12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 114

Date: 04/24/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

The terror of war was on my mind during this improvisation. Amid the torrent of machine-gun tat tat tat tat tat sounds is the alarm call created by playing the cycle without any tongue articulation. I used this call as a precursor to the expected torrent of quick articulations that would return. I worked to maintain as steady a tempo as possible from start to finish, and as a machine gun itself, I kept the volume static. The exception to this is the mid point of the piece where I begin to bring the volume up and down a bit to create a new momentary focal point. This was done to make the final escalation of energy in the last 20 seconds all the more jarring.

This improvisation uses two basic fingering system centered around a Concert Ab. In the tenor key, the fingerings are as follows:

System 1. (Left Hand0) B key, Low Bb // (Right Hand) F-E-D keys, Low C. Create a cycle opening and closing the G key (Left Hand) and the side Bb key (Right Hand).

System 2. Low Bb fingering: (Left Hand) B-A-G keys, Low Bb // (Right Hand) F-E-D keys, Low C. Create a cycle opening and closing the G key (Left Hand) and the side Bb key (Right Hand).

-Neil