As a proof of concept I decided to record some improvisation and to ask for feedback on those improvisations.
Before working directly on the improvisations, I did some work on assimilating the techniques studied during this thesis work. I carried out a study of assimilation of the alternative positions given in Chapter 2 to be able to perform them more fluidly, but also to be able to minimise the differences in timbre with the natural timbre of the saxophone and to be able to correct the intonation with the bending technique in the most effective way. This work, however, is part of a much longer journey that I started many years ago, within which, putting bending exercises into my study routine and performing them consistently over a long period of time has been very effective.
In the improvisations I use three important makam, widely used in both turkish folk music and Ottoman classical music: Hicaz, Neveser and Karcığar.
To make the improvisation recordings, I used a darbuka track in 9/8 and added a saxophone line playing the drone. In this way, I attempted to achieve a sonic result similar to that of a typical trio formed by two zurnas (double reed aerophone) and davul (double faced bass drum). This kind of trio is widely present in the Balkan area and in Anatolia.
