12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 63
Date: 03/04/2013
Instrument: Alto saxophone
Location: Hallway outside the the SWHS band room. Langley, WA (Whidbey Island)
Notes:
Last night I watched a masterful performance by saxophonist Wally Shoup and drummer/multi-instrumentalist Chris Corsano. This was my first time seeing Chris, and I was amazed by the range of sound he pulled out of the drum set. His vocabulary seemed so natural to him it was as though he were taught from the outset of his life to bow the rims of his toms or hum with his face pressed against kit. Wally was in a particularly enlightened state in this performance. In Wally’s playing, I always hear a joyfulness that fills the room. He seems to take any idea that comes from his instrument and sculpt it into a clean, crystalized version of what had come out the moment before. My improvisation today was inspired by his work.
During this improvisation I use a very common saxophone multiphonic fingering: (Left Hand) B-A-G keys, Low Bb // (Right Hand) F-E-D keys. Inspired by Wally’s work, I decided to start the improvisation with whatever sound by body and instrument seemed inclined to begin with. I made it my aim to approach this piece without ego, and to let my horn and mind take me where they wished to go. At times I would come upon a new sound and choose to explore it in repetition, or to build a slight phrase around it, or even explore tonality as I did at the close of the piece. At other times I would attempt to execute a gesture and the horn would not speak it, so I would take the sound that the horn offered me and begin anew. It seems that with this approach as an improviser, there is no limit to what you can explore and no end to what can be done in even a single piece.
-Neil
03/03/2013 (12 Moons Project Day 62)
12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 62
Date: 03/03/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)
Notes:
Today is a pre-dawn improvisation. After a late night recording session and only a few hours sleep, I woke up and got straight to the point. I felt a gathering storm in my horn this morning, and this improvisation reflects that mood. This was one of those mornings when energy trumped the need to sleep.
The improvisation uses a fingering system that I’ve covered before on the 12 Moons project. (Left Hand) B-A-G keys, octave // (Right Hand) F-E Keys, Low C. At will, I also create trills, flutters and pitch loops by opening the G key and side Bb. With the above root fingering I explored textures by using embouchure control and changes in my air flow. I worked to create a sound concept that allowed pitches to enter and exit the sound field when the music deemed it necessary. It’s of note to say most these changed are intentional, but others are indeterminate. New colors that unexpectedly enter in become opportunities for exploration.
Over the past several years I’ve learned that the air that naturally escapes the horn while playing is as good a learning tool as are pitches themselves. The same can be said for the “junk” tone that is created by air moving around the neck and mouthpiece of the horn while playing a note with a non-traditional embouchure. Slight changes in air flow, say if I hear the air bending up instead of having expected it to bend down, it can give me some expectation of where the horn might be leading me. In this sense, even tones that come out unexpectedly often have some kind of pre-curser to them.
-Neil
03/02/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 61)
12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 61
Date: 03/02/2013
Instrument; Tenor saxophone
Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)
Notes:
When I was in New York several years ago there was a small painting in the Museum of Modern Art. The artist’s name escapes my mind right now. His painting was composed mostly of whitish dead air space, with a washed-out orange and cream colored line down the center. The line went top to bottom as though it ran right off the canvas with no beginning and no end. I remember that on the placard description the creator had called this piece “a major breakthrough” in his work. It went on to say that this single line represented the first visual point of focus in the entire body of this painters work. At this early stage in my musical development, I remember being struck by this definition of “breakthrough,” that for this artist the most basic of shapes with the most basic usage could be so shattering for him as the creator. My improvisation today was inspired by this idea.
A point of interest for me lately is creating a musical statement that is direct as possible. The 12-tone melody is an established musical form and extremely common. A 12-tone melody is composed of all 12 chromatic pitches, each performed in turn with no repetition of a pitch until all 12 have been stated. With this simple concept lays a world of possibility for the great composers of this style, and many separate but related scales can be derived from the single parent or “prime” scale. My improvisation today uses only the prime scale–12 pitches performed with a pause afterward it is complete.
The 12 tone scale I improvised uses the following pitch order (in the tenor key): D, A, E, F#, C#, F, B, G#, C, Bb, D#, G. However, on some repetitions I also implement the use of overtones to create these pitches as well–they are also played in the same octave that the original statement places them in. To create the 12 notes, I used 5 fingerings with overtones built off the low octave pitches Bb, B, C, # and D. When I play this 12 tone row with overtones, each pitch then has a tone in the lowest octave that accompanies it. These lower tones do not follow a 12 tone shape.
-Neil
03/01/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 60)
12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 60
Date: 03/01/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)
Notes:
The saxophone can create a storm inside itself. Specific fingerings allow pitches to wobble or bend, or smear from one note to another. But the fingering itself is hardly the complete picture. Air flow, embouchure, and in the case of this improvisation, tongue position, can all play critical roles in creating new colors in music.
This improvisation uses the following base fingering: (Left Hand) B-G Keys and Low B (Right Hand) F# key and Low C. I also trill the low F, Middle C and low Bb fingerings at different tempos from one another. Over the past several years I have worked towards making a single finger in each of my hands trill at different tempos. This is virtually the same concept used in playing a piano, as the two hands are capable of playing completely different shapes at the same time. I am very excited about where this can take my music in the future.
I approached this improvisation by using the opening 10 seconds or so as my root gesture. I maintained a similar pulse throughout the entire piece, varying it at will, but mainly retaining the original shape. I also aimed to incorporate circular breathing during this piece. I’m still working on this skill and my ability is at a very novice level in this area.
My tongue does the bulk of the work during this piece. To pull out the high smears and swipes I created the movement of “ah-yee” in fast repetition with my tongue. I tried to untether my mind, and to allow myself to see my sound in the upper and lower registers at the same time. I’ve found that as I’ve trained my hands to be able to move at different speeds while doing a cyclic pattern, my mind has also been strengthened to experience two separate sound fields at once.
-Neil
02/28/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 59)
12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 59
Date: 02/28/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: Practice Room B at South Whidbey High School. Langley, WA (Whidbey Island)
Notes:
Today was an extremely long teaching day with a full studio of students, classes and ensembles. I find that on days such as this I wake with a feeling of complete calm in my body. This may be because I know that to maintain a high level of focus, energy and productivity during these days I must pace myself from lesson to lesson. I had a half hour break in the middle of the day, and I felt a desire to play an improvisation that reflected this calm state of mind and body. I decided to play a common fingered pitch that used the Perfect 5th and the Octave. These intervals are incredibly powerful, stable chords that have an intrinsic quality of strength in them.
Certain saxophone fingerings are capable of easily played overtones. They function like partials on a trumpet, where adjustments in air flow and mouth position allow a fully new pitch to blossom. My improvisation today uses the traditional fingering for a Concert F# to create separate notes using this “partial” model. But, as is the case with this particular fingering, two pitches can be playable at once.
I maintained a steady quarter note pulse with my tongue and air, and used this gentle articulation to help pull out the desired tones. I begin my articulating the Concert F# (tenor middle octave G#), and then introduce a Concert C# a perfect 5th above. Mid-way through the improvisation I decided to introduce the octave below middle G#. Like its counterpart in the middle octave, this low G# is capable of simultaneously producing a high octave C#. My body is in transition today, and I’ve felt a cold coming on for a few days. I actually found it difficult to execute this piece today, but the horn called me to it.
-Neil