Echo Mic
Rosalind Hall
Echo Mic
I first started looking for new sounds for my alto saxophone by making reeds out of many kinds of materials such as metal, wood, plastic, and even chocolate (which didn’t last long). The reeds produced different kinds of vibrations and forced me to discover new techniques for playing. I then began using objects in and on the bell of my alto saxophone for the same reasons.
The preparation I have spent the most time with over the last ten years is a children’s toy called an echo microphone. It is a plastic imitation microphone with a spring in the length of the tube. The spring is attached to a small cup to capture and amplify the voice. The cup is just under the microphone head, so when sung into, the microphone creates an echo effect from the vibrating spring. A kind of acoustic spring reverb. When turned upside down, the head of the microphone fits snugly in the bell of the alto saxophone. What is captivating about the effect in the saxophone is that the echo tones create a kind of feedback loop, as they are fed back into the bell while new tones are played. Without using effects pedals, this is as close as I could come to creating a continuous sound with the instrument. The preparation also creates its own place, a kind of cave in the bell, and this has allowed me to explore solo performances where I feel I am still playing with something—the cavernous space created in the horn, and the feedback tones from the spring. The tiny lapel microphones I use also fit very neatly in the top of the echo mic (where the pretend lead would be) and in the air opening on the side, meaning the actu- al space I play in doesn’t feature in the sound, only that of the echo chamber in the bell.