02/02/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 33)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 33

Date: 02/02/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)

Notes:

As a student of music, I often set out on a blind path to find new sounds and colors on my horns. I often make an irregular fingering and then manipulate my embouchure, or experiment with opening and closing every key on the horn. In this way, I slowly build a new kind of saxophone vocabulary for myself on a daily basis. My improvisation today uses one of these recent discoveries.

I used the following fingering: (Right Hand) Palm F (played with the pinky) octave key and Middle C // (Left Hand) trilling the low F key. I put my right hand into a very irregular position to perform the trill, with my hand straight out and my fingers bent down at about a 45 degree angel. In this position I can execute an extremely fast trill in a very controlled way. 

As with my improvisation yesterday, I explored this new fingering by focusing on the natural imbalance between the created pitches. In the upper register the ringing of the tone holes and the fast pulses of pitches around the high C are very clear. When I take the octave key away the middle C becomes the absolute focus of sound, and the tone hole ringing and sound pulses becomes extremely quiet but still there none the less. During this improvisation I begin with no tongue articulation, and as I gradually incorporate this the articulation becomes a greater focus of sound as well.

-Neil

02/01/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 32)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 32

Date: 02/01/2013
Instrument; Tenor saxophone
Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)

Notes:

Multiphonics and tone clusters are possible over nearly the full span of the saxophone’s range. This excludes the bottom-most pitches, which generally must be played as overtones in order to create multiple pitches. Some of the pitches within these overtones and multiphonics speak very clearly, while others have a more muted sound. Some have tones that speak at uneven volumes. One particular pitch will be noticeably louder or quitter than the others. Today I worked with a multiphonic that works with this imbalance.

This multiphonic has a clear 6th interval in it, as well as a whole step below this sixth. This consonant chord was very beautiful to my ears, and by carefully opening and closing particular keys I created flutters, patterns, swipes and glides throughout different pitches in and around the chord. There was also a quarter step high “concert E” that acted as a drone. Although this pitch is not as present as many of the tones above it, its seclusion in the lower range and its wonderful muted quality actually makes it very audible. 

While playing improvisations of this sort, I’m often thinking about how the chord affects how I pace a piece of music. This chord and even all the elaborations I made to it felt to me very still despite all the activity. If felt like watching a bird traverse a fixed sky. A great deal of motion over an open plane of sight to frame it.

-Neil

Feb 15th. Twelve Tiny Explosions release

The new solo saxophone album by Neil Welch.  Hand made packaging.  Local release on Table and Chairs  Music.  Available here on February 15th

Friday, February 15th @ the Good Shepherd Center

Chris Icasiano solo drums to open

$5-15 sliding scale cover.  $15 includes show + cd

01/31/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 31)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 31

Date: 01/31/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: South Whidbey High School large practice room in Langley, WA (Whidbey Island)

Notes:

In many of my improvisations I identify a particular location for activity and gravitate my improvisatory choices around this location. This could include: a harmonic area, a rhythmic cycle, sound color, particular range, cluster of sound, etc. Bearing this in mind, today I chose to focus my attention towards a cluster of pitches spanning a small range of about a minor third in the upper register of the horn.

Inside this small intervalic range I worked with about five to six pitches of complimentary sound color. That is, each pitch carried approximately the same clarity as the pitches surrounding them. I played this cluster of notes in rapid succession at will. My use of articulation included no tongue at all, but instead used the surround microtones (the six or so pitches) to help create small rhythm cycles, and slight differentiation from note to note. By occasionally removing the octave key, or carefully playing traditional pitches, I would occasionally break this mold by introducing lower and higher octave dots of sound. 

Over the span of two teaching days I spend about 12 hours inside this practice space each week. Because it’s located in a high school music department, there are instruments, chairs, stands, etc. coming and going from week to week. Today there were two large bass drums in the corner. The first had no heads at all and the second had two large plastic heads. The combination of these two drums side by side created a very nice, ambient warmth to the room today.

-Neil

01/30/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 30)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 30

Date: 01/30/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)

Notes:

Yesterday I had a rehearsal with my musical comrades Ivan Arteaga and Greg Sinibaldi. Part of our time was spent with a discussion and exploration of “difference tones.” A difference tone is a pitch that is created in the brain and occurs when two tones are played simultaneously. The listener can hear a third pitch whose frequency is the difference between the frequency of the two pitches being played. This third pitch is heard as a low, buzzing tone in the ear that actually has a very quantifiable pitch center. This mysterious, third tone is a creation of the mind, and is the most easily heard when two high pitches are played with one another. My improvisation today explores a multiphonic figering with a difference tone that can easily be heard.

Difference tones are pliable, meaning as you bend the two fundamental pitches up and down the difference tone will also move up and down. This tone, in my head, is perceived as a low buzzing sound. During this improvisation I used a wide dynamic range, from whisper soft to extremely loud to explore my own experience with this pitch buzzing in my ears. The fingering used in this piece has a very clear whole-step interval, and was while exploring this interval that the difference tone become the most clear to me. During this piece I also explored extremely high octave pitches in quiet sections, and bouts of screaming in louder sections to hear what other sounds I could create. The fingering for this multiphonic/tone cluster is: (In the left hand) Fork F and G, Low Bb and Palm Key D // (In the right hand) F, E, Low C and Side Bb.

-Neil