Summary:

8 AM - Sitting in the ballroom.
8:45 ish - Breakfast - Victor reads Bob Gerber on the music - musician -audience triad
10ish - Busta Rhymes body-beat.
11ish - AT work, alternating with personal practice. Brief performance for Jill, the AT instructor. The Bartok piece falls apart.

1 PM - Lunch. Bean soup, bread, salad. Discussion of training the body like an animal.
2 PM - More personal practice
4 PM. Terry leaves. Tea.
4:30 PM More personal practice.
5 PM - Glenn and Martin begin dinner preparations.
6ish PM - Group sitting.
7ish PM - Dinner

Evening: Work in the circle. Bartok. Improvisations.
Break for ice cream.
Speed circulation. Meli questions Victor's motives.

Martin Bradburn

Up at 7.00, Meli is in an out of the bathroom quicker that anyone, Dev and I are amazed. Sitting and breakfast. Victor reads from Bob Gerber about the triad of music, performer and audience, and the different combinations created by the active , passive and reconciling forces being prevalent for each group. There are 9 total combinations and they are discussed as to what they signify.

Personal Practice, Victor has me do 4' s, 5's and 7's tapping the Ist notes and playing each beat (2 then 3, then 4,,,) some numbers I have to tap by hand first before playing. I can hear the pattern and do the count but I find I cannot switch between these two methods. Lunch, more personal practice then Glen and I on Dinner, salad and Veggie Shepards pie. Very yummy! Circle with circulation work and some improves. Meli, Glen and myself then, Victor, Dev and MB. Some frustration with fast circulating leads to and exchange between Victor and Meli, humour the great diffuser come to the rescue. Glen, Meli, MB and I work on fast circulating chromatic notes and get some decent results. Bed and more basement talk. "What happens in the basement, stays in the basement!" Dev and Meli are wonderful and colorful people!

Glenn Hughes

Sunday: Up at 7, and out of bed. Shower. Downstairs, and set out breakfast with MB. The rest of the GCNE (sans David) showed up just before 8, and a sitting in the ballroom. Then, breakfast. Victor ate quickly, and read to us something from Bob Gerber, about the musician, audience, music triad, in combination with the active passive and reconciling roles.

AT work, similar to yesterday. My personal practice during the day, and in the afternoon involved the JM mode exercises, and some bits of repertoire: Askesis bass, Bicycling bass. We gave a performance for the AT instructor, that didn't go quite as planned. But she seemed to enjoy it anyway, and said she'd come to our gig next Friday. While we were playing I kept thinking I smelled the soup burning. Meli checked, and it was OK.

Lunch at 1, talking about how to practice, what motivates one to practice, the body as an animal to be trained and so on. The word discipline wasn't actually brought up, but hovered in the air.

I pushed myself to work in the afternoon. Terry had to go attend an important personal event, and left at 4. And now, we're down to 6. I completed setting out tea, and we all had some caffeine and sugar. Much needed in my case.

A little more practice, then Martin and I began working on dinner at 5. Within an hour, we had the Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie ready to bake, green beans ready to boil, and a salad and dressing prepared. A little after 6 we had another sitting, going through the same exercise that Ben gave us yesterday.

Some steaming of green beans later, and it was dinner time. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food. Silence paid us a visit once our bellies were full.

Work in the circle: the Bartok piece (which had crashed when we played for the AT instructor). Then little improvisations. Meli, Martin and I played a nice trio piece. I can tell that my work of late has given my fingers and mind more intervalic options when playing solos. A great feeling. Dev Victor, and a somewhat reluctant MB played a lovely little piece. And then we had some ice cream. I put away some CDs.

More work in the circle, focusing on speed in circulation. We weren't really getting anywhere, which led to some frustration. Victor asked Dev and I to play a fast two man circulation as an experiment. Eventually, Victor and Dev went off to work on a piece that Victor is composing. I worked with Martin, Meli and MB, having us get the experience of 'playing in your time slot' in a fast circulation. It's easier with 4 people. We actually did pretty well.

I made soup for tomorrow's lunch (potato, cauliflower, cheese). Martin helped me clean up, while the others hung around a bit. I set the bread machine running, and soon bed. I have the sniffles.

Mary Beth Abel Hughes

Groggy getting up this morning. G in the shower first, I made the bed, then got b-fast ready and took care of the cats. People arrived. Still no D because he is still unfortunately under the weather. I'm trying the kneeling position for the sitting. I can sustain this for about 20 minutes I think, but then my heels and ankle begin to feel like bones. I am trying to shift my weight without a sound. Not so successful. This morning I heard church bells I have never heard before. The patter of cat feet is always pleasant.
Breakfast, reading by Victor about kinds of musician-music-audience configurations...there are 6 possibilities. We see to be aspirants, but we talked quite a bit about whether we can be showmen. I get pretty jazzed talking about that scenario. I'm motivated to be a star..that sounds really fun. But, I think the group doesn't feel entitled to showmanship...that it is bestowed or earned. But, I think you just have to declare it and make room for the mastery to come.
Beginning of day...Busta what's his name. Very fun, but limited to body beat dancing. Then improv. I felt on the spot with a duet with V. I played hesitant one notes and felt lame (feelings here were dramatically resolved later). AT teacher, I was second again, pretty much the same as yesterday, but still interesting. Focus on practice today. I think I put in about four hours in what we Hughes call the "War Room"...this is the household nerve center. Just a small office where we keep the computer and such. I practiced counting the burbles of EotN. Realized that I need to figure out the count to master the rest. I was able to hear how the count should be. Rather than divulge the counts for the rest, V made me keep work on the burbles. I got that eventually. Good lunch. More practice. My left pinky is sore from the burbles. Tea was a nice break especially thanks to T's elegant symmetry with the mugs and spoons. He left and did not return this evening to fulfill a committment. I couldn't practice until right up to the sitting, so I went out watering the new pansies. Dinner was exellent. good sheep herder's pie! D told of time spent in Paraquay...wild.
Back to practice. Circulating...good improv by M, G, and Me. Then, V noted by hesitancy. Gave me a kind lecture about expressing myself. I'm not playing what I know. I protested and squirmed like a bug. V presssed, so I cried. I begged for ice cream. Declined playing the improv, but people were really nice, so finally I obliged and apologized for the drama. Ice cream next, joking. Back to work. Bartok, circulating culminating in a circulating duet between D and G that was interpreted by Me as a "let me show you how its done." I enjoyed it, but felt it was flashy given that we had just stumbled quite a bit. V defended himself. Things got out of hand in a fun but maybe not productive way. V was merely doing an experiment, not making a value judgment by singling out two of the five. Back to work, finally Ma, Me, G, and I did a foursome circulation that seemed to produce good results.
Called Mom Abel to wish her happy birthday. She and dad seemed to have partied well. We talked about my GD and uncle. My GD's lady friend returned from a trip. He bought her a dozen roses! Wow! It's windy tonight, suddenly the phone was static-y, so I said goodbye.
Some good stretching and bed, next.