Attending: Rick, Dev, Brad, Chris, Victor, Scott
Dev and Scott are each running a bit late, so the meeting begins with Victor leading a simple warm-up: playing Flying Home, but only playing one bar of each section before moving to the next. The tempo is set to "slowish", and the direction is for light and equal touch, and very staccato. Three runs through, with the exercise establishing itself, and then moving to a slightly faster tempo. Two more runs, and then we are fairly close to performance tempo, with one or two more runthroughs.
Moving to Calliope, with the same approach, but we have to reconfigure the sections to figure out what the bar counts will be. This ends up becoming:
- half of the intro
- 2 bars of CMaj
- 2 bars of EMaj/C#Min
- 2 bars of CMaj
- The entirety of the "Chinese" section,
and then the same for the second half of the chart, subbing the bars of EMaj/C#Min with DMin.
We begin in roughly the same fashion: a slowish tempo, and gradually increasing to looping at concert tempo. Enough work comes out of this that we find ourselves really digging in and refining different parts of this; this is also a challenging enough piece that we begin to tire, though this is also because this moves from becoming a warmup to a good 40 minutes of intensive work. Dev arrives during this time, and we fold him into the proceedings. Scott comes in as well, and we break about the time he shows up, as we've been working for some time.
Post break, there's a bit of discussion of work that Dev, Chris, and Brad did during the previous meeting, and what the next push might need to be. Dev reveals that he might have a few ideas, and the discussion gets a little tangential; it comes back, though, and Dev suggests that we film ourselves tonight, to see where we are from a visual standpoint. Rick has brought a camera for this, and we quickly set the room.
With camera now running, we choose to do the whole bit, with an entry from the hallway, and then play a short set.
Eye of the Needle
Circulation
Voices of Ancient Children
Where is the Nurse?
Improv
Flying Home
After Flying Home, we decide to stop here and watch the footage, so that Chris will have enough time to see this and then head home.
Lots of comments as we watch the footage; some of the moments are genuinely funny ("I look like a prairie dog!"), but there is some good music that happens. There are also some moments that are clearly instructive. Dev's general impression is that we look better than he had expected, but there is also a general feeling that we're still moving a bit as six disparate people, and not quite as a group. There is some discussion about how to work with this, as well as some of the necessary musical points that need to be made.
As we're tearing down, there's a bit of discussion about bringing Fugue no. 1 from the Well-Tempered Clavier back into the fold; Chris has reconfigured this as simply 4 voices playing 4 parts. Parts are assigned, and there is a promise to e-mail measure assignments for next week. Some post-meeting discussion and joking, and we all head into the night.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Brad's House, 01-22-2014
Attending: Brad, Dev, Chris
Chris arrives first, a few minutes ahead of Dev. Down through the basement, and up the back to the top floor; as Chris is inspecting the new place and situating himself, Dev arrives. A bit of preemptive chatting, and some espresso for Brad and Dev. Sitting down roughly 6:25ish.
Opening circulation, leading to a spirited and adventurous improv. Afterward, Dev mentions wishing we'd recorded it, but that's the nature of spirit of the moment. He also notes that it's often easier to hear and work when one only has to hear three people, instead of six, but that's the challenge of a larger group.
Moving to calisthenics, Brad asks to lead these. Working with the same First Primary principles as the other day, we work with 'Developing Variations' of these (inspired by correspondence with Tony G), and doing this on the fly. Simply put, the formula is simply to take a permutation of the First Primary, and instead of working with the pair-hi-lo formula, to simply move the first note of a sequence to the back of a sequence. Thus:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4
2 - 3 - 4 - 1
3 - 4 - 1 - 2
4 - 1 - 2 - 3
This becomes more difficult with the less intuitive permutations. (See the comments below for the two complete sets we work through.) Challenging stuff.
Following this, we find ourselves moving into a discussion about melody, how developing variations is an extension of contrapuntal technique, as well as the twelve-tone method, and how even some of the more adventurous serialism often has a melodic side. A surprising and interesting conversation.
Moving on to repertoire, and notably lacking most of the circle, we run through Voices of Ancient Children, with a pretty straightforward reading of the piece. Dev then suggests that we each learn the melody and the basics of the counting (Chris typically plays the 'pulse', and Brad plays the 'claw'). We then take an opportunity to each be reminded of the other parts, and then play through twice more, switching parts as necessary (Dev 'claw', Chris 'melody', Brad 'pulse'; Dev 'pulse, Chris 'claw', Brad 'melody').
A break with some conversation, and Brad tending to necessities in the house.
Back in the circle, and another circulation and improv. Even more spirited, with many different spaces, and a cued ending.
We go over the list of other potential pieces that we have listed for this project, and choose to bring out a couple of old ones to take a look at them: Morning Has Broken, and Bicycling to Afghanistan.
