Began at 7:30, Glenn, Martin and Chris present. Dev arrived shortly after. Unamplified. Warmed up with Askesis and Growing Circle. Moved on to Love is Green, recapping, then working through the rest of the piece. After our first complete pass through, a break. Three more complete passes. Some work on Thrak to close.

GH

march 9 art loft

dev chris david alex victor elan
we arrived at the new earlier time. after setting up and some quick individual warm up we began our work with elan. we began with some talking about what we were do when we sit quietly just before begin, this gave elan some sense of where we are each at. he presented a sitting exercise and worked with applying the work of the exercise into the playing of the instrument. it was also suggested we take 30 seconds or so at noon to revisit this work during the day. after we finished up with elan we began a 15 minute warm up on the right hand, working at first on the 2nd primary and through the 3 note ostinato variations of the 2nd primary. we began to do section work focusing on askesis with the click track at various speeds. after running into various walls we began to look more individually at what we are doing that makes playing for extended periods of time so difficult. elan will not be at the next meeting but looks forward to a series of ongoing meetings after that.

march 2nd art loft

dev, chris, glenn, alex, victor

after the successful completion of our performance challenge, we've decided to undertake a short recording project. there was some discussion of practicalities. the pieces on the list are: flying home, askesis, passage, love is green, invention 1, lifelight, and chrysanthemum.

we worked on flying home with the click track. notes given were for bass players to play the last A before dropping down to the dmin section, be sure the first C is good loud, and that the last C is also well nailed and properly muted when returning up to the re-intros. leads should learn to also hear the phrasing of the notes at the bottom of the arpeggios. also, the piece should be easily counted by all.

askesis also saw some click track work. it was suggested to study one's relationship with the metronome regarding time feel. as an experiment we asked the basses to shift to playing slightly ahead of the beat during the 15/8 section. there were a couple of cycles of clear success in this, and it had the effect of moving the bass to the front of the soundstage. there was some discussion of what it might take to develop skill in playing in front of, or behind the beat. there were noticable open string ringing from poor use of the left hand in some of the intro and tricky part arpeggios. it's critical for recording that there be no extraneous noise, especially as we are going to be recording to open mics. again the whole piece should be easily counted by all.

Circle January 06, 2008

Location: Art Loft, Boston
Attendees: Alex, Chris, David, Martin & Victor

We began the circle around 7:30 with a sound check of the new mixing board and DI. The sound was noticeably cleaner than the old system. We ran through the repertoire for the
upcoming performance on March 16th (Not necessarily in this order):
Askesis
Third Relation
Lifelight
Asturias
Calliope
Flying Home
EoTN
Growing Circle
We too a break and Victor added a sub-woofer to the system which rounded out the bottom end nicely. Victor read a Bennett passage on the Sevenfold Work.
We ran the above pieces again and also Larks Thraak. There was discussion as to which pieces David will play on due to his schedule. Dev is currently not going to be able to play the gig. Victor said we need to bring happiness to our playing on Third Relation . He said this was active engagement without egoism so as to not speed up the piece or conversely passively engagement that slows it down. Victor commented the middle section of Third was not smooth in terms of the melodies for the leads and there was a delay in playing the D that starts (Dm7?) at the beginning of the last descending line in the middle section . The second time we ran Lifelight, we ran multiple sections multiple times. The 2nd A section was decided to be two measures with the bass and mids, and two with the mids ending on the and of four. Victor encouraged Chris to learn IBE. We finished around 10 as Alex had an early day on Monday.

loft, 9-23

alex, chris, martin, dev, david, victor

we circulated, moving attention through the limbs with each note while we waited for martin.

we made and inventory of who plays what part on 20 different pieces. which has been sent out to the group.

we made a decent tentative arrangement of driving force.

we rehearsed lifelight.

some logistics about attendance.

and that was it....

-v

9-16-7

loft, david, martin, dev, alex, chris, victor

we spent most of the meeting working on victor's new piece, final form:


C section
2 bars just bass
4 bars w/ mids
4 bars w/ fast highline

A section
2 bars all, bass drops out on the 2nd 6
2 bars highs and mids mids drop out on 2nd and-of-4
1 bar just highs highs end on the 6 mids come with pick up on the 6

C section
4 bars all (high line ends with substitution of A 1str 14 fr, C 2nd str 8 fr, A 1str 14fr for last two notes of phrase plus downbeat of A section.)

