06/17/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 168)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 168

Date: 06/17/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Practice Room B at South Whidbey High School

Between students this afternoon I spent a bit of time inside the Practice Room B at South Whidbey High School.  On the drive over to the school a Coltrane recording of “Gee Baby Ain’t I Good to You” was on the radio.  The piece opens with a two chord figure in the horns, with tenor, trumpet and trombone playing a repetitive blues figure over and over before Coltrane begins playing the melody.  I haven’t heard this recording in years and the honest blueness of it stayed with me into this improvisation.  This improvisation was balanced around a central split tone, which I found to be amazingly melancholic and inspired me to create a bluesy atmosphere around it.

The central split tone figure creates the Concert pitches E and F (quarter step flat), which is only produced with an extreme amount of back-pressure while playing.  I used mostly pitches from the common Blues Scale on this improvisation, but relied on the power of the split tone to create rhythmic cycles and colors around it.  The fingering was as follows:

Concert E and F (quarter step flat) (Left Hand) B-A-G keys, Octave, Low B // (Right Hand) F# key, Low C

-Neil

The image “Bleeding Takari II” accompanying today’s post by El Anatsui.

06/16/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 167)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 167

Date: 06/16/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: The rec room in my childhood home.  Edmonds, WA

This morning I visited with my Mom back at my family home in Edmonds.  I had just a few minutes to warm up and found myself inspired by a story I had heard on NPR on the drive over.  An interviewee presented a case that 1963 was the most artistically influential and critical year of development for the Beatles.  It was interesting to hear that they had over 40 in-studio performances for the BBC that year, and for some reason I walked away with the song “Fool on the Hill” semi-permanently implanted in my brain throughout the day, even though that song appeared several years later.  I decided to explore a very tonal, lyrical melody with an accompanying split tone chord to pay homage to my day-long obsession with this song.

The series of upper register pitches were done with traditional fingerings, albeit the tenor High F was played using the Fork fingering, which produced more of a muted sound on my horn.  The chord played each time after the two upper pitches produces a minor third with the tenor pitches E and C, each approximately a quarter step high.  To punctuate the overall melodic color, I began slightly altering the broader sound by incorporating occasional dots by striking the Side High F key.  The occasional rapid cycles were played by moving my index and middle fingers in a trilling fashion against the High Side F# key.  The brief held pitches were created by then holding the Side High F key down.  The rhythm “1–2&– 3–4&–5–6” played near the 2/3 point in the improvisation was accomplished by putting down and then removing this same Side F key while continuing the original sound cycle.  

The fingerings:

Gesture 1: Altissimo G

Gesture 2: Fork F

Gesture 3: E/C: each a quarter step high.  (Left Hand) B-A keys, Octave, Palm Eb

-Neil

The image accompanying today’s is the Beatles.

06/15/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 166)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 166

Date: 06/15/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

This morning I practiced creating melodies and chords that could change without disrupting a held tone underneath.  I worked at this in a variety of different ways, from loud, busy clusters of screeching tones tone to very quiet, sustained pitches.  In my improvisation today I decided to work with the latter and explored more subtle sounds.  I used a static fingering to create the Concert D drone.  This is actually a very common multiphonic fingering, but by playing with a smaller, more concentrated air flow a bottom fundamental can emerge without the rest of the chord. 

Almost a year ago this month my family had the chance to go to Sicily, and during this improvisation I visualized a particular stretch of road on our second day on that island.  It was a long highway road that cut through flat, green fields.  In the far distance there were occasional mounds–green hills in various sizes on either side of the long fields.  In my visualization of these “mounds” I brought this to life with three separate gestures.  The first was the natural multiphonic played by adding more air and pressure to the drone fingering.  The character of this chord was very stable.  The second gesture was a fluttering of tones, again with the drone beneath it.  The third and final gesture was a combination in sound concept between the stable chord and fluttering tones, creating busier, more tumbling pitch interactions.

The create the Concert D drone, I used the following fingering:

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

The three gesture fingerings played on top of the drone were as follows:

Gesture 1 (stable chord)

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

Gesture 2 (fluttering tones)

(Left Hand) B-A-G keys // (Right Hand) F-E keys, Low C.  Trill the palm Eb key only with Left Hand.

Gesture 3 (combination of stable and fluttering)

(Left Hand) B-A-G keys // (Right Hand) F-E keys, Low C.  Trill the palm Eb key only with Left Hand and the High F key in the Right Hand, each in turn.  (Open Eb key // close it // Open F key // Close it.  This creates a “1 e & a” grouping of four sounds.

-Neil

The image accompanying today’s post is the Sicilian countryside.

06/14/2013 (12 Moons Solo Project Day 165)

12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 165

Date: 06/14/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

This afternoon I spent time working on very clear, specific concepts on my horn.  One of those concepts was the separation of pitches through extreme octave displacement.  This is an area I’ve spent quite of bit of time practicing, and today I began by creating simple melodies and “displacing” pitches by placing certain notes into the extreme upper or lower register.  I eventually became interested in the use of a single, fixed pitch which I used in a touch-and-go kind of fashion.  I used the altissimo D, which is a very clean, bright high octave tone.  During the improvisation I focused my melodic energy from the mid to lower register.  This created a specific framework and helped establish expectation for my ears amidst the disjointed dots of color.  When I would eventually move into the mid or upper register, it had the effect to me of having come from a second instrument. 

As the improvisation evolved I began exploring other numerical combinations and dynamic devices, the most obvious being the shift towards incorporating longer whip tones amidst the short ones.   I would try to place these longer pitches very far apart from one another, and play a quick crescendo in volume with an abrupt cut off of the tongue.  At other times dynamic variation became a focus.  I would play the upper fixed D at a high volume, and play nearly all of the lower tones at a very quiet volume.  I also explored more of a wiley sound with the melodic tones, or a very evan balance between the pithces.  

During the first half of the improvisation I stick to a 1:1 ratio with the use of the altissimo D, and a melodic tone of my choosing.  I then began exploring a 1:2 ratio with the altissimo D and 2 melodic tones.  I eventually began briefly exploring 1:3 ratio, and also incorporating the occasional long whip tone as well.  Near the end of the piece I returned to the 1:1 ratio.

-Neil

The image “Pastry Case” accompanying today’s post by Claes Oldenburg (1961-62)