12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 95
Date: 04/05/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)
Notes:
With the return of Spring my spirits are feeling high, and I woke this morning feeling calm and strong. I wanted to explore a common feeling–a sound of brotherhood that is innately in all of us. I feel that there are specific melodies, gestures, scales and chords that are universal to all musical traditions which I qualify as “root” sounds. To explore a root improvisation today, I worked with the most joyous of all chords, the major triad.
From the outset of the improvisation I entered with a high level of energy and volume. I made it my aim to maintain or build on this energy throughout the piece. My root melodic/chord shape used the concert key pitches of F, D and Bb. This is a Bb major chord, which overall had a downward–5-3-1 motion. I explored the F and D for some time, including a chromatic, ornamental motion that linked the F and D before moving onto the low Bb. I then branched off into textural exploration and occasionally returned to the root chord.
-Neil