Morning needs to be seriously dusted off, and we spend several minutes remembering the different variations in each verse. One aborted run, and then one full one with a reboot in the middle. This will need work.
Bicycling is much the same. A few minutes of reviewing bits, a halfrun, and then a full run. Could be dropped, could be kept--at this point, it's up in the air, but it's good to look at them. The consensus is that the project is about performing with quality, but there is also an acknowledgment that as we continue to bring quality to our playing, that quality will spread around to the rest of the music we're approaching.
With this, Brad notes that it's probably best to call it a night, out of respect to the neighbors. There is a little more discussion, some packing up, and Chris and Dev head off into the frigid night.
Chris arrives first, a few minutes ahead of Dev. Down through the basement, and up the back to the top floor; as Chris is inspecting the new place and situating himself, Dev arrives. A bit of preemptive chatting, and some espresso for Brad and Dev. Sitting down roughly 6:25ish.
Opening circulation, leading to a spirited and adventurous improv. Afterward, Dev mentions wishing we'd recorded it, but that's the nature of spirit of the moment. He also notes that it's often easier to hear and work when one only has to hear three people, instead of six, but that's the challenge of a larger group.
Moving to calisthenics, Brad asks to lead these. Working with the same First Primary principles as the other day, we work with 'Developing Variations' of these (inspired by correspondence with Tony G), and doing this on the fly. Simply put, the formula is simply to take a permutation of the First Primary, and instead of working with the pair-hi-lo formula, to simply move the first note of a sequence to the back of a sequence. Thus:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4
2 - 3 - 4 - 1
3 - 4 - 1 - 2
4 - 1 - 2 - 3
This becomes more difficult with the less intuitive permutations. (See the comments below for the two complete sets we work through.) Challenging stuff.
Following this, we find ourselves moving into a discussion about melody, how developing variations is an extension of contrapuntal technique, as well as the twelve-tone method, and how even some of the more adventurous serialism often has a melodic side. A surprising and interesting conversation.
Moving on to repertoire, and notably lacking most of the circle, we run through Voices of Ancient Children, with a pretty straightforward reading of the piece. Dev then suggests that we each learn the melody and the basics of the counting (Chris typically plays the 'pulse', and Brad plays the 'claw'). We then take an opportunity to each be reminded of the other parts, and then play through twice more, switching parts as necessary (Dev 'claw', Chris 'melody', Brad 'pulse'; Dev 'pulse, Chris 'claw', Brad 'melody').
A break with some conversation, and Brad tending to necessities in the house.
Back in the circle, and another circulation and improv. Even more spirited, with many different spaces, and a cued ending.
We go over the list of other potential pieces that we have listed for this project, and choose to bring out a couple of old ones to take a look at them: Morning Has Broken, and Bicycling to Afghanistan.
Morning needs to be seriously dusted off, and we spend several minutes remembering the different variations in each verse. One aborted run, and then one full one with a reboot in the middle. This will need work.
Bicycling is much the same. A few minutes of reviewing bits, a halfrun, and then a full run. Could be dropped, could be kept--at this point, it's up in the air, but it's good to look at them. The consensus is that the project is about performing with quality, but there is also an acknowledgment that as we continue to bring quality to our playing, that quality will spread around to the rest of the music we're approaching.
With this, Brad notes that it's probably best to call it a night, out of respect to the neighbors. There is a little more discussion, some packing up, and Chris and Dev head off into the frigid night.
Monday, January 20, 2014
Rick's House, 01-19-2014
Attending: Rick, Dev, Chris, Scott, Brad
Dev and Brad arrive to Rick's first, with Dev offering consolation for the Pats' loss. A little generic conversation regarding the AutoTune culture. Scott arrives next, shortly followed by Chris. A little more chatting, and then down to business.
In the circle, Dev takes on calisthenics. The directive is to cycle through the permutations of the First primary while ascending and descending the neck, with one permutation per fret. Cycling through is done via the Tony G method of pairs-hi-lo:
With 4 digits (1 2 3 4), one takes one pair of digits, and then takes the remaining two digits and adds them in hi-lo or lo-hi, depending on the permutation. With this, all permutation of the first finger would be:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4
1 - 2 - 4 - 3
1 - 3 - 2 - 4
1 - 3 - 4 - 2
1 - 4 - 2 - 3
1 - 4 - 3 - 2
And so on. With the metronome at 72, we take our first pass at it. A break down somewhere in the middle, so we reset and come back down. A second pass shows that we may have made a mistake, and a third pass confirms that we made a mistake but fixed it the second time round. Several useful observations, most of which seem to center around 'getting back on the horse as fast as possible'.
