Like last week’s piece, I’ve got another experiment in multitrack recording recording using Audacity and my Logitech Blue Yeti USB microphone (that’s an Amazon Affiliate link; I receive a portion of any purchases made through that link at no additional cost to you). I followed a similar workflow, this time using the Voice Memo app on my iPhone to record a percussion part on one of Dr. Wife’s mixing bowls. The blow in question is made from some kind of lightweight metal and has a rubber bottom, so it made for a pretty good drums.

The four sax parts are a bit chaotic. My timing does not always align perfectly, but there is a driving sense of forward motion in the piece. The melody is built on an improvised F major (concert Ab major) arpeggio, then I had a great deal of fun bleeding in different harmonies that sometimes work beautifully, and other times add strange (but, I think, still pleasing) colors, like major seconds and such.

“Groovable” is an improvised composition for four alto saxophones and one mixing bowl in the key of concert Ab major. It consists of a lead sax arpeggiating chords in the melody, with accompanying saxophones blending harmonies freely against a lively percussive beat on the mixing bowl.

Here’s the cover, which uses a former Sunday Doodle; I think the doodle in question is called “Modern Dandy”:

I’m cooking up (no pun intended) some more sax recording experiments, which I’ll eventually compile into Säx II: Noodling (if you want a laugh and/or an insight into my early attempts at recording in my buddy’s attic studio, check out Säx from 2004).

What do you think, readers? Is it too sloppy? Or do I capture a playful chaos that renders into a glorious mishmash of rhythm and harmonic color?

Let me know—and Happy Listening!

—TPP