A section
1 bar lows and mids (highs drop out on the down beat)
1 bar just mids mids out on 6

3 beat rest from downbeat then



D section basses in on the 1 after the 3 beat rest
highs in with mids on the 3
4 bars 6 (or 2 of 12)

C section same as d (highs and mids hang on their chords over the downbeat of the basses until beat 3)

E section 2 bars of 6 (same deal for highs and mids re hanging)

f# section highs play four note tag (repeating last two notes of their pattern twice) after end of 3 patterns of 6 to slide up half step to join basses on the down beat of the Eb section.
mids come in ont the one with basses on Eb section.

Eb section is now one bar of 6 with everyone beginning on together on the 1, and ending on the 3 except the mids who end on the and-of-3. (which is to say basses and mids play their pattern once.)

we then return to C for 4 bars of 6. basses play an open A 3rd string on and-of- 6 and a low A on the down beat following, holding the 1 sting C from beat 6.

mids play G of the downbeat.

highs play the b on the 7th fret of the 2nd string on the last downbeat instead of their usual E.



we also worked on askesis and talked a bit more about logistics for regular performing.

9-9-7 art loft

david, chris, alex, victor.

we undertook a survey of how much repertoire we have. played through themes 3-7 and bicycling, asturius, growing circle. this much took 30minutes. currently i am assessing our known potential for regular performing

aspiration
eye of the needle
third relation
caliope
askesis
moving force
bicycling to afghanistan
growing circle
asturius
invention #1
homage to jsb
passage
chrysanthemum


driving force
flying home
victor's new piece
circulations
choose a note
embroidery

all in all enough to get us started if we could learn our parts...

a performance team would have to meet a certain level of competence. perhaps making it through one's part with one or two mistakes at worst, as this would mean that a piece might only have 14 mistakes at most..... hmmm.... well this is another thing to figure out.....

we worked on the final form for victor's new piece. which seems pretty close to done.

July 22 - All Day work in the Circle

Today we met as a group from approximately 11:30 AM until 7:00 PM at Chez Hughes. There were 8 in attendance: Victor, Dev, Alex, Chris, Glenn, Martin, David, Mary Beth clockwise around the circle.

Three points of view of the day:

Glenn
Alex
Mary Beth (July 26th Entry)

More points of view welcome...

afl

Non-comedic minutes for Sunday, June 24, 2007

Meeting attendees: Victory, Chris, Glenn, and Mary Beth

We began by singing C major together. Then, did a “sing” of C-D-C-E-C-F, etc. These exercises were done ascending and descending the scale. We seemed to have the most trouble with the E to G range, so we focused on that.

Then, we did C major in four octaves as/des with a few false starts but completed shortly.

We did Victor’s exercises: (1) reversing the direction of C major by playing a note 2X, and (2) reversing the direction of playing the scale ascending or descending by playing a triplet of the next two notes (a turn around pattern). Then we combined these two exercises.

We worked on Askesis. Victor noted that it is important to practice your part with others who play your part. We don’t do this very often in the circle. Also, it’s good to practice plugged in. We played Askesis through once and then did parts.

We worked on triads less successfully. More struggle here. But we need to have this down as part of our prep for the course in August.

We practiced Driving Force parts. We were about to work on Victor’s piece but didn’t because folks need some work on their parts.

Next time: Be prepared to do triads in the middle of the fret board.

Minutes submitted by MBAH, 7/1/07 (had the minutes done last week but it took me a while to find my blogger password)

sunday june 24

captain spaulding played by groucho, ravelli by chico.

