04/18/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 108)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 108

Date: 04/18/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Practice Room B at South Whidbey High School.  Langley, WA (Whidbey Island)

Notes:

I captured this improvisation moments after closing out a long, productive, and incredibly tiring day of teaching.  Throughout this project I often find myself pre-planing when I’ll record.  If I know the next day will be a busy one, the night before I take a mental survey of the day to come and I generally try to carve out a bit of time where I know I’ll be productive and full of energy.  Today I took a different approach, and I recorded at a point of mass transitional and exhaustion to see if it could warrant a new perspective.  I recorded moments after finishing my last lesson, my mind preparing to go home after a 12 hour day.  I decided to bludgeon my exhaustion and draw my focus towards a single pitch as a central point of action.  The result was an improvisation that culled the image of a hive.

This improvisation uses a low Bb fingering.  My initial intent was to perform a drone piece with a steady, full tone, but once the tape began to role I was drawn into a different head space.  I decided to use a sub-tone embouchure uncomfortably close to the tip of the mouthpiece.  I used a great deal of air to explore a region that bordered the tone of the horn, but also the amazing sonic possibilities of pinched, choked air flow.  As the piece progressed I worked to transition in and out of pitch into pure air sound.

Mid way through the piece I also tried a new technique.  I have stubbled upon this in the past but only in fleeting moments.  At about the 2 minute mark, I balanced my lip pressure at the tip of the mouthpiece, allowing my top teeth to barely make contact with it.  Because of the extreme back pressure, my top teeth rattled against the mouthpiece, causing the entire aperture to vibrate and pull out beautiful sounds. 

-Neil

The image accompanying today’s post is a cluster of fish struggling for air in an ice hole.  

04/17/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 107)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 107

Date: 04/17/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

Today is a beautiful day on the island–clear, cool and bright.  While my wife was watering the garden this morning the scent in the air reminded me distinctly of my childhood walking in the grass outside my grandparents house in Brewster, WA.  They lived hours from even a modest sized city, in a dusty town close to the Methow Valley in Eastern Washington, their house a quarter mile from the great Columbia River.  Amazingly, when I checked my email this morning my mom had sent me an areal picture of Brewster, with the orchards, brown fields and the river that held close their little town.  This was an extraordinary coincidence, and I felt it warranted an improvisation.  In this piece I aimed to capture the clear newness of an early morning, and the quiet framiliarity of a old place.

This improvisation is based on a single melodic/harmonic phrase.  But to create the full phrase the fingering system is broken down into three parts (notated below in the tenor key).  As the piece progressed I added a chord resolution to B major after Part 3.  This was done by adding the D key in the right hand. 

Part 1. Pitches C#, E, F#

(Left Hand) B-A keys, Octave, Low Bb, Palm Eb // (Right Hand) F-E-D keys, Low C

Part 2.  Piches G#, A# 

(Left Hand) B-A keys, Octave, Low Bb // (Right Hand) F-E-D keys, Low C

Part 3.  Pitches E, F# (Middle Octave) F# (upper octave) is also occasionally added.

(Left Hand) Fork F, A-G Keys, Octave // (Right Hand) F-E  keys, Low C

-Neil

The image “Erased De Kooning Drawing” by Robert Rauschenberg (1953)

04/16/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 106)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 106

Date: 04/16/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

I spent the day teaching at a music camp in South Seattle.  During a jazz improvisation workshop I found myself saying the phrase “make your statements more declarative."  This seems to be a theme for me while playing these past few years, and particularly so when it comes to my use of cyclic patterns and phrases.  The cycles themselves allow me to explore a wide swatch of color within a given framework, and it’s that idea of a "given framework,” in that I specifically give myself boundaries from which to begin my exploration.  Today I decided to use specific multiphonics that have a very sine wave sound to them.  There’s a tightness to the chord, and when I trill one like mulitphonic against another the motion is noticeable but still very slight. 

With the multiphonics used in this improvisation, I approached the piece as though I were playing a chorale with ornamental trills.  The slight variation from one chord to another has its own kind of repetitive movement, and after listening for some time the chords began to sound very tonal to me.  I based this piece off of the following fingering:

(Left Hand) B-A keys, Low Bb // (Right Hand) F-E keys, Low C, High F)  

To create the other chords, the A key is lifted in the left hand or the Fork F key is added in the left.  At other times the right hand F key is opened and closed.  The dramatic shifts in volume during the piece use the same root fingering above, which then carried a sustained middle octave Concert C (quarter step high).  The upper register tones that were added to the Concert C were drawn from the multiphonic chords, which reappear in their fullness once again when played at high volume.

-Neil

The image “Organization” accompanying today’s post by painter Arshile Gorky

04/15/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 105)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 105

Date: 04/15/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

My improvisation today explores melodicism within both chordal gestures and in single pitches.  The approach taken in this piece is somewhat different than any I’ve explored within this solo project so far.   Generally, when I thread chords together it’s the chords themselves that are the main focus, but today I instead worked to place the internal pitches in the forefront of the sound field.  This was partially achieved because of the fingering system used.  During this improvisation the high F# key is constantly trilled, and when this particular key is trilled against virtually any other fingered pitch, the same high tone will be produced.  This is less common in other trilled fingerings, where the trilled note will not speak in particular octaves or when paired with certain notes.

I broke the horn into three centers of action during this piece.  Action 1 is the opening gesture, where the upper octave tone is trilled and there is a middle octave Concert F to Gb moving back and forth.  This uses the following fingering:  (Left Hand) B-A-G keys // (Right Hand) F key, Low C, High F.  The High F# key is constantly trilled in the right hand and the Low Bb at a slightly slower tempo in the left.  

Action 2 takes place in the upper register, which centers on a chromatic gesture moving from Concert Bb to G.  I used traditional fingerings here and continued to trill the High F# key.  Later in the improvisation I begin to break away from the stringency of pure chromaticism and eventually add other melodies that have larger intervals. Though it sounds much more busy than the lower register Action 1, there are only fleeting moments of harmony in this section.  The bulk of it is composed of single note to note melodies moving at a fast tempo.   

Action 3 is a static, middle register flutter, which I used more to create an essence of space in the piece rather than as a new section unto itself.

-Neil

The image “Door to the River” by painter William De Kooning (1960).

04/14/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 104)

12 Moons Solo Project Day 104

Date: 04/14/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Rec Room of my family home. Edmonds, WA

Notes:

A specific region of the horn I’m exploring lately is the lower right hand stack clutch key.  When the notes F, E, D and F# are played this secondary clutch key is depressed, but there is no traditional fingering that allows it to close on its own.  The discoveries I’ve made so far are limited in application, because the key has more of a complimentary effect when put against other pitches rather than any jarring change–at least through what I’ve uncovered so far.  My improvisation today makes use of this key to create fluttering tones that combine with embouchure techniques to explore mid and upper range tones.   

I recorded this improvisation at a medium volume, trying to incorporate the key tones from the body of the horn as much as the played pitches themselves.  There is a static upper register Concert Eb to D that is created by trilling the clutch key with my right hand, and using the following fingering: 

(Left Hand) Fork F, A, G keys (Right Hand) trill the lower stack clutch key.  I also continuously trill the G key in the right hand, though at a much slower tempo than the trill maintained in the right.

My aim during this piece was to create a static universe with the continuous gesture, and to explore the upper tones at will.  About 2/3 through the improvisation there is an abrupt drop in octave and pitches.  This was done with my embouchure and not through any change in the fingering system.  I drop down once again near the end of the piece, though this time I worked to incorporate tones from the mid register as well.

-Neil