Thursday, February 27, 2014

Sun. 2/23/14 - Thacher Music Room

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. 

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