Guitar Circle Sundays s.2 rehearsal, 8-28-11

In attendance: Victor, Rick, Dev, Brad, David, Chris (scribe).

We're all here by 7:30. We spend about forty-five minutes setting up equipment and making sure we're ready to go for next Sunday - gear-wise, at least. Rick repairs a few of the wobblier stools and investigates the coffee station situation with Chris. We're using a different mixer than normal so setting up sound requires some extra trial and error.

A long silence precedes the guitar portion of the meeting. We begin with an improvisation, following which Victor introduces a konokol exercise which works with accelerating groups of five; this segues into a discussion of the extended present moment of melody and rhythm. At this point, we break from guitars to consider some practicalities going forward to December 11th, before turning our attention to getting David up to speed on what he needs to know for Guitar Circle Sundays. In turn, this talk leads back to guitar work with variegated circulation.

After a formal break, we experiment with a quartet set-up for a performance in-the-round, which proves to be quite viable, sonically. This is also an opportunity for a mini-recital from Dev, Chris, Rick and Brad, who have been meeting autonomously throughout the summer. Victor has some performance notes throughout, and has something in particular he would like to try. But before going there, we give Third Relation a hearing, at David's request.

Following an exhibition, Victor asks Chris to pair up with Rick and for Brad to pair up with David, and for the four to head on stage (there is a small stage in the auditorium-like room). In each pair, one of the partners is to speak only in gibberish, accompanied by gesture, while the other partner acts as translator to the other pair, who cannot understand that group's gibberish speaker. From this, the two groups are to improvise a scene to entertain the audience (during the exercise, Brad is swapped out for a heckling Dev). Much fun is had by all and worthwhile observations are shared, with a clear analogy to musical improvisation within the Circle.

We tear down, and are out before 11:00.