12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 335
Date: 12/01/2013
Instrument: Tenor saxophone
Location: Home studio in Clinton, WA (Whidbey Island)
Notes:
This afternoon I practiced out of the book “Repository of Scales and Melodic Patterns” by the great saxophonist Yusef Lateef. As is often the case, I chose one specific page and made it the focus of my practice session. This particular exercise used the B diminished scale in various melodic and rhythmic permutations, including notes groupings of 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10 tuplets. The challenge for me was to execute these passages with solid articulation, phrasing, and time. I specifically struggled moving in even time between sixteenth note groupings of 5 and 7. In trying to shift between these odd phrases, I decided to re-visit a compositional model I have explored I believe a total of 3 times now during the 12 Moons project. I tackled a partially improvised, partially composed model based off of 10 melodic sets that were combined at-will.
Previous versions of this model included the following: composed material played strictly fast, little dynamic shifting, flexibility to choose melodies at will, wide intervals at all times, and disjunct rhythms. I stayed true to some of these ideas but stretched the boundaries of others. During this piece the melodic material was very intervalic overall, but I did include more diatonic langue here. I also used more dynamic shaping from loud to soft, specifically within the same melodic gestures. Unlink my previous models, I made the 10 figures flexible in their tempo throughout the piece. Finally, I also used silence. The use of silence became a particularly important, spur of the moment improvisational shape. Near the mid point of the piece I would sporadically interject a half second or so pause between some figures. I then decided to dive head first into longer bouts of silence, and maintained the flexibility to include this at will until the piece’s conclusion.
-Neil
The image accompanying today’s post by Warburg, depicting the Magritte Museum at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Belgium, Brussels.