Moving on to repertoire, a bit of discussion about what we had worked on the previous week, and the week before that. Eye of the Needle, sans a primary lead. A couple of very minor blips, but otherwise quite good. Voices of Ancient Children. One false start, and then one good start, with a half-intentional tempo push in the intro from Rick and Brad; both acknowledged that it was a bit too much, but that it had felt a hair slow, and so the tempo got notched up a bit. Flying Home, which also got a goosing; this one benefits from constant oiling.
To the current three. Where is the Nurse? One runthrough. Dev asks Brad and Scott to please play through the part, to which Scott replies that he still hasn't been able to learn the entire bass part. Brad and Scott set to working on the bass soli intro, specifically bars 13-16 (the F section). As they work on this, Dev takes Chris and Rick into another room for spot work in the leads. Brad makes sure to point out to Scott, as much as for himself, that learning the counting for this piece is crucial, especially in this section.
After maybe 10 minutes of this, Dev checks in, and then the leads come back in. A full runthrough of the piece again, with a very confident Scott to boot. Good stuff.
A bit of a bathroom break, and we move on to Calliope. Largely touching on the work from the previous week, with some tempo surprises from Rick built in as well. The "Chinese" section gets some needed attention, and there is a reminder to relax during work on the intro.
Finally, some work on Asturias, which primarily focuses on the twinkle section: what the three twinkles are, the basic structure, what needs to stay and what doesn't, and a note about allowing the spaces to breathe (my words). One play through, with some clear adapting of instructions, but some nice music happening as well.
A final circulation turns to an improvisation which goes through several different areas in the space of 5 minutes. We miss the ending by about 12 seconds, and Dev brings this up, but otherwise there are some good moments.
All are on the road by about 9:45ish.
Dev and Brad arrive to Rick's first, with Dev offering consolation for the Pats' loss. A little generic conversation regarding the AutoTune culture. Scott arrives next, shortly followed by Chris. A little more chatting, and then down to business.
In the circle, Dev takes on calisthenics. The directive is to cycle through the permutations of the First primary while ascending and descending the neck, with one permutation per fret. Cycling through is done via the Tony G method of pairs-hi-lo:
With 4 digits (1 2 3 4), one takes one pair of digits, and then takes the remaining two digits and adds them in hi-lo or lo-hi, depending on the permutation. With this, all permutation of the first finger would be:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4
1 - 2 - 4 - 3
1 - 3 - 2 - 4
1 - 3 - 4 - 2
1 - 4 - 2 - 3
1 - 4 - 3 - 2
And so on. With the metronome at 72, we take our first pass at it. A break down somewhere in the middle, so we reset and come back down. A second pass shows that we may have made a mistake, and a third pass confirms that we made a mistake but fixed it the second time round. Several useful observations, most of which seem to center around 'getting back on the horse as fast as possible'.
Moving on to repertoire, a bit of discussion about what we had worked on the previous week, and the week before that. Eye of the Needle, sans a primary lead. A couple of very minor blips, but otherwise quite good. Voices of Ancient Children. One false start, and then one good start, with a half-intentional tempo push in the intro from Rick and Brad; both acknowledged that it was a bit too much, but that it had felt a hair slow, and so the tempo got notched up a bit. Flying Home, which also got a goosing; this one benefits from constant oiling.
To the current three. Where is the Nurse? One runthrough. Dev asks Brad and Scott to please play through the part, to which Scott replies that he still hasn't been able to learn the entire bass part. Brad and Scott set to working on the bass soli intro, specifically bars 13-16 (the F section). As they work on this, Dev takes Chris and Rick into another room for spot work in the leads. Brad makes sure to point out to Scott, as much as for himself, that learning the counting for this piece is crucial, especially in this section.
After maybe 10 minutes of this, Dev checks in, and then the leads come back in. A full runthrough of the piece again, with a very confident Scott to boot. Good stuff.
A bit of a bathroom break, and we move on to Calliope. Largely touching on the work from the previous week, with some tempo surprises from Rick built in as well. The "Chinese" section gets some needed attention, and there is a reminder to relax during work on the intro.
Finally, some work on Asturias, which primarily focuses on the twinkle section: what the three twinkles are, the basic structure, what needs to stay and what doesn't, and a note about allowing the spaces to breathe (my words). One play through, with some clear adapting of instructions, but some nice music happening as well.
A final circulation turns to an improvisation which goes through several different areas in the space of 5 minutes. We miss the ending by about 12 seconds, and Dev brings this up, but otherwise there are some good moments.
All are on the road by about 9:45ish.
Monday, January 13, 2014
Thacher Music Room, 01-12-2014
Attending: Chris, Dev, Victor, Rick, Brad
Opening the meeting at 7:15 with a circulation that moves to improv. Clouds, a few blues licks, and some different areas explored.
After a pause, Calliope gets called, but is held for a moment while we retune. Brad counts off, roughly around performance tempo, and it takes off from there. Victor directs us to play it again at the same tempo, which we do.