Spaulding: What do you fellas get an hour?
Ravelli: For playing, we get-a ten dollars an hour.
Spaulding: I see. What do you get for not playing?
Ravelli: Twelve dollars an hour.
Spaulding: Well, clip me off a piece of that.
Ravelli: Now for rehearsing, we make special rate. That's-a fifteen dollars an hour...That's-a for rehearsing.
Spaulding: And what do you get for not rehearsing?
Ravelli: You couldn't afford it. You see, if we don't rehearse, we a-don't play, and if we don't play (he snaps his finger) - that runs into money.
Spaulding: How much would you want to run into an open manhole?
Ravelli: Just-a the cover charge! Ha, ha, ha.
Spaulding: Well, drop in some time.
Ravelli: Sewer.
Spaulding: Well, we cleaned that up pretty well.
Ravelli: Well, let's see how-a we stand.
Spaulding: Flat-footed.
Ravelli: Yesterday, we didn't come. (To Mrs. Rittenhouse) You remember, yesterday we didn't come?
Spaulding: Oh, I remember.
Ravelli: Yes, that's three hundred dollars.
Spaulding: Yesterday, you didn't come, that's three hundred dollars?
Ravelli: Yes, three hundred dollars.
Spaulding: Well, that's reasonable. I can see that alright.
Ravelli: Now today, we did come. That's-a (pause)..
Spaulding: That's a hundred you owe us.
Ravelli: Hey, I bet I'm gonna lose on the deal. Tomorrow we leave. That's worth about (pause)..
Spaulding: A million dollars.
Ravelli: Yeah, that's alright for me, but I've got a partner.
Spaulding: What?!

more notes from mary beth to follow.

6/10/2007 Circle Meeting - Art Loft, Boston

In Attendance: Victor, MB, David, Martin, Chris, Alex

The team arrives, makes the climb up to the 5th floor and sets up for the meeting. Some hum is in the stage-left speaker that Victor can't drive away, so we leave it as is and press on.

After tuning, we begin with an attempt at circulating the C Major scale in 4 octaves. After three unsuccessful attempts, Victor redirects us to a series of games:

- First, circulating up and down in three octaves. At any time, one of the circulators may play their note twice - this will reverse the direction of the circulation through the players. We worked through this fairly well, but it really began to become comfortable when Victor asked that we say the name of the note as we circulated. As we gained facility with this, Victor had us move on to...

- Second, same as the above, with the addition that a player could play three notes, their note, the one above it or below it, depending on the direction of the circulation, and then their note again. This would change the direction of the circulation in the scale, but not through the players. For example, playing an ascending scale, if my note were an A, I play A-B-A, then the next person would play the G below my A.

(Note taker's aside: The second game proved interesting, and there were moments where the exercise and the scale really began to click for all of us as a group. For me, experientially, these two games, while taxing, were very fun. I also witnessed where an intention had a palpable effect - in this case, when a change in circulation direction was indicated, and the guitarist looked as if to change the direction of the players. The circulation halted completely at that moment, not just because the player looked in that direction, but because the intent to go that direction was there.)

Break.

We returned after the break, and circulated in thirds up and down four octaves. We then attempted circulating triads up four octaves, but were not able to get much past the third octave. Victor noted some ways to approach these triads, particularly working across two strings, as a way to expand what is available to us on the fretboard. He also noted that this was likely the most difficult thing we would be doing in this stage of scale work, and that once this became second nature, would make the whole fretboard available. He also likened the awkwardness to that stage where we first learned the basics of the C Major scale.

We then worked some on Victor's new (unnamed) piece, at a bit higher tempo than usual - the singing quality of the piece is now beginning to come through. A (shaky) attempt at Askesis, and an incomplete pass at the Bartók Hommage concluded the meeting.

Sunday, May 6th - Art Loft

In attendance: Victor, MB, David, Martin, Glenn, Alex

The first half of the meeting was spent with circulating in C Major in 4 octaves, first in thirds then chromatically. The second half of the meeting after the break was spent circulating C Major triads in two different ways.

Some comments/observations made by Victor during this (rather intense) work:

- It would be useful in the moments where we make mistakes to observe and note the "person" that appears in that moment, such as:

The "Gotta Get It Right" Guy
The "What Was My Note Again" Guy
The "Did You Make A Mistake Or Did I" Guy
The "I Can't Have Made A Mistake" Guy
The "You Took Too Long To Pass The Note" Guy
etc.

