12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 169

Date: 06/18/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Performance hall at Chief Sealth High School. Seattle, WA

Notes:

Today I felt like exploring color in my sound, held within a tight range of the horn. On 06/16/2013 I used a 3 figure gesture, the 3rd of which had a specific fingering that created a minor third chord. On that day I used this chord in a fixed, block position without any kind of alteration of it’s overall sound. Today I decided to re-visit this chord and focus more on ornamentation. The fingering used was as follows:

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

I had a brief period of access to the performance hall at Chief Sealth this morning before beginning my teaching day. I used this time to create a very focused atmosphere with this fingering. I worked to create melodic and harmonic themes, adding and taking away specific keys, including the High F, Side C, Fork F, and the momentary removal of the Palm Eb key. I continuously referred back to a melodic figure with a much slower tempo and pace of action than the work being explored around it. The dichotomoy between density of notes and tempo became a recurring theme as I worked on this improvisation.

-Neil

The image “Friedrichstrasse Skyscraper Project, Berlin-Mitte, Germany, Exterior perspective from North accompanying today’s post by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1921)