GCNE Meeting, 6-5-11

Around 7:30, and the GCNE-ers begin congregating at their old haunt and rehearsal space for their first formal meeting since the close of the Guitar Circle Sundays performance season. We have had a few weeks off to rest and assimilate our experience undertaking the performance challenge, and are ready to begin discussing the future as circlemate banter wisps about the chilly air.

When we reach the loft upstairs, we arrange ourselves in a circle according to the sequence used for GCS, as opposed to the semi-circle form usually adopted in this space, in a natural way. We have no amplification and will be playing acoustically. We begin with silence. A couple circulations to get us going, brief, and rich with accidentals and a few accidents. A couple baton cues for group chords.

Perhaps following up on some of the possible work hinted at during the prehearsal of our last performance, Victor calls the circulation pattern, "two forward, one back." We pass a note to the person two seats to our right, and that person passes to the player one seat to the left, ad infinitum. This pattern is easy for us to grasp and even takes on some velocity. To mix things up, Victor adds the stipulation that notes being passed to the right are to be played from C minor on the 5th and 6th strings, while notes going to the left will come from A minor on the first and second strings.

A new pattern: two back, three forward. This form is not as compact as the previous one, and is harder for some of the team to visualize happening. As an experiment, we attempt "glance" circulating, which involves looking at the person we are passing to in the eyes without making any sound; this is of course a very odd thing to do, but somehow progress is made with internalizing the pattern. The next game is passing words, using the circulation pattern to form peculiar sentences (this would make for a poignant performance piece on "Bloomsday").

Back to business, and we are a little more confident with the form. Now, it's: "on the downbeats, two forward, one back; on the upbeats, two back, three forward." So, a double circulation with the two forms happening concurrently. When this proves to be difficult, we set aside playing notes and instead circulate the words "down" and "up", corresponding to which form we are passing as part of, while pointing to the next person in that respective pattern. Eventually, we make a complete pass using this method, and after a brief attempt with guitars stop to talk about logistics for Sunday.

We will be taking on a different kind of performance challenge by providing music for a service at a local Unitarian church. Because some portions of the service will be of indeterminate length, we decide that improv and a handful of appropriate pieces are the way to go. Victor refreshes the parts for Invocation with the group.

We take a break, but this turns to necessary talk regarding some possible upcoming Spring projects, GCS season II, and a recording project. The discussion winds up concluding the meeting around 10:30.