12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 177
Date: 06/26/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)
Notes:
My improvisation today was inspired by bird songs. On a recent radio program, I listened to common and exotic bird calls slowed down with the pitches maintained. As they say about a powerful melody, a great song works at any tempo. I was particularly fascinated by my own reaction to hearing the slowed-down and natural tempo bird calls set against one other. There always seemed to be a definite connection between the two for me, though when I stepped back and thought about it, I’m fairly certain that if I were give a “blindfold” test and the various calls were mixed up, I would have a very difficult time making the connections between slow and at tempo. With this in mind, I practiced a repetitive melodic sequence–my own personal bird call, at tempos ranging from extremely slow to as fast as possible for me to play.
The differences from extremely slow to extremely fast are very apparent, but there is a subtlety to the lines that seems to be lost when comparing between tempos. Just like the bird calls I listened too, each tempo seemed to occupy it’s own sound world but was fundamentally connected to the bigger picture. I should also mention how remarkably consistent the pitch was in the bird calls with each repetition. I suppose that comes from a literal lifetime of singling the same melody over and over. The fingerings used for this 6-pitch sequence were as follows:
Pitch 1 (Concert Bb)
(Left Hand) B-A-G keys, Octave, Low B (Right Hand) F-E-D keys, Side C
Pitch 2 (Concert C)
(Left Hand) B-A-G keys, Octave, Low B (Right Hand) F-E-D keys
Pitch 3 (Concert Bb semi tone sharp)
(Left Hand) A-G keys, Octave, Low B (Right Hand) F-E-D keys
Pitch 4 (Concert Db)
(Left Hand) B-A-G keys, Octave, Low B (Right Hand) F-E-D keys, High F key
Pitch 5 (Concert C). Same as Pitch/Fingering 2
(Left Hand) B-A-G keys, Octave, Low B (Right Hand) F-E-D keys
Pitch 6 (Concert Bb semi tone sharp). Same as Pitch/Fingering 3.
(Left Hand) A-G keys, Octave, Low B (Right Hand) F-E-D keys
-Neil
The image “Life Pond” from “Series of Repetitions” accompanying today’s post by Xu Bing