In attendance: Rick, Brad, Chris.
Rick is first to arrive; some discussion about some current circle topics (as well as the interview that Victor, Dev, and Brad gave the night before) over coffee and cannele. With Chris's arrival, we set to work.
An opening circulation, beginning in A-flat Majorish and ending in A minor. A short improvisation follows.
Rick suggests a simple but interesting strategy for circulation: whoever begins a circulation can, at any point, play a note out of turn, to create a "double-stop" with whoever is playing at the same time. That person then begins the next pass around the circle, with the same option to double-stop when they like. In a three-person circle, this is fun and sounds quite musical; it'll be interesting to see what happens in a larger group.
Chris suggests some more work with C Major tetrachords, and with circulating them. Instead of 3 octaves, we stick to the middle 4 strings, with multiple passes up and down. An off-the-cuff remark about singing at the same time results in us repeating the process while singing our note (vocal octave of our choice). This is really useful, and Brad notes that when we miss our note on the guitar, we never sing the right note (and usually aren't even able to hold a pitch). This leads to a short discussion on our various strategies and approaches for mentally hearing notes as we play. Some more of the same circulation work with the diminished scale (half-whole in G) across the fretboard.
Some extended discussion about George Russell's Lydian Chromatic theory, and about horizontal vs. vertical harmony. High-falutin' stuff.
Leading from the diminished scale, it only seems appropriate to pay a visit to Batrachomyomachy. Following the first run, Brad asks to try it again, and switches guitars with Chris. Having been edified, guitars are returned to their respective owners.
Rick asks to be shown the rest of the lead part for Growing Circle; Chris runs him through this. A full run through, with a couple of starts and stops for clarification. From here, we pay a visit to Bicycling to Afghanistan; we have no high lead, but Rick has just finished learning the mid-lead, and wants to begin ironing out his own part. It's a little empty-sounding, but enough information is available to run down the parts and help clarify some parts for Rick.
Another piece revisited is Blockhead. Brad attempts the Bert part, with Chris and Rick reprising their Paul and Hideyo roles, respectively. A bit of clarification of the arrangement, and other arrangements from others. A mention of topping out of abilities results in a pretty good discussion about the nature of pushing our abilities.
Rick asks if he might hear Hommage. Chris and Brad oblige several times over, with some useful direction from Rick.
A final circulation to end the afternoon, and Rick and Chris retreat into the early darkness.
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