Our work moves to King Metronome, and we play with a couple of different tempi, trying different things out, but we really dig in when Victor begins to have us dissecting the intro into beats, looping sections with rests, and really focusing on relaxing in the rests. Moving from the first 5 notes of the intro (1 whole beat plus a downbeat), followed by a rest, and extending up to 9 notes, then 3 full beats, and then the entire intro.
The same thing comes about with the main melody in C. This is potent work.
A break.
Digging back in, and then playing the entire piece several more times. This is also looking to be our homework for the week.
Some final words for the night, and we take our leave around 9:30.
Opening the meeting at 7:15 with a circulation that moves to improv. Clouds, a few blues licks, and some different areas explored.
After a pause, Calliope gets called, but is held for a moment while we retune. Brad counts off, roughly around performance tempo, and it takes off from there. Victor directs us to play it again at the same tempo, which we do.
Our work moves to King Metronome, and we play with a couple of different tempi, trying different things out, but we really dig in when Victor begins to have us dissecting the intro into beats, looping sections with rests, and really focusing on relaxing in the rests. Moving from the first 5 notes of the intro (1 whole beat plus a downbeat), followed by a rest, and extending up to 9 notes, then 3 full beats, and then the entire intro.
The same thing comes about with the main melody in C. This is potent work.
A break.
Digging back in, and then playing the entire piece several more times. This is also looking to be our homework for the week.
Some final words for the night, and we take our leave around 9:30.
Thacher Music Room, 01-05-2014
Attending: Victor, Chris, Brad, Scott
First meeting of the new year.
Victor leading calisthenics: starting with picking an open A, then passing this around the circle as 1 beat (then 2 beats) per person, playing 16th notes. Some words about playing as it travels round the circle. After a bit of this, Victor moves to doing the same thing with nonsense syllables. The next step is then combining the two: Victor begins by playing 4 beats on the guitar, then passes it to Chris. As Chris passes the note to Brad, Victor then improvises 4 beats in sixteenths of nonsense syllables, and then passes that to Chris, while Brad passes the guitar notes to Scott. This continues for a while--when it really locks in, it's palpable.
From here, we move to running the repertoire we've been working on for this project, while recording at the same time. Eye of the Needle, Voices of Ancient Children, Flying Home, Calliope, Where is the Nurse?, Asturias. A short mini-set, with some commentary throughout.
A break for the bums in the room, and we listen back; Victor plays around with some reverb on the recording specifically to highlight some points of interest in our playing. Some good moments, and good discussion. This ends the night for us, for this week.
First meeting of the new year.
Victor leading calisthenics: starting with picking an open A, then passing this around the circle as 1 beat (then 2 beats) per person, playing 16th notes. Some words about playing as it travels round the circle. After a bit of this, Victor moves to doing the same thing with nonsense syllables. The next step is then combining the two: Victor begins by playing 4 beats on the guitar, then passes it to Chris. As Chris passes the note to Brad, Victor then improvises 4 beats in sixteenths of nonsense syllables, and then passes that to Chris, while Brad passes the guitar notes to Scott. This continues for a while--when it really locks in, it's palpable.
From here, we move to running the repertoire we've been working on for this project, while recording at the same time. Eye of the Needle, Voices of Ancient Children, Flying Home, Calliope, Where is the Nurse?, Asturias. A short mini-set, with some commentary throughout.
A break for the bums in the room, and we listen back; Victor plays around with some reverb on the recording specifically to highlight some points of interest in our playing. Some good moments, and good discussion. This ends the night for us, for this week.
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Thacher Music Room, 12-8-2013
Attending: Rick, Brad, Victor, Scott, Chris, Rick, Dev
Scribe: Scott
Scribe: Scott
- Brad led calithenics
- had us strike the a string 1 through 8 times, then the first primary with an ascending pattern of 2134 to the 12th and a descending pattern of 3412
- Repertoire
- Calliope
- - some section work
- Break
- Where is the Nurse?
- played once through
- section work
- Chris leaves
- Voices of Ancient Children
- Improv/ circulation
- Meeting ends
Thacher Music Room, 12-01-2013
Attending: Victor, Dev, Chris, Brad, Rick, Scott
Scribe: Scott
Scribe: Scott
- The meeting started without Victor
- Dev started a circulation, which led into a 10 minute improv
- Chris led calisthenics. Had us play the D major scale spanning from the lowest D to the highest, ascending and descending. We played it very slowly at first, so we were familiar with the tetrachords, then increased the bpm. Chris noted that we seemed to be having trouble with the last 2 octaves of the scale, and had us loop ascending and descending from the F# on the 2nd string to the highest E.
- Repertoire started with "Where the Nurse". Played through it once, then Basses did sectional work.
- Victor shows up. More sectional work by both parts
- Flying Home
- Chris leaves
- Break
- Calliope
- section work
- Asturias, which started with improv.
- Procession chord
- End of meeting
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