Guitar Circle Sundays #15, 4-24-11

Brad, Chris, Rick and Dev are meeting at Brad's apartment (about a mile from the space) prior to the regular performance tonight for group work on Eb pentatonic major. Group scale practice in this context tends to be much different than individual scale practice, and has a variety of benefits.

Our primary material this afternoon is the said scale beginning in the third position, with three notes occurring on each string. Brad, Chris and Rick get warmed up circulating this sequence while awaiting Dev's arrival.

Dev is briefed on the work and our strategies for approaching it, and joins us to take it further. Our aim is fluency in the pattern from multiple possible perspectives (e.g. Brad beginning, Rick beginning), and we try different methods to get there:

* saying the scale degree of the note that we play (e.g. one, two, etc.);
* saying the name of the note we are playing;
* listening to the progression of the scale from a musical standpoint to determine where we are.

Each of these has different strengths and limitations and bring out different discrepancies in understanding (scale structure knowledge, fretboard knowledge, etc). Our last exercise is to circulate the pattern as quickly as possible; this produces a curious qualitative difference in our playing. But faster than you can say blood cake, we are off to Spontaneous Celebrations to help set up for tonight's Guitar Circle Sundays.

At the space, we are running a little late, but are otherwise okay. We have set up to record once again. We even manage to find time to run through The Sunken Cathedral.

After last week, we are conscientious about keeping the performance shorter than an hour. Some of the scale work is peeking through the imrpovs. The GCNE calls its own encore, an Easter stomp between bunny and Chris that has the whole group hopping into a sanguine send-off (no doubt to the piquant delight of Dev).

We make time to rehearse after the guests depart. At Dev's suggestion from last week, we play through The Sunken Cathedral a number of times in succession, and count it as well (which is making a big difference in our timing). Although we had thought to do this without much talking, we are not quite there yet, and somewhat lengthy forums occur between readings.

Also on the chopping block are Intergalactic Boogie Express and Opening, both of which pose 3-against-2 challenges for the group, as well as others. We are finishing up by 11:00.