05/30/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 150)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 150

Date: 05/30/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

After working some time with more controlled textures during my practice session, I decided to improvise a piece that explored gritty tones and screaming through the horn.  The end result was an improvisation that balanced clustered block sounds with dipping and diving muted tones.

I structured the improvisation to make constant reference to the screamed tones as the primary point of action.  The secondary action, that being a lightening of tension filling more of a transitional role, included middle register pitches using the Fork F fingering with the right hand down.  In these phrases I included extreme dynamic shifts from medium loud to nearly inaudible levels of quiet.  I tried to make the phrases like swallows darting in and out of sight–full of action and constantly in motion.  This contrasted the block, screamed chords, which I viewed as having more of a stable point of action.  I used the Low B fingering with the Side Bb and Octave key depressed, which in and of itself creates a multiphonic major chord, but by overblowing the horn and screaming into it extraordinary colors are possible.

-Neil

The image “untitled film still #16” accompanying today’s post by Cindy Sherman (1978)

05/29/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 149)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 149

Date: 05/29/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

During my practice session today I worked at finding fingering systems that naturally had some kind of counterpoint to compliment a melody.  I ended up working with a chain of fingerings fairly close to those used in my composition A Song Cycle for Missouri, which I’ve previously recorded on a separate project.  Unlike that composition, in this improvisation I worked to maintain for the most part a fairly regular rhythmic cycle in a 6 beat phrase.  The piece was improvised and I was exploring most of the material for the first time, and because of this I would occasional break off from the strictness of 6 beats to search for new sounds or as a result of just making mistakes.  

The piece centers around two fingering systems, which can be found in an additional image in this post.  The focal point of each system is a melody in the upper register.  They were played with non-traditional fingerings capable of producing two or sometimes three to four simultaneous pitches.  I worked to fade in and out these additional pitches, which when incorporated into the fingering cycle produced polyrhythms that pushed against the main melody and altered the feel of the 6/8 groove.  My aim then was to create a melody with rhythmic counterpoint and additional melodicism.  

Before recording this improvisation I worked with the fingering cycle for some time to stabilize it into a meter, which ultimately became 6/8.  By adding more air and adjusting my embouchure I was able to bring in and out the conterpoint and its melodic material.  This would at times move above or below in range what I heard as the primary melody being explored.  There were six different fingerings used in the first melodic cycle, and six fingerings used in the second melodic cycle, some of which were common to both cycles and internally repeated some fingerings.

-Neil

The image “Balzac Toward the Light, Midnight” accompanying today’s post by Edward Steichen (1908)

05/28/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 148)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 148

Date: 05/28/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Performance hall at Chief Sealth High School.  Seattle, WA

Notes:

Although I’ve now recorded in the main performance hall at Chief Sealth high school at least seven or eight times, I’m still trying to figure out how to effectively play in this space.  It’s such a gift to have access to the hall for a half hour or so once a week, but I’ve had trouble finding inspiration from the sound of the room.  The acoustics feel very warm but ultimately not very thrilling to me, and up until now I’ve used it more as a blasting zone than something to work directly with.  Today I decided to improvise a piece that truly utilized the gift of this room, which is its warm reverb it produces as a medium to low volume.  

I decided to zone in on two fingerings as points of departure, the first of which is capable of producing two pitches that move up and down in a way that I assume must be similar to the physical feeling when playing a partial on a trumpet.  I used this fingering to create an echo like sound with either escalating or demising shapes with the two pitches Bb and Eb in the upper register.  The second fingering created a concert Bb (quarter step flat), which I would then slightly alter with two additional finger motions to create a descending melody with the pitches Bb, A and G (all a quarter step flat).  When paired together in various fingering systems, I then take these two fingerings and crate cycles which had a sound concept to me similar to Gamelan, which I kept referring too in my mind as I played.  

Fingering 1 (Bb and Eb):

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

Fingering 2 (Concert Bb quarter step flat):

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

Fingering 2.a) secondary fingering (A quarter step flat) same as above but take away the Side C key.

Fingering 2.b) Same as above but take away Side C and G in the left hand

-Neil

The image “Untitled from 88 maps” accompanying today’s post by Mat Mullican (2010)

05/27/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 147)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 147

Date: 05/27/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

In my improvisation today I worked with the theme of tone color exploration within a specific mutliphonic.  I used a single fingering as the primary point of departure and focused on an increase in volume to allow internal pitch clusters to create their own sound universes.  I approached this improvisation by focusing on the counterpoint created by tones coming in and out of the sound spectrum, and as a result ecurring themes immediately took shape.  For example, a common occurrence was the Concert C in the upper register, which my embouchure seemed drawn to at the end of an increase in volume.  It seemed that the peak wanted to gravitate not towards the upper tones but towards this comparatively lower pitch.  From this Concert C I would then create fingering cycles of semi tones around this pitch.

As the improvisation evolved, I also began incorperating tongue articulations that would abruptly end the chord.  I would then immediately either begin the chord again or chose new tones to bring out, the end result creating a “push and pull” texture.  The single, primary fingering used was as follows:

(Left Hand) B-A keys, Octave Low Bb, Palm D // (Right Hand) F key.  In tandem with this fingering I also cycled the follow fingerings: F, E and F#, while trying to simultaneously maintain some harmonic shape in the upper register.  

-Neil

The image “The Meeting Place” accompanying today’s post by Conrad Marca-Relli (1982).

My friend Andrew Olmstead sent this to me today.  Andrew was listening to my recording of Song Cycle for Missouri when it started skipping.  In standard hyper-creative Andrew form he decided to record it.