12 Moons Solo Saxophone Project Day 352

Date: 12/18/2013

Instrument: Tenor saxophone

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

Notes:

My improvisation today is a textural exploration of a single fingering, with a constant trill in the mid register, the sound of which remains stable while the textures above it morph and evolve. This single fingering was as follows:

(Left Hand) 1, Octave, F palm key only (played with the pinky) // (Right Hand) 2. Trill the side F# constantly.

I entered the improvisation with a blast of color and immediately established a high level of energy. From this point forward I worked to create a wide array of textures that I found to be possible with this simple fingering. My reed today was particularly stiff, which contributed to the range of possible sounds. I incorporated a Concert C trill to function as a drone beneath the far denser material above it, which I feel provided a center point for the improvisation to pivot around. A great challenge for me was to maintain clarity in this trill while establishing unity between these binary worlds. This was particularly challenging when the upper textural material was less static and more of a sound exploration.

-Neil

The image “Surface of the sun” accompanying today’s post by Pierre Jules Cesar Janssen (1885).