Attending: Rick, Brad, Chris, Dev
Opening the meeting with a circulation, Cmajorish with a tonally ambiguous ending.
Rick running calisthenics. First working with the Hammerhead exercise, to refresh our fingers. Following this with a modification that adds the pivot in:
--------5---|------5-6---|-----5-6-7--|--5-6-7-8---|5-6-7-8-|
5-6-7-8---5-|6-7-8-----6-|7-8-------7-|8---------8-|--------|
9-8-7-6---9-|8-7-6-----8-|7-6-------7-|6---------6-|--------|
--------9---|------9-8---|----9-8-7---|--9-8-7-6---|9-8-7-6-|
More working with the pivot, and digging into the technique. Nitpicky, superfocused, and useful.
Eye of the Needle, next. One false start, and then a full run. Some discussion about voicing and the octave bass in the re-intro. Problems with ringing strings. Some things are really starting to sound nice.
Discussion.
Work with Voices of Ancient Children, next. Some discussion about interpretive freedom, dynamics, timbre, and ensuring we communicate with each other.
During the break: movie talk.
After the break, back in with a circulation that becomes an improv.
Flying Home, next. Lots of work with this one; a lot of looping as a quartet, and in different pairs, to get a feel for who needs what, and what parts need what attention. Some related calisthenic work as well, to really focus in on physical necessities in our playing (wrist positions, sheer speed, fingering choices). All this while remaining aware of our time (tending to fall off the metronome at speeds that aren't what we usually work at). Dev presents an exercise that is focused on speed in the right hand, and being able to hear at a faster speed. The apparent necessity of pushing to a very fast speed and then bringing in quality/economy of motion, as opposed to approaching through sheer quality, yields some interesting discussion.
Bass work largely focuses on phrasing; the intro seems to sound better when phrased in tandem with the lead, and the main verse in D likes thumping.
A huge change comes about when we look at the lead part's jump from the 5th fret to the 13th fret, and Chris demonstrates how he fingers that interval. Super useful stuff.
In for the first midweek meeting at Dev's, this coming Thursday.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Thacher Music Room, 09-15-2013
Attending: Victor, Brad, Rick, Scott, Chris, Dev
A customary pause to open the meeting.
Brad leading calisthenics: first working with the 1st Primary. Working through 8 patterns up and down the neck, beginning at a slow tempo, moving two steps ahead, and then dropping back to the mean.
With a few minutes left, presenting an exercise related to Chris's from the week before: again using the finger pattern of the 1st Primary while applying this to lateral movement across the fretboard, with the addition of an additional open string following each pattern. The right hand does not break pattern (5-4-3-2). This is met with approval, and Victor takes the opportunity to mention that the real work in this is to see the simplest way to see a pattern, and the simplest way to describe a pattern.
Work on Eye of the Needle. A fair amount of work with the metronome, and nailing the first note of each transition. Chris's own work in bringing out the burbles is noticeable and well-executed. One run-through in the dark, with the appropriate scratched notes.
A short break with consumption of baked goods.
Back in the circle for Voices of Ancient Children. One run-through with the full team, and then Dev asks two different trios to play it (Victor-Scott-Brad, then Chris-Dev-Rick). Some different ideas about articulation and dynamics, while we try to arrive at this circle's interpretation. Victor notes that he's letting Dev take the lead on the bass melody, and is working to simply fill out that sound. Useful stuff.
Flying Home is next, and gets one playthrough at 76 bpm. It's intentionally slow, to see where it's at and what different parts need. Not great, but not bad for not having been played in months, and not having been really worked for a year or so.
A bit of discussion takes us up to the mark, and we all take our leave. Next meeting is later this week at Dev's house.
A customary pause to open the meeting.
Brad leading calisthenics: first working with the 1st Primary. Working through 8 patterns up and down the neck, beginning at a slow tempo, moving two steps ahead, and then dropping back to the mean.
