Victor, Rick, Chris, Scott, Brad
We arrive and plug in. We are in "horse shoe" formation, opposite the
speakers and board.
At 8:00, Rick, Chris, Scott and Brad begin with one or two circulations and
play Eye of the Needle, as Victor mixes.
Victor has a couple observations about the playing.
First, there are stupid mistakes. Stupid mistakes have the characteristic of
lacking innocence: we should know the material, the parts, but something
is surfacing and causing a disruption. This "something" is probably
different for everyone, related to personality. Auxiliary to this first point
is that the group is surprised when these mistakes occur, so the
disruption is two-fold.
Victor's second observation, he says, is more important. He sees a lack of
"bond" in the group playing, as though we were five musicians playing
in a room ("guys on a subway"), rather than a group experiencing a
common moment. It is a tricky obstacle to overcome, but it must be overcome, or
the group's efforts will result in wasted time--life or death. No amount of
detail work will compensate.
With this, Victor joins and we begin another circulation and imrpov. This is
followed by some relatively brisk (but productive) repertoire work: a
resounding of Eye of the Needle, then Where's the Nurse, Calliope, and
Thrak. One note is made about the demand of the music during
section changes and transitions, and the difference between hands that move with the demand and those that "get there".
A break around 8:50, with some discussion about repertoire and booking
performances.
After a few minutes, we return to Morning Has Broken, which is more new
to the set. After a play-through we spend some time on the accentuation,
counting and dynamics of the chords, and address some discrepancies between the
chord players.
The minute-keeper leaves around 9:30.
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Tues. 2/11/14 - Rick's House
Rick, Chris, Scott
8:25
Circulation and improvisation to begin.
Rick provides a run-down of the closing of Sunday's rehearsal for Chris, which leads to work on Thrak. On further inspection, the three guitar parts that make up the piece are perfect for rotation and exploration in the trio format, and we spend time trading parts in different sections. Apropos to this is the usefulness of counting, foot-tapping and "feeling" in playing the rhythms. Returning back to the re-intro, there are a few surprises.
Rick teaches Scott the melody for Morning Has Broken, and we play the first verse as a loop to help him get the hang of it; Rick suggests that once the basic melody is understood, then the further variations which occur throughout the piece can be taught. We also run through Where's the Nurse, two leads and one bass.
Some talk about repertoire, and a final circulation to end the meeting.
8:25
Circulation and improvisation to begin.
Rick provides a run-down of the closing of Sunday's rehearsal for Chris, which leads to work on Thrak. On further inspection, the three guitar parts that make up the piece are perfect for rotation and exploration in the trio format, and we spend time trading parts in different sections. Apropos to this is the usefulness of counting, foot-tapping and "feeling" in playing the rhythms. Returning back to the re-intro, there are a few surprises.
Rick teaches Scott the melody for Morning Has Broken, and we play the first verse as a loop to help him get the hang of it; Rick suggests that once the basic melody is understood, then the further variations which occur throughout the piece can be taught. We also run through Where's the Nurse, two leads and one bass.
Some talk about repertoire, and a final circulation to end the meeting.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Sun. 2/9/14 - Thacher
Victor, Brad, Chris, Rick, Scott, Dev
7:30
Plug in. We run Voices of Ancient Children and an improv to test sound.
At 7:50, Rick leads calisthenics with a set of exercises: the first one is based on playing accelerating subdivisions against a click--whole notes, half note triplets, half notes, etc., up to sixteenths. There is some confusion regarding the longer triplet patterns which fall over the bar line, so we let go of this exercise and work with some changing primary #1 patterns for an extended length. After this, we work a little with a staccato/legato articulation exercise.
We begin running repertoire around 8:15 with Calliope at a slightly slower tempo than performance. Victor observes that the "sections" (bass, lead) are listening to themselves, but not to each other equally as well: it takes a few bars for "group intelligence" to establish itself with each section change, whereupon the feeling becomes overall good. We take it again a few times at a quicker tempo: more stable, but a bit sloppier. Some section work for the leads segues into Where's the Nurse.