- Victor noted that there are many "maps" of C Major, all useful, and the more we have immediately available, the less likely we are to get lost. Certain maps, when available, can ease the transition into another map. Some maps (and there are many others):

C Major chromatically
C Major in 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 7ths
C Major triad arpeggios
C Major 7th arpeggios
etc.

- Finally, Victor noted that it would be very useful to understand how we each learn. We spend much time trying to learn in a hit or miss fashion. If we understood how we learned, we could use that to improve the speed and clarity with which we learn something.

afl

april 22nd and earthday at m.i.t

further rehearsal at the art loft. no terry or glenn but everyone else. running through the repertoire and ideas that might further the length of our 3rd annual show at m.i.t. for earth day.

the show went for the most part quite well, and had an extremely strong beginning. there were some things that detracted, partly personal preparation, partly the lack of consistent full group rehearsals. in an ideal world we'd have 3 full group rehearsals to gel a group. in this instance we had one and it was about 3 weeks before the gig, and one member only made one or two rehearsals at all.

still the show was one of our strongest, and the woman who runs the student center at m.i.t. so likes us that she is looking at having us back for other events during the year as well!

-victor

4/15/2007 - Art Loft

In Attendance: Victor, Glenn, Dev, Chris, Alex

The team arrives in the deluge of the N'oreaster and begins to set up. Glenn's guitar is not cooperating (bad battery/connection), we abandon amplification and move to a circle.

We begin with some work on circulating C Major. After several attempts, Victor works us through the scale in 6ths (as there are 5 of us...). We attempt a final circulation after this work, and while it is more confident, we ultimately do not manage to get through the whole thing.

Work for the evening on the following pieces, adjusting parts for the members present as needed:

Eye of the Needle - three times through
Third Relation - some mistakes and detail work to be done, particularly on transitions
Askesis - 4 to 1 in favor of the basses, more detail work required here for the sections, and some corrections made for Chris on his part

A break, in which Victor shares a dream...

Thrak - some extensive work here, particularly on the 5 vs. 7 section. A couple of instances where the pattern established itself well, but didn't quite maintain
Asturias - Once through with the team

afl

3-25-07

alex, chris, glenn, martin, david, mb, victor

warmed up on v's new piece. decided we are doing the earth day show for the 3rd year. worked on eye of the needle (which is pretty much ready), third relation (which needs attention to transitions especially in the alternate ending lines, and attention to appropriate dynamics), asturius (which needs attention in transitions to twinkles), passage which needs to be practiced at home to the midi file) , invention #1 (which needs stronger minds), growing circle (practice), larks (no sprained wrists) thrak (needs personal practice).

we spent some time on cmaj up 4 octaves. and then playing each note as group up and down all octaves in sequence.

3-11-07 art loft

david glenn martin mb dev victor

work covered: circulation. third relation. loop of alternate ending amin a dmin melodies. invention #1 looped 3 times in a row. passage. growing circles. some points touched. playing on and ahead of the beat. playing lightly though amplified. playing from the center of your instrument's sound. keeping your place in an 11 beat circulation at a brisk tempo. coming in on sections lightly or heavily as content demands.

this work was towards our appearance at the old cambridge baptist church next sunday.

2-25-7 art loft

david, glenn, MB, martin, victor

we started off doing some click track work to warm up. sections of 3rd relation, first Amin to Dmin with alternate endings, then just Amin then just the Second variation of the Amin section. we started at 78 bpm, but then moved back to 74 bpm.

this was very challenging for the group.

we worked on the new circulation piece, but david didn't bring his sheet for this, and after a time we found that we didn't know the piece well enough to proceed.

we played through invention #1 a few times, there were some good moments, but on the whole we still don't have it in the hands.

we played through growing circle. once slowly and once quickly.

we worked on eye of the needle. there is some ambiguity about where the beat falls. to really clarify how this is we played through with the click track, and then in particular worked on the Dmin section with the click.

we are asked to be able to tap our foot, place the vocal count of the beat, and play the note precisely at the same moment as the wieght of the attack of the click or metronome.

we are not meeting next week, though hopefully will meet twice the week after that, in preparation for the sevice at the old cambridge baptist church.