With a few minutes left, presenting an exercise related to Chris's from the week before: again using the finger pattern of the 1st Primary while applying this to lateral movement across the fretboard, with the addition of an additional open string following each pattern. The right hand does not break pattern (5-4-3-2). This is met with approval, and Victor takes the opportunity to mention that the real work in this is to see the simplest way to see a pattern, and the simplest way to describe a pattern.
Work on Eye of the Needle. A fair amount of work with the metronome, and nailing the first note of each transition. Chris's own work in bringing out the burbles is noticeable and well-executed. One run-through in the dark, with the appropriate scratched notes.
A short break with consumption of baked goods.
Back in the circle for Voices of Ancient Children. One run-through with the full team, and then Dev asks two different trios to play it (Victor-Scott-Brad, then Chris-Dev-Rick). Some different ideas about articulation and dynamics, while we try to arrive at this circle's interpretation. Victor notes that he's letting Dev take the lead on the bass melody, and is working to simply fill out that sound. Useful stuff.
Flying Home is next, and gets one playthrough at 76 bpm. It's intentionally slow, to see where it's at and what different parts need. Not great, but not bad for not having been played in months, and not having been really worked for a year or so.
A bit of discussion takes us up to the mark, and we all take our leave. Next meeting is later this week at Dev's house.
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Thacher Music Room, 09-08-2013
Special Focus Project, Fall 2013 - Spring 2014
Attending: Victor, Brad, Chris, Scott, Rick, Dev
This evening marks the beginning of a special project as outlined by Dev, primarily involving an approach to quality.
The meeting opens in the circle, with no guitars, for some important discussion, question-answering, and detail sorting. This takes roughly 90 minutes or so. Some good points made, and valuable insight offered. The notion of minimizing "noise" is expanded upon, along with some clarification on the work of the energies.
It is decided that we will take this project on as a group. More details will reveal themselves as time goes on.
A short break for our hindquarters.
Back in the circle with guitars. Dev asks Chris to run a few minutes of calisthenics, which can best be summarized as: applying the 1st Primary fingerings to a lateral movement across the fretboard, while also developing a variation of the lateral movement.
We'll be working with 3 pieces in the beginning of this project: Eye of the Needle, Voices of Ancient Children, and Flying Home.
Eye of the Needle: two run-throughs. After the first, Victor and Brad trade parts, and there are notes about dynamics made. Some very specific spot-work on the intonation of a harmony in the high lead (it needs to be pulled sharp).
Voices: Chris takes Scott to the hall to show him the "pulse". Victor and Dev run over the bass lead part, and Brad and Rick refresh on the "claw". Two full runs, with a primary directive to the non-lead players to drop volume significantly. Some other notes about dynamic shaping.
Flying Home would be next, but it is quite late, so we choose to save it for next week. Next week will also be the first double-meeting week for this project.
Attending: Victor, Brad, Chris, Scott, Rick, Dev
This evening marks the beginning of a special project as outlined by Dev, primarily involving an approach to quality.
The meeting opens in the circle, with no guitars, for some important discussion, question-answering, and detail sorting. This takes roughly 90 minutes or so. Some good points made, and valuable insight offered. The notion of minimizing "noise" is expanded upon, along with some clarification on the work of the energies.
It is decided that we will take this project on as a group. More details will reveal themselves as time goes on.
A short break for our hindquarters.
Back in the circle with guitars. Dev asks Chris to run a few minutes of calisthenics, which can best be summarized as: applying the 1st Primary fingerings to a lateral movement across the fretboard, while also developing a variation of the lateral movement.
We'll be working with 3 pieces in the beginning of this project: Eye of the Needle, Voices of Ancient Children, and Flying Home.
Eye of the Needle: two run-throughs. After the first, Victor and Brad trade parts, and there are notes about dynamics made. Some very specific spot-work on the intonation of a harmony in the high lead (it needs to be pulled sharp).
Voices: Chris takes Scott to the hall to show him the "pulse". Victor and Dev run over the bass lead part, and Brad and Rick refresh on the "claw". Two full runs, with a primary directive to the non-lead players to drop volume significantly. Some other notes about dynamic shaping.
Flying Home would be next, but it is quite late, so we choose to save it for next week. Next week will also be the first double-meeting week for this project.
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