12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 340

Date: 12/06/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

This morning I spent my practice session preparing, of all things, for a presentation of selections from the 12 Moons project thus far. By last night I was physically exhausted after several day of heavy practicing, and many hours of the day spent on the horn while teaching. It was extremely taxing to blow just about anything into the horn, but his morning I picked it up feeling renewed and physically strong. I was immediately drawn to the textures used in today’s improvisation right as the horn entered my hands for the day.

In this piece I worked with the shaping of clean, crisp articulations with a constant repetition of figures, as well as more gritty shapes incorporated within the continuous lines. I wanted to maintain a dogged persistence of the Concert E throughout, and I used this as my primary focal point during the piece. About 2/3 into the improvisation, I began slowing down the figures while maintaining the puckish, pointillist approach. I maintained a static dynamic level throughout the piece, with the more spacious dots following suit with this approach. The Concert E was rooted within two fingerings, which are notated below:

(Left Hand) 1-2-3, Octave, Low Bb // (Right Hand) 2-3, Low C. During rapid articulation, take away the Low C in the right hand to created a second fingering that pulls out more hollow-sounding pitches of a similar sound profile.

-Neil

The image “A diary of flowers” accompanying today’s post by Jim Hodges (1993).