12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 213
Date: 08/01/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: Practice room A at South Whidbey High School. Langley, WA (Whidbey Island)
Notes:
Between students this afternoon, I recorded in my teaching space at South Whidbey High School. The past several days my improvisatory focus has laid more on conceptual process with little melodicism, and I decided to try and tackle both fronts today. In this improvisation I developed two chord progressions, each with slightly different fingering systems but with a common melodic shape. In the two chord systems, written below as Sound Cycle 1 and Sound Cycle 2, I explored parallel minor and major resolution. I define them as “Sound Cycles,” because though they are definitive chord shapes, their application relayed more heavily on the creation of evolving sound scape’s rather than plainly stated chords.
I approached the improvisation with the feeling of a definitive pulse taking place at all times, but I tried to let this area evolve naturally. This included increases/decreases in tempo, areas of more dominant presence in one of the Sound Cycles over the other, and the addition of more ornamentation such as trills and grace notes, all of which affected how I would approach tempo variations.
Sound cycle 1 (total of 4 actions, with the notated pitch below being the primary melodic focal point in my mind)
Pitch E
(Left Hand) B-A keys, Octave, Palm Eb, Low Bb // (Right Hand) E-D keys, High F# key
Pitch D#
(Left Hand) B-A keys, Octave, Palm Eb, Low Bb // (Right Hand) E-D keys
Pitch G#
(Left Hand) B-A keys, Octave, Low Bb // (Right Hand) E-D keys
Pitch B
(Left Hand) B-A keys, Octave, Palm Eb, Low Bb // (Right Hand) E-D keys
Sound cycle 2 (total of 4 actions, with the notated pitch below being the primary melodic focal point in my mind)
Pitch E
(Left Hand) B-A keys, Octave, Palm Eb, Low B // (Right Hand) E-D keys, High F# key
Pitch D#
(Left Hand) B-A keys, Octave, Palm Eb, Low B // (Right Hand) E-D keys
Pitch G#
(Left Hand) B-A keys, Octave, Low B // (Right Hand) E-D keys
Pitch C (quarter step flat)
(Left Hand) B-A keys, Octave, Palm Eb, Low B // (Right Hand) E-D keys
-Neil
The image “Welcome III” accompanying today’s post by Hurvin Anderson (2004)