Victor arrives at about 7:35, and we all head inside and up to the loft. After setting up (and returning Chris's metronome to him), we begin the meeting at about 7:45, with an unspoken instruction: when ready, begin. Delicate playing.
Roughly twenty minutes later, we step into circulation work. The work is very focused around how we organize ourselves in time, and in pitch or key; one circulation that is quickly stopped provides a great example of a clearly defined motif--how might we recognize this, and respond to it? What would follow something as clearly defined as this?
Victor guides us through several exercises. The first is simple enough: sing the note that the person before you played, and then play your own note. This proves to be a little much, so we simplify it to a Cmaj pentatonic scale. After a bit, we move to any note from Cmaj, and then singing the previous note and playing our own note simultaneously.
Next, we continue down this same rough trajectory, by having one person playing a note, and then the next three attempting to play the same note in turn, with eyes closed. (Victor gets a kick out of seeing the self-satisfaction on everyone's faces when they get a note right.) Following this, we play another circulation (key center is E, with an ambiguous key), with a noticeably more cohesive feel.
Break, at about 9 or so.
Back in the circle, Victor gives us an exercise, to be used as an extension/expansion of the morning sitting. We then take another look at Morning Has Broken, and revisit the intro, as well as the first/second verse, and the first bridge. It's clear that the primary challenge is remembering all the chords (and there are a great many chords), but this can actually be more manageable by knowing how the chord sequence fits into the key signatures of this song (Dmaj and Cmaj).
To end the meeting, we revisit circulation work one more time, with an emergent key signature of C ambiguous, and ending on a high G. Silence at 10:20 p.m.
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