12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 306

Date: 11/02/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

During today’s improvisation, I worked with two split-tone fingerings that each used a minor 7th interval. The first of the two fingerings used tempered tuning with the concert pitches G# (mid register) and E (upper register). The second used non-tempered tuning, with a concert G (quarter step sharp) in the middle register and a concert Eb in the upper register. These were fingered as follows:

Fingering 1. Pitches: G#/E

(Left Hand) 1, Octave // (Right Hand) 2-3

Fingering 2. Pitches: G (quarter step high)/Eb

(Left Hand) 1-2 Octave // (Right Hand) 2-3

I was interested in the beautiful timbal qualities brought out in these two fingerings by cycling open and closed keys, and well as flicking open and then closed other keys. This included the Side C, Side Bb, High F, as well as the Side F#. The first example of the “flicking” open of a key takes place about :20 into the improvisation, when I began flicking open and closed the side F# key. As the piece progressed I began gradually incorporating sound cycles into the soundscape as a more prominent feature. I also incorporated a melody into the two chords, which became a theme I repeated a number of times throughout the improvisation. The melody used the following pitches: Eb, D, B, Ab. This melody was finished with a final pitch–G (quarter step high), which was also a split tone with a concert Eb in the upper register. This final sound in the melody used Fingering 2, as acted as a bridge away from the single pitched melody back into the two split tone fingerings.

-Neil

The image “Untitled” accompanying today’s post by Charline von Heyl (2003).