recording blog #6: tenor saxophone
Drunk dude at Berbati’s Pan: “Wow. You’ve got some guts playing sax. Hehe. Where did you get the idea to play THAT?”
Me: “Um. Yeah. I started playing in middle school.”
“Yea. Me too! Although, I had the common sense to quit when I had the chance.”
“…”
I’ve heard sax is the easiest woodwind instrument to play. Many years removed from my experience playing alto saxophone in the Binnsmead Middle School marching band in Southeast Portland, I picked up the instrument, practiced for a couple weeks, and was honking fairly effective lines for “Two Ghosts” (2007). So I’m thankful for the ease with which a sax can be manipulated. It’s not a particularly tricky device, assuming one can hear pitch and has the muscle memory to force the right air pressure into the wiggling reed. Unfortunately, that ease with which notes can be bent also makes the sax the vessel through which countless noodling solos and tacky, ear piercing notes have been uttered.
On the flip side, the sax is also a versatile instrument, with warm tones and percussive, funky, gorgeously ‘distorted’ notes well within it’s capabilities. And that’s what I’m going for when I pick up my tenor sax. I bought it while composing “Booomboxxx” (2008), and it is prominently displayed in “Hoop and Wire” (2010) as well (Oh—btw—this new disc is called “Hoop and Wire”). I love Motown. I love the strings. I love the horns. I want my sax playing to sound like the trumpets in those songs and match the funky hits that the drums make. Also, I want the parts to NOT sound anything like a cheesy 80’s ballad solo. And there it is.
I generally capture the sound coming out of the bell of my sax with my AKG 414, a condenser microphone that sounds pretty smooth on just about anything. Similar to “Booomboxxx”, “Hoop and Wire” has a few songs where the sax is a primary hook instrument, as well as several songs where it is more of a flavor in the foreground. I always record sax in the middle of the process, somewhere before percussion, vocals, and finishing touches. So, to catch up with the recording process, by the time I get to recording sax I have some drums and bass to listen to in the headphones while I blast away. These parts are usually informed by the vocal demo I sing into my phone before the recording begins. Otherwise, I might be tempted to noodle away on the sax. And we don’t need that happening…;)
Next up: More Synth.