During the break, there is some discussion regarding finalizing the repertoire for the upcoming performances in April/May. Chris departs before an encouraging sounding of Flying Home; hereafter, Victor taking up the part of the drummer to help keep the tempo solid. Thrak is the final bit of repertoire before the meeting ends.
7:30
Plug in. We run Voices of Ancient Children and an improv to test sound.
At 7:50, Rick leads calisthenics with a set of exercises: the first one is based on playing accelerating subdivisions against a click--whole notes, half note triplets, half notes, etc., up to sixteenths. There is some confusion regarding the longer triplet patterns which fall over the bar line, so we let go of this exercise and work with some changing primary #1 patterns for an extended length. After this, we work a little with a staccato/legato articulation exercise.
We begin running repertoire around 8:15 with Calliope at a slightly slower tempo than performance. Victor observes that the "sections" (bass, lead) are listening to themselves, but not to each other equally as well: it takes a few bars for "group intelligence" to establish itself with each section change, whereupon the feeling becomes overall good. We take it again a few times at a quicker tempo: more stable, but a bit sloppier. Some section work for the leads segues into Where's the Nurse.
During the break, there is some discussion regarding finalizing the repertoire for the upcoming performances in April/May. Chris departs before an encouraging sounding of Flying Home; hereafter, Victor taking up the part of the drummer to help keep the tempo solid. Thrak is the final bit of repertoire before the meeting ends.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Sun. 2/2/14 - Thacher
Victor, Brad, Chris, Rick, Dev
Beginning with one-on-one detail work, with Victor leading and others offering contributions. The "details" are aspects of our individual playing that we have the freedom to make choices about, but for whatever reason, don't; they simply "happen"--for instance, hearing "phrasing" of groups of notes, or using the range of timbre on a given instrument, or overlooking technically challenging parts where mistakes regularly occur. Having this freedom, Victor says, is much more desirable than a pointillistic approach to detail, because musical decisions require an ongoing sense of adjustment to the needs of the moment. We play with these ideas for a little while before Dev arrives.
We play Eye of the Needle, followed by a few comments regarding arrangement and tuning. This segues into our first rehearsal of BWV 846 for four guitars. The small team work through the first nine bars of the fugue, repeating and making small personal adjustments. Eventually, the music begins to arrive at relative coherence, and an additional section for rehearsal is decided upon for next week (up to the '1' o bar 14); whereupon, the preceding prelude with five guitars is given a truncated recital, and deemed "possible" for performance.
The final bit of guitar work for the meeting is a couple play-throughs of Morning Has Broken, without and with written aids. This one has a little rust and there are gaffs from all corners, but the players know their homework. There is some closing discussion of booking performances for April, how the team might about it in a way which makes both practical sense and is in alignment with the aim of the project, opening acts, press, etc., before the minute-keeper departs.
Beginning with one-on-one detail work, with Victor leading and others offering contributions. The "details" are aspects of our individual playing that we have the freedom to make choices about, but for whatever reason, don't; they simply "happen"--for instance, hearing "phrasing" of groups of notes, or using the range of timbre on a given instrument, or overlooking technically challenging parts where mistakes regularly occur. Having this freedom, Victor says, is much more desirable than a pointillistic approach to detail, because musical decisions require an ongoing sense of adjustment to the needs of the moment. We play with these ideas for a little while before Dev arrives.
We play Eye of the Needle, followed by a few comments regarding arrangement and tuning. This segues into our first rehearsal of BWV 846 for four guitars. The small team work through the first nine bars of the fugue, repeating and making small personal adjustments. Eventually, the music begins to arrive at relative coherence, and an additional section for rehearsal is decided upon for next week (up to the '1' o bar 14); whereupon, the preceding prelude with five guitars is given a truncated recital, and deemed "possible" for performance.
The final bit of guitar work for the meeting is a couple play-throughs of Morning Has Broken, without and with written aids. This one has a little rust and there are gaffs from all corners, but the players know their homework. There is some closing discussion of booking performances for April, how the team might about it in a way which makes both practical sense and is in alignment with the aim of the project, opening acts, press, etc., before the minute-keeper departs.
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