Sunday evening at Victor's House

10/14/2012

In attendance:  Victor, Brad, Chris.

Opening the meeting with a couple of pieces to send Elspeth to bed:  3rd Relation and Growing Circle.

At Victor's prompting, working with a simple form with a twist:  2 bars of 5 in D minor, 2 bars in F minor, 2 bars in A-flat minor, 2 bars in C-flat minor, and repeat.  The twist is to do with the roles, which rotate with each 2 bars:  1 bass, 1 person circulating on the beat, 1 person circulating off the beat.  So, if we begin in Dmin, we have Victor on bass, Brad on the beat, and Chris off the beat.  Then, at Fmin, Brad takes the bass, Chris moves to on-beat, and Victor switches to off-beat.

Juggling the roles proves to be difficult, and the addition of unfamiliar keys throws Brad a bit too much (time goes out the window).  So we spend some time rotating roles in one key, and then bring the key changes in again after a bit.  Good work.

Victor asks Chris what he has been working on; this becomes a chance for Chris to get some one-on-one time with Victor, regarding his right hand (and the pivot, as well).  At one point, Victor plays parent again, and Chris and Brad talk a bit about guitar care.  Eventually Chris finds himself playing a couple of different guitars.

Break.  Pat Metheny in discussions.

Breaking the break, a circulation.

Following this, Victor instructs Chris to solo, as Brad and Victor circulate 4-note chords (individual notes).  Then Victor and Chris circulate (Brad soloing), and Chris and Brad circulating.  Victor observes the challenge of knowing the directionality of the melody and shifting it on the fly as the tonal colors shift in time.

A couple of runs through the Bach Fugue in C Major.  Tough with 3/7 of the parts, but we at least know where we are.

Two passes through Voices of Ancient Children, the second one more assured than the first.

Silence to close out the meeting at a surprisingly late-feeling quarter to 11.