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

Notes:

For a time I studied classical Hindustani music while in college.  I came to a realization one day that in the majority of slower improvisations, performers in this style use grace note ornamentation on nearly every pitch.  Once I came this realization it gave me yet another heightened level of respect for the complication of improvising in the strict classical Hindustani school.  For my piece today, I explored this use of ornamentation.

Every other day or so in my improvisatory practice routine, I create melodies where I try to ornament each pitch with a grace note that precedes it.  In my piece today I worked with this concept, choosing pitches at will and attempting to place a slight grace note before every note that I play.  This is amazingly difficult, and  particularly so at a quick tempo.  I attempted to do this while creating disjunct rhythmic phrases.  

In this improvisation I set out to try and slowly lengthen the duration of the grace notes, until the pitches become almost fully regular, sounding as though  they have no preceding note.  I intended to do this and end the piece once I felt I had achieved this, but in that moment I decided to continue the improvisation and attempt to perform the same task in reverse, by beginning once again slowly shorten the length of the grace notes.  As an image today at neilwelch.com I included a screen shot of this sound file, which I think very clearly illustrates this in a visual format.

-Neil 

01/08/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 8!)

12 Moons solo saxophone project Day 8

Date: 01/08/2013
Instrument: Tenor Saxophone
Location: Performance Auditorium at Chief Seatlth/Denny Middle school in Seattle, WA

Notes:

The acoustics in the auditorium at Chief Sealth high school are outstanding for solo music. The natural reverb paired with the construction of the room create amazing pockets of sound activity with certain saxophone gestures. For this improvisation, I worked with various slap tonging techniques, and overblowing the horn while taking in a great deal of mouthpiece in my embouchure. My mic location was positioned in the back of the room, and I moved from side to side in the 50+ foot stage to capture as much of the room acoustics as possible.

01/07/2012 (12 Moons Project Day 7)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project

Date: 01/07/2013
Instrument: Tenor Saxophone
Location: Home Studio (Clinton, WA)

Notes:

Indonesian Gamelon is on my mind today. I am overwhelmed by the power of Gemelon as a tool to take the listener into a state of intense, meditative focus. The use of rhythm and timbre in Javanese Gamelon is of particularly interest to me lately. My knowledge of this music is limited, but I’ve noticed that Javanese Gamelon does not seem to be performed at tempos quite as virtuosic as it’s Indondesian counterpart This focused, carefully paced and carefully orchestrated music inspired my improvisation today. 

I chose a multiphonic with a middle range starting point. In this multiphonic is a concert “A,” (quarter step low) pitch which you will hear throughout. In Gamelon there is a pushing a pulling of rhythm and tempo. I used a great deal of pressure in my right hand to force the keys to speak tones of their own. These are tones sound by striking the key against the body, or “key cups”, with a careful amount of air that allows them to speak their own tones without creating the traditionally fingered pitches. I then used different chromatic fingering combinations and tempos to create the elasticity of tempo that is so captivating in Gamelon. To try and mirror the wide range of timbres and octaves represented in Gamelon, I used my embouchure to pull out other high and mid tones to create more rhythmic and melodic material.

-Neil Welch

01/06/2013 (12 Moons solo project Day 6)

image

12 Moons solo saxophone project (Day 6)

Date: 01/06/2013
Instrument: Tenor Saxophone
Location: The Aurora bridge at 50th and Aurora

Notes:

I spent the day teaching throughout Seattle and found myself at the corner of 50th and Aurora after a rehearsal this afternoon. I decided to capture this urban environment by recording a piece in two channels, with the first channel capturing the saxophone and the second capturing the afternoon commuter traffic.

In tandem with a piece I recored on January 4th, I decided to utilize high action and space. On January 4th the space between my playing was punctuated with relative silence in my practice studio. Today this space was filled with the hum and roar of cars, trucks and busses in an urban environment. In this piece I again utilize only a single combination of fingerings, but create squeals and squawks with adjustments in pressure in my embouchure.