Unconventional Approaches to the Saxophone
I was fortunate over the Summer to attend the School for Improvisational Music 2 Week Creative Intensive at the Brooklyn Conservatory in New York under the guidance of some of my favourite musicians including Ralph Alessi, Tim Berne, Tony Malaby, Michael Attias, Kris Davis and many others. The program was heavily focussed on free improvisation... Continue Reading →
"Articulation lets music "speak", determines the creation of the tone and delineates the metric relationships within the musical text"Netti, G & Weiss, M. The Techniques of Saxophone Playing, Bärenreiter 2010, p.143 Articulations on the saxophone are predominately generated through distinct uses of the tongue and diaphragm (air-pressure) - this could also extend to the idea... Continue Reading →
In this post I will discuss my experience in learning the technique of circular breathing as well as delving into some problem areas on the instrument which I faced in learning the technique. I will delve into more specific and advanced problems which I am still solving in a later post. Getting Started: There is... Continue Reading →
I was pleasantly surprised recently when I came across this piece of John Coltrane entitled "Harmonique" from his 1961 release "Coltrane Jazz" through Atlantic Records. What is interesting about the composition is that Coltrane incorporates consonant and harmonically functional multiphonics into the melody of the song. *NOTE: All references to chords/pitches are in context for... Continue Reading →
When trying to occupy unconventional/accompanying roles on the saxophone, one glaring issue arises; the duration of the sound is inevitably limited by breath. Depending on the note/register (as they require different amounts of air pressure/speed/support to maintain) my duration would range anywhere between 8 - 25 seconds. This of course isn't always a problem, not... Continue Reading →
In my attempt to allocate multiphonics into different groups and sub-groups which are useful to myself (and hopefully others) I will break them up taking the following into consideration; (i) uniformity of sound/texture, (ii) interval(s) produced, (iii) volume required, (iv) harmonic functionality etc. It is also worth noting that I am also trying to limit... Continue Reading →
Fingerings/Classifications After discovering how and why multiphonics are produced on the saxophone, the next step is to discover all the possibilities (fingerings/air pressure/volume/ timbre etc.) and then learn/classify them in a way which allows you to think about them and apply them in a musical context. In my search, I was encouraged by German saxophonist... Continue Reading →
What is a multiphonic? A multiphonic is a phenomenon where two (or more) distinctly perceivable pitches are produced simultaneously on an instrument which was built to generally only produce one fundamental pitch at a time - the saxophone being one example of such an instrument. Whilst the scope of my research does not cover in... Continue Reading →
Andrew Saragossi 