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.