Small group meeting

Where: 40 Sargent, Somerville MA
Who: Méli, Glenn, Terry
When: 6:35 to 9:15

The three of us worked on Growing Circle, Glenn showing the others the lead line. Tea.
Next, brushing the cobwebs off the bass-line, in circulation, of JSB Invention 10. After getting the notes more or less right, we worked on dynamics, and then, on speed.
Around 9 PM, we switched gears back to Growing Circle, for a recap.

Minutes for Tuesday Feb 22nd

Where: The Hughes Residence, Somerville
Who: Glenn, Mary Beth, Martin, Mellisande, David, Victor and Dev

We began minus Dev who showed up later. We commenced the meeting counting 8th notes and looping the first section of EoTN. The basses were unable to count and so they just played. We added in the first bar of four, then finally the opening with the first 4 bars of four. Then we played the entire piece.
We then worked on the embroidery exercise once at a slower pace then at a faster rate of passing/changing. I felt the faster one was a improvement (And there was much rejoicing, Yeah!)
Dev arrived and we continued with work on Asturias, Israel, Larks Thraak, BtA and Third Relation. Victor and Glenn discussed Glenn's guitar action and related playing/guitar.
We ended with play a note/notes , trying to apply a balance of hands, head and heart.

Minutes for February 20th

Where: The Hughes Residence, Somerville
Who: Glenn, Mary Beth, David and Dev

Glenn, Mary Beth and I worked on the 16 bar exercise while waiting for Dev. Once Dev arrived, we worked on various pieces that MB knew. We worked on the Bartok piece, with Dev and I clearing up some things during the diminshed section. We moved on to Eye of the Needle, followed by The Moving Force; especially to clarify the bass in order to play it without being so dependent on Dev's cue-ing. We then worked on Asturias, mentioning that the "high" twinkly needs to wait "an apropriate amount if time" before coming in, as it signals the re-entrance of the main melody. We concluded the evening with some circulations, which I thought were quite musical at times, and also had a firm tempo to them.


DBK

(Note the date of this entry has been changed so that it shows up in the right order w.r.t. the other entries. It actually was posted on Feb 28th).

Minutes for February 13th

Attendees: Victor, David, Dev, Martin, Meli, Mary Beth (Terry and Glenn were out of town)

All there minus two. We did some Victor-led twisting and swaying, then he guided us in the Eye of the Needle meditation, I think. I nearly fell asleep on my stool a number of times…but that seemed to be a good thing. I needed some brain rest.

Then, we practiced the beats to thrak with clapping and feet (standing up). Then, with guitars, also standing up. Victor built on the song for me since I didn’t know all the parts. Breakthrough for Martin. Some progress for me. Ideally, with thrak, your feet tap at the right times AND you play at the right time. I could do the feet and rhythm standing rocking from one foot to the other, but not while sitting and just tapping my foot.

We all did pretty well. I was glad that I had listened to thrak in my car all week.

Toward the end of the meeting, we gathered and talked briefly. We tentatively set up practice and rehearsal times to get ready for our March 4th gig in Lowell. Maybe next Sunday, probably Tuesday 2/22, and then Sunday 2/28, 3/1, and 3/2.

After a long break

Where: South Boston Dojo
Who: David K, Dev R, Glenn H, Martin B, Mary Beth A H, Victor M, Terry T
When: Super Bowl Sunday

We began working on 'body beat' exercises. We were in two groupings, taking turns on and off the beat, making our way through all the 8th note sub-divisions within a 8 beat phrase.

Then, we gave play-throughs to most of our current repertoire. We were not able to play the Bach circulation, since Méli was absent. We saved working on Bicycling for another time.