Victor, Rick, Dev, Brad, and Chris (scribe). Location: the gymnasium of Thacher Montessori School. We load in equipment and begin making decisions about where to set up, how to arrange the group and what mics to use to achieve a good sonic balance on the recording. There is some creativity and a lot of trial and error involved in this process; Dev takes some pictures of the final arrangement, and the other players aid him by committing their own places to memory.
Then, testing the water with some actual recording. Eye of the Needle is the first piece up to bat, then two or three takes of Third Relation, Where's the Nurse and Growing Circle. In between and to wrap things up we attempt some improvisation, with the suggestion to 'just have fun' being made for the last one of the night. We tear down and are out by 11:00.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
small group meeting, Rick's basement, 7-19-11
Rick, Dev, Brad and Chris (scribe). We loosen up with circulation and improvisation, and dive into the work of marching and playing Eye of the Needle. We do three takes: first, at 66 BPM, clockwise in a small circle; then again at 63 BPM; and finally at the same speed while counting the bars; observations are shared between each take. Dev suggests we try this approach with Askesis at 88 BPM, which we do once. We have a lot of fun and get some useful observations from the team.
After a short break, we are seated again and venture to practice The Sunken Cathedral via a recording (made by Rick) which fills in the parts of tonight's absent players while providing an accented click. Rick puts the recording on a set of surround sound speakers and we play along with it once, and share thoughts afterward.
We give Growing Circle a quick hearing without a click, and then Where's the Nurse. Third Relation gets metronome treatment, and we play through it twice, the second time with some suggestions from Dev. We talk a little about our next meeting on Sunday, and depart around 10:00.
After a short break, we are seated again and venture to practice The Sunken Cathedral via a recording (made by Rick) which fills in the parts of tonight's absent players while providing an accented click. Rick puts the recording on a set of surround sound speakers and we play along with it once, and share thoughts afterward.
We give Growing Circle a quick hearing without a click, and then Where's the Nurse. Third Relation gets metronome treatment, and we play through it twice, the second time with some suggestions from Dev. We talk a little about our next meeting on Sunday, and depart around 10:00.
Monday, July 18, 2011
small group meeting, Rick's basement, 7-17-11
The first GCNE-related gathering after a two week hiatus. We have been looking seriously at doing an EP length recording over the summer, and have season two of Guitar Circle Sundays coming up in September.
Chris arrives at Rick's shortly before 8:00 and the two chew the cud before Dev and Brad roll in. Unfortunately, circumstances have prevented a needed full group meeting, but the work of the smaller group (although not well-defined at this point) supports the larger circle in subtle and significant ways.
A preliminary improvisation is the way to begin, which develops from a simple circulation into a sympathetic improv that stretches the guitarists' tonal and textural palettes. Following this keynote, Rick calls for a recital of Bicycling to Afghanistan. This piece has been out of the current repertoire since October, and is challenging for the group to work up on the fly. They are not able to make it all the way through once, and opt to work on something more manageable and to come back after warming up (maybe on a different day); Where's the Nurse fits the bill, and is also under consideration for recording.
There is some accompanying discussion to the Nurse takes, and then some talk regarding the upcoming weeks and how best to use available time going into the second season.
There was a curious amount of speeding up in the quartet's (already too brisk for comfort) takes of Bicycling and Nurse, so a metronome is employed for the next portion of rehearsal. First up is Flying Home, and interesting discrepancies and psychological experiences occur for the players as they play against the click. To push it, they take it again at concert tempo, which is much faster than the GCNE plays the piece as a group. After this, Askesis at its written speed seems very doable, and they do it, taking extra time to loop a specific section with standout unsteadiness. Dev pinpoints where the time is slipping, and the players go around individually playing their loop and receiving pointers. The last few minutes are spent on two takes of Eye of the Needle, which turns out to be strangely difficult to play against a click.
Dev has a conference call and the chaps part ways, scheduling another small group meeting during the week.
Chris arrives at Rick's shortly before 8:00 and the two chew the cud before Dev and Brad roll in. Unfortunately, circumstances have prevented a needed full group meeting, but the work of the smaller group (although not well-defined at this point) supports the larger circle in subtle and significant ways.
A preliminary improvisation is the way to begin, which develops from a simple circulation into a sympathetic improv that stretches the guitarists' tonal and textural palettes. Following this keynote, Rick calls for a recital of Bicycling to Afghanistan. This piece has been out of the current repertoire since October, and is challenging for the group to work up on the fly. They are not able to make it all the way through once, and opt to work on something more manageable and to come back after warming up (maybe on a different day); Where's the Nurse fits the bill, and is also under consideration for recording.
There is some accompanying discussion to the Nurse takes, and then some talk regarding the upcoming weeks and how best to use available time going into the second season.
There was a curious amount of speeding up in the quartet's (already too brisk for comfort) takes of Bicycling and Nurse, so a metronome is employed for the next portion of rehearsal. First up is Flying Home, and interesting discrepancies and psychological experiences occur for the players as they play against the click. To push it, they take it again at concert tempo, which is much faster than the GCNE plays the piece as a group. After this, Askesis at its written speed seems very doable, and they do it, taking extra time to loop a specific section with standout unsteadiness. Dev pinpoints where the time is slipping, and the players go around individually playing their loop and receiving pointers. The last few minutes are spent on two takes of Eye of the Needle, which turns out to be strangely difficult to play against a click.
Dev has a conference call and the chaps part ways, scheduling another small group meeting during the week.
Friday, July 1, 2011
June 16-30, GCNE Small Group Recap
Just a recap of what the ancillary group within GCNE has been up to:
-Reviewing various pieces of repertoire, including The Sunken Cathedral, Askesis, Third Relation, Growing Circle, Eye of the Needle, Calliope.
-Plenty of improvisation
-Presenting of an arrangement of a theme from Super Mario Bros 3 by Chris Paquette
-Presenting of an original from Rick McCarthy
-R & D on a theme from Brad
-Revisiting an exercise that was used on the Atlanta 2003 Level III course
-Plenty of coffee
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