June 25th meeting plugged in

Attendees: David, Victor, Glenn, MB
We were plugged in tonight to a “homemade mixer” -- as described by Victor. Started with some circulating. Then, got started on Invention No. 1. Some struggles but finally we got the first page. Then, work on Askesis, Third Relation, Eye of the Needle. Some discussion on getting the rhythms to sync up. Progress made but still a ways to go. In all cases we need to work on making the quality of each note even (so no notes pop out as different than the others in volume or tone). Of course the spacing of notes needs to be even too.
Other songs worked on for our upcoming July 7th performance: Thrak, Growing Circle, Moving Force, the Bartok piece, Bicycling to Afganistan, Asturius,
We ended with another round of Eye of the Needle and some more Invention No. 1. To continue our work on Invention No 1 for the 7th, we four decided to meet at David’s place on Thursday, July 6th from 9:30 to 10:30 AM. The big news of the night...it was David's 40th Birthday day! We really need to get the Happy Birthday song in our repertoire for such occasions.

South Boston Meeting 6/18/06

Victor, MB, David, Glenn

David arrived just as we were getting settled. Some work on the 16 bar exercise, then Third Relation. Then Askesis. Victor addressed some "hand issues." We talked about near term goals: Rehearsing for our gigs in July, some communication he has had with RF lately, possible performance venues (an art gallery in JP has offered us their space for ongoing use), and what to do with the Roundhouse in November. Victor said that he's at a point where he really needs to work on technical mastery. He also had some comments on the sort of "modeling" that can take place when one spends time with someone who has achieved that level. Eye of the Needle. With my new place in the circle, I find that I must pull my volume way back, because Victor and MB need to work out timing. Thrak, which was pretty good. MB had to leave early for a BD gig. David Victor and I worked on Intergalactic Boogie and Bicycling.

Meeting minutes - Sunday, June 4th 2006

Attendees: Victor, Glenn, David, Martin, Mary-Beth
Location: South Boston

We began by playing the 16 bar exercise at a fairly fast tempo for about 15 minutes. We put our guitars down and did some cat-pose yoga stretches and crawling around on all fours. We then did about 20 minutes of work clapping Thrak (the entire piece, with some concentrated section work); reminders given about pushing the 4 during the rock-and-roll section, and keeping the feel of the 16th note pulse. We put our guitars back on and played Third Relation, and then Larks Thrak twice. Then we played Growing Circle and The Moving Force. Next was Askesis at a fairly fast tempo and it sounded pretty good. I made the comment that I felt like we have mostly shown steady progress on this more than any other piece. We then ran Calliope, spending a little extra time on the leads playing accent picking vs. alternate picking. We then worked on Eye of the Needle a number of times, spending time working on getting the leads and burbles all locked in together. Victor had MB and Glenn switch places in the circle. After another try, Victor said to listen to the lead for the downbeat, not the basses. The final piece we worked on was Bicycling to Afghanistan. We tend to slow down during the course of the piece; Victor suggested we should increase the speed through the course of the piece by about 3 bpm (but not 10 bpm). There followed a little discussion about the possible upcoming Keith Emerson gig, and the gig with Shawn and the need for extra mid-week practices; everyone is to get their upcoming schedules to Victor.

DBK