In attendance: Rick, Chris (scribe), Brad, Dev
We're gathered a little past 8:00. After a salutatory circulation, Chris brings up the possibility of reviving Opening with a new arrangement: four seats taking the high ostinato (as opposed to three) and two seats taking the low. For the high part (i.e. the present company), that means circulating in triplets across four seats. We begin by working with a metronome on the first bar and simply trying to "do it", but with little success. We then bring the tempo down and discuss strategies for keeping with the pattern, including counting, visualization, foot tapping, etc. For further simplification, we take time to clap the pattern without guitars, which leads to our first taste of success. When we return to guitars, we are able to circulate much more steadily, and note the value of relaxation in this process. At concert tempo, we begin to experiment with adding more material from the full piece, with and without metronome, until we have the entire first section. Here, we decide to take a short break.
We briefly return to make a pass through some current and working repertoire, including Where's the Nurse, Batrachomyomachy, Bicycling to Afghanistan, and Hommage a JSB. After a valedictory circulation, we depart around 10:45.
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