12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 25

Date: 01/25/2013
Instrument: Soprano saxophone
Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)

Notes:

As a saxophonist there is no question that I identify most strongly with the tenor. However, each horn has its own personality and at times there are colors I can create on the soprano or alto that I can’t seem to capture on the tenor. My improvisation today captures of bit of this reality in a simple finger system that, when played on alto or tenor will not speak nearly as resonant.

During this improvisation I aimed to capture a melody and a system of chords simultaneously. Uncovering a system of polyphonic (multi-tone) possibilities has been my practice focus throughout the last half a decade. It it one thing to create a cluster of chords but quite another to try and link chords together in a seamless fashion. I’ve discovered that if you do successfully link chords together natural melodies seem to emerge. In this case, a melody on the scale degrees 1-b3-1-b7-8-b7 becomes quite clear when moving between two chords. The first chord is a mulitphonic and the second is an overtone fingering with the octave key on.

-Neil