In attendance: Rick, Chris (scribe), Brad, Dev
We meet at Rick's around 8:00, and enter a discussion regarding our need as a group to 'reset', to mentally step back from the activity our work in the Circle has generated for us and reconnect with what is essential.
Once we are seated with guitars, we begin with a circulation that travels forward and back and lands in an A Major tonality. Dev calls Third Relation, after which Rick calls Intergalactic Boogie Express. We make note of an important transition in Third, and discuss strategies for having command of transitions in general, including muscle memory, having a mental image, and aural anticipation. Chris has the urge for Where's the Nurse, and Brad picks Eye of the Needle, which is played without a main lead voice; Rick offers Dev a right hand pointer.
Rick presents some working parts for an original composition, beginning with a circulation exercise wherein notes are passed on a quarter note pulse, but are half notes in duration ("the idea is to pay as much attention to the end of the note as the beginning," Rick says). We do this as a quartet in G minor until Rick adds the stipulation that one of the players is to play quarter notes in the same key (but never consecutively on the same string) on the backbeat of the pulse. We take turns being in the "hot seat" of the backbeat, and change key to D Major for Dev and F Major for Brad. After this, Rick presents some "shreddy" parts for us to run through as an ensemble.
With a few minutes left before a predetermined dispersal time, Dev brings up Voices of Ancient Children, which he and Chris worked on in a prior GC course. Dev shows the "claw" part to Rick, and we make two or three attempts to run through the piece, eventually arriving at the end of the bridge. We end the meeting around 10:00.
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