12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 211

Date: 07/30/2013

Instrument: Alto saxophone

Location: My car, in the Madison Neighborhood East of Capital Hill. Seattle, WA

Notes:

A strange but familiar spot for me to practice has always been my car. Whether camping, stuck in a ferry boat line, or between points of travel during the day, my horn is almost always with me. I recently purchased a new car and realized today that I haven’t practiced in it yet. This afternoon I decided to ready the space by recording an improvisation that used the dead, isolated sound of the car’s interior. I recorded in a quiet neighborhood next to a shaded tree in the Madison neighborhood, East of Capital Hill. I improvised a piece that focused on cross-fading three primary areas of the horn within two separate fingerings. The fingerings were as follows:

(Left Hand) B-A-G keys, Low Bb // (Right Hand) F-E-D keys

(Left Hand) B-A-G keys, Low Bb // (Right Hand) F-E-D keys, Low Eb

While exploring sound color within the constraints of these two fingerings, I also focused heavily on developing a melodic shape. I used very little articulation, but used the pitch changes between the two chords to punctuate the movement between them. The three constraints I focused on included: 1. Lower octave multiphonic with a second wide oscillating multiphonic. 2. Two upper octave single pitches. 3. Two multiphonics in the upper register with very similar, tight oscillating tone color. The first of the two chords in no. 3 rings a very clear major chord sound.

-Neil

The image “Untitled” accompanying today’s post by Afro (Afro Basaldella) 1956