2-18-7 art loft

david, victor, and mb...

this was in many ways more of a private lesson with david, though mary beth showed up at the end too. we did discover the importance of holding the pick in the middle of the pick. we also worked some on counting the lead line of askesis as 7 bars of 6.....

2-11-7 art loft.

david mb victor.

work began with speed drills on the A string and then adding the D string. for a moment we touched on adding a 1234 fingering with the left hand. we worked on 3rd relation. and on askesis. we looked at an exercise involving counting the main melody in 7 bars of 6. we looked at taking numerous sequential approaches to the body and hands in practicing. we worked a little on the new piece. we spent a little time trying to figure out why it sounds so diffent if victor is playing with mary beth and david or not.

from previous correspondence this week:


MB made a couple of comments as we were driving home that I think had merit:

*We should begin each session with some calisthenics, for perhaps a half hour. (My suggestion would be to take turns leading this.)

*We should play each piece of repertoire that is currently "active" at least once per session.

So if our sessions are two and a half hours long: the first half hour would be warm-up, the next hour would be playing repertoire that we already know, and the last hour would be for working on new material, or going back over things that need work.

MB is right for the most part. especially the full group pieces. i pulled us off that track last night because it would be much more productive for us to wait one more week for work martin and i are doing to settle in and it gave us an opportunity to get to your thing. managing the few hours we have together is always a challenge for me as there is so much to tackle. every choice is also an exclusion. while you are gone we will start up preparations for ocbc, and usually my focus turns to the whole repertoire as a performance approaches, (and towards technique, group interaction and currently group specific composition during the in between time). i'm not sure why, but i have a feeling that we are going to be heading into a time where we perform more regularly and possibly in front of more people soon enough. and there is also a performative aspect of preparing for the circulation project.

some nights i have found that we are too tired at the end of the night to accomplish working on new material.

and ideally of course people would show up to the circle having already practiced that day, fairly warmed up....

so generally her suggestion is not far from what i hope to implement depending on what mode we are headed.

at the beginning i look for the piece or exercise that will warm us up for what our state that particular night is. please bear in mind though, that this might be something challenging our interactivity, or ability to hold a pattern in our mind (aspects which we are equally weak at), as well using our hands.

and then to address repertoire or new material as our energy, time and performance commitments necessitate.


my hope and to some extent expectation is that we are keeping these pieces alive on our own even if they are not being played/worked in the group. it is a good idea to have a list and at least a few times a week (preferably every day) be checking to see how everything is. putting the tough ones on the front burner. ideally, there should be no ground lost if, say, we focus on thrak in november and then play it again in february.... also usually, a piece should be focussed on until it is completely mastered, right now the pieces for that is 3rd relation and askesis. (we still have only momentarily played eye of the needle, as our last effort to vocalize the bass line showed us)

unless/until we move to two meetings a week and/or everyone starts coming for regular private lessons, this kind of personal maintenance will be key, especially if we are to take the circle to next level.

another facet of this is that we have rather different weaknesses in our playing. when going through the repertoire we need to be attentive that we are working the thing the group needs us to work on, and not on what our habitual thinking of what that is.

i probably should iterate that there is a shift taking place because of the strides we have made up to now. and it means that the way that we each have worked has to be slightly reorganized. it might mean working more, but also it means just this kind of clarification. our needs are shifting.

for my part it is crucial to get this kind of input. one way or another.....

aspiration
third relation
askesis
eye of the needle
hommage a jsb
invention #1
growing circle
calliope
bicycling to afghanistan
larks/thrak
chrysanthemum
moving force
asturius
C maj up and down the neck.

2-4-7

the usual 5.

work began on invention #1 until marting showed up. mostly repetition towards competence of parts. when we know our notes it works. further work on the new piece as a warm up, and then work on circulation#1 (working title) again, the larger challenge shems to be continuity of focus... everyone seems quite overworked. we played 3rd relation twice and askesis. glenn presented his approach to fast picking, to a speed of 152 bpm we explored loose wrist shaking, even tapping starting with right hand, starting with left hand tapping side of hand, scraping with the pick, brush picking, picking. afterwards we tried the new piece again , 3rd relation one last time.