12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 160

Date: 06/09/13

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

This morning I unexpectedly had to be on a 6:30am ferry back to the mainland, and found myself at my childhood house, horn in hand and fully ready for the day by 7:30. During this time I worked on quiet, controlled gestures, scales and long tones. I ended my practice session by working with three false fingerings on the tenor pitches “D-E-F." This minor gesture became the fulcrum of my improvisation today. During this piece I cycled the three pitches at a steady tempo and included the use of flutter-tonguing to punctuate the pitches. As the improvisation evolved I began slightly adjusting my lower lip position, taking in just a bit less of the thick part of the lip and balancing more on the thinner outer part. This technique allows for the core pitch to sound as well as extreme upper register chirping tones. I worked to phase between the traditional pitches and the pairing of traditionally and chirped tones. The fingerings were as follows:

Tenor pitch D: (Left Hand) Middle C, Octave // (Right Hand) Low C

Tenor pitch E: (Left Hand) Middle C, Octave // (Right Hand) F-E keys, Low C

Tenor pitch F: (Left Hand) Middle C, Octave // (Right Hand) F-E keys, Side C, Low C

-Neil

The image "Two Nudes on Purple Canvas” accompanying today’s post by Robert Beauchamp