12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 293

Date: 10/20/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)

Notes:

This morning I woke up fairly early, gathered some wood from the shed and walked into my practice room to record. Because of the early hour, as with my recording last Sunday, there was the strict limitation of low volume. I decided to work with a phasing piece, using a single fingered actio but divide the improvisation into scope between two sound areas. I used a multiphonic chord with the following fingering to do this:

(Left Hand) 1-3, Octave, Low B // (Right Hand) 1-2-3, Low C. Throughout this improvisation I also trilled the Octave key continuously.

The first sound area involved presenting and exploring a range of pitches from the lower partials of the multiphonic up to about an altissimo C. Some of these sounds were cross-faded, such as the transition between the first pitch to the second. Other approaches included “dotting” the sound, such as the altissimo C which is presented at 1:38. The second sound area included pushing the sound colors out instead of phasing between them. With this approach I would blow into the horn with many different air flow patterns and embouchure shapes, trying to varying them with each execution. This second sound area was far more indeterminate than the first.

-Neil

The image “Untitled” accompanying today’s post by Burk Uzzle (1975).