12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 333

Date: 11/29/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

Before heading out for a long rehearsal, I sat down to practice for a bit this morning and was inspired to work on singing into the horn. In what eventually became today’s 12 Moons improvisation, I wanted to explore singing static pitches inside a static multiphonic chord, while opening and closing the octave key. With the particular multiphonic I chose the lower octave key was used as a necessary element of the fingering. I found while singing almost any pitch in any register, some slight pulsation in the otherwise static chords came to be. This single fingering was as follows:

(Left Hand) Fork F, 2-3, Octave, Low Bb // (Right Hand) 1-2-3, Low C. This is a very common multiphonic fingering with the following pitches (in the tenor key of Bb): Eb, Ab, Gb

I did not have a pre-determined shape for the improvisation in mind or any pitch material to be sung. My singing tended to ascend in pitch, though there were a few moments where I moved up and down in a more irregular shape–breaking this overall trend.

-Neil

The image accompanying today’s post by Willard Van Dyke (1933).