06/04/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 155)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 155

Date: 06/04/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone/harmon mute

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

Notes:

I taught at Chief Sealth high for most of the day and I couldn’t resist practicing with a harmon mute that I found sitting on a music stand in the choir room.  I’ve recorded one other time during this project with a harmon mute, but today I worked to explore deeper sonic textures with this unique tool.  As was the case the last time around, I had to carefully balance the mute in my bell to avoid having it fall out from the pressure built up while blowing through the horn, but also to let it float around enough to vibrate against the bell.  

During this improvisation I worked with the natural, stuffy tones the mute insisted on.  Specific fingerings would create bright, crisp sound waves, as was the case at the beginning of the piece.  Other fingerings, and particularly those that used the low “bell” keys, would create fuller, more vibrant chords that allowed the mute to actually shake in the bell and rotate a bit in a circle.  During this piece I phased in and out the pinched tones created by the mute, as well as the dripping sounds created by opening and closing specific keys while the mute response to changes in the sound waves.  I used a range spanning the middle register to extreme altissimo.

-Neil

The image accompanying today’s post is of artist Joan Mitchell, by Cora Cohen and Betsy Sussler (1986).

06/03/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 154)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 154

Date: 06/03/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Because of mechanical troubles with my horn requiring an unexpected trip back to the mainland today, followed by major mechanical issues with my car while on the other side, I found myself with several hours to read.  I’m nearing the end of Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, one of my favorite books.  The characters are currently engaged in fighting with the “Maquina” (Machine Gun) and the author’s descriptive language with this tool is simply amazing, using words like “sound” or “speak” to almost anthropomorphize the machine in the context of its terrible use in battle.  This language and images of battle in my mind influenced this improvisation today.

During this piece I worked to maintain a constant flow of sixteenth notes at a medium fast tempo, though I inadvertently dragged the tempo considerably as the improvisation went on.  I used the following base fingering as a point of departure:

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

I tried to envision this terrifying machine being used in battle sweeping across a landscape, and the evolution in sound which must take place depending on the direction it is being fired.  To simulate this sweeping back and forth I tried to create a “panning” sound by slowly opening and closing the Low E and Low C to phase the pitches up and down.  I tried to create the perspective of the machine in use from a distance versus up close.  At two points during the piece I settled on a Low B to Low Bb, this being the only time a singular pitch was maintained during the piece.  In these moments I imagined a soldier firm on a target.

-Neil

The image accompanying today’s post is a US Government World War II soldier in action.

06/02/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 153)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 153

Date: 06/02/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: A small wetland preserve in Bothel, WA.

Notes:

Immediately after leaving a student’s house this afternoon I drove past a small cement trail that led into a patch of greenery.  It had a sign above the entrance that read “Bothell Wetland Preserve."  I pulled the car over and walked down the path a little ways, never really finding an ideal spot to record.  I set up shop on edge of the cement path a few hundred feet into the trail.

During this improvisation I was very conscious of my surroundings. The preserve was against a busy, 40 mile per hour road with housing developments and residential homes surrounding it.  My ears were filled with the sounds of traffic, kids occasionally shouting and birds chirping in the trees.  I maintained my melodic action tightly within the range in which I began the piece.  I worked with false fingerings to create a variety of rhythmic cycles and one-off melodic ideas, being very careful to balance these two contrasting areas.  I focused on combining muted tones with more resonant ones and found myself constantly referring back to a specific fingering that had a muted split-tone.  This tone did not seem to want to clearly speak the second pitch, but there were tiny traces of it that my ear was drawn too and helped to focus the improvisation.

-Neil

The image "Red Circle on Black” accompanying today’s post by Jiro Yoshihara 

06/01/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 152)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 152

Date: 06/01/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Meeting room inside the Good Shepherd Center.  Seattle, WA

Notes:

The Good Shepherd Center is a space that I’ve performed in many, many times over.  The massive, historic building was, until coming under the ownership of Historic Seattle, a Catholic girls school long ago.  The main performance space is located on the top floor of the building, formerly a chapel with 30 foot ceilings.  However today I recorded in one of the many old school rooms on the lower floor.  Though this was one of many such rooms the acoustics were simply outstanding and I couldn’t resist performing an improvisation.  The room was approximately 20 feet long by 10 feet wide, with old hardwood floors and at least a 15 foot ceiling.  

It is strictly off limits to perform in any other area of the building other than the main performance hall, but I’ve found time and time again throughout this project that I can generally pull my horn out any place I become inspired to play in.  I’ve found no one stopping me from doing so in most cases.  Maybe it’s because I’m often in and out of these public spaces so quickly, but no matter what the reason for my sucess I’m very encouraged to know that I can play this music just about anywhere I feel like.  

During this improvisation I worked with the natural reverberance of the room.  I used split tone fingerings to make close-knit sound clusters, bending and pulsing them with tongue articulation.  Immediately after beginning the improvisation my mind gravitated towards creating tiny dots of higher octave pitches in between these clusters, and this become a point of reference during the piece.  This device was used no matter if the chord clusters were being held out, double tongued or played in rapid motion from one to the other.   

-Neil

The image accompanying today’s post by comic artist Robert Tinnell.

05/31/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 151)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 151

Date: 05/31/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

This morning during my practice session I worked on challenging intervalic sixteenth shapes with no tonal center.   When tackling exercises of this kind it’s amazing how familiar the most abstract shape can become.  My improvisation today was influenced by this theme and identification of “markers” in a line that the ear becomes drawn to once intimate familiarity has been established. 

These markers were brought to life in this improvisation by using two finger cycles with the same tonal territory.  This improvisation makes use of triple and duple subdivisions.  There is a steady underpinning of quarter note pulse overall, but I tried to let the time be a little malleable depending on the shapes coming out of the horn. By making adjustments in my air flow and embouchure new tones would emerge into the grid, changing the order of the pitches being played.  It was also the case that completely different rhythmic feels would emerge even while moving my fingerings in a steady pattern.  This was due to multiphonic/overtone chords being caught inside the overarching rhythm and finding their own place within it.  These new rhythms and chords became markers in my mind to reference back to within the improvisation.

The two fingering cycles were as following:

Triple Subdivision (1-2-3)

1.  (Left Hand) B-A keys, Octave, Low B (Right Hand) F-D keys, Side C, High F#

2.  Same as No. 1 but release the Side C in the right hand

3.  Same as No. 1 but release the Side C in the right hand and B key in the left hand.

Duple Subdivision (1-2)

1.  (Left Hand) B-A keys, Octave, Low B (Right Hand) F-D keys, High F#

2.  Same as above, but lift the B key in the left hand.

-Neil

The NASA image accompanying today’s post is an “Aurora Australis, or Southern Lights” as scene from the International Space Station.