Minutes from the Guitar Circle New England
November 30, 2003

Those present: Victor, Martin, Terry, David, Glenn, and Mary Beth (scribe)

The meeting started around 8:30 PM with some quiet time and after we went through the ritual of placing small mats in a circle, which never quite got to be a circle. The spacing of the mats was a little off. We did not change it because Victor stated that someone else was probably coming.

Victor welcomed Glenn back into the NE England Guitar Circle. Victor asked everyone how he or she was doing on the Circle of Fifths assignment. It was established that we mostly had not gotten very far. This was due to lack of time practicing, getting challenged enough with the C major scale, not understanding the assignment (the scribe…I’m new at this), and issues of this sort. Shortly thereafter, Victor got us started on the fourth primary--doing the C major scale on the A string in three positions. Everyone got started right away…it took the scribe some amount of time to figure out where to place her fingers. Victor said, “Work it out.” By the time I got it and did it through twice, Victor ended the round.

I believe at this point there was some talk about the Atlanta Level 3 and how fast everyone played. Playing fast can sometimes lead to losing sight of musicality due to focusing on a measurable outcome—speed. It was also suggested that this is what happened when you get a bunch of male human beings together where things can become testosterone-driven. But, then the discussion became a little more serious when Victor related going to get some help with performing…his teacher was very direct and to the point saying something like, “So, why would I want to come listen to you.” With the between the lines words being something like…”So, you can play fast…so what?” Speed in and of itself is not too impressive. Victor said that sometimes a visible goal—like playing fast—is more about something you are running from or hiding. I gathered that successful performing (or at least performing that makes a difference for someone in the audience) has something to do with showing the audience that thing that we tend to avoid, run from, hide…because it is hard to measure?

Anyway…over the course of the evening…we did a number of runs on this fourth primary that Victor really likes. He says that the exercise pulls many things together. We did the exercise slowly and with a beat between each position.

The sound of us doing the A string/C major exercise was interesting. I think most of the squeakiness as we shifted positions was due to me…but I think it was a difficult exercise for all of us. Lots of hand stretching.

Other problems with the exercise are in keeping the hand “as a unit” (my words), avoiding that squeakiness as we shift positions, and achieving a “point of releasethness”—this is an ideal spot just above but not touching the string that allows one to move from position to position without grinding along the strings.
Glenn at one point said...”I have a heretical question.”

There was enthusiasm for him to ask the question.

The question was why do you have to move your whole hand when you change positions…couldn’t you just repel your first finger down to the second’s place to get ready for the next position? Doing this avoids a bit of a gap in the sound.

Victor disagreed…but that was beside the point because the goal of the exercise is to develop preparedness for when you can’t just move your fingers that way…you do in fact have to move your whole hand….there was some Guitar Craft shop talk about songs…

Also, Victor pointed out, there aren’t that many people who do this kind of basic work…so doing pieces that require very fast movements are difficult…BUT DO-ABLE BECAUSE THE HANDS CAN MOVE REALLY FAST (my emphasis). Victor worked on those kinds of movements in the dark at one point to develop the body memory for such quick moments.

Somewhere along here Victor attempted to say a phrase that included “tell tale” and “instantaneous” in the same sentence. It took him a few tries to get it out. He said he felt like someone was feeding him words that are hard to pronounce. He said his brain was fried. I believe at one point he said he was tired and noticed someone else was too. The group did seem a little tired, but I felt okay…but was very cold in spite of three layers on top and two layers of socks.

There was a lot of talk about the hands showing us the way. Thinking through the “Newtonian physics” of the hand will not help. The hand already knows the physics…let them do their job. There was agreement about thinking about playing getting in the way of playing.

Victor wrapped up a little more on the hands by noting that the strings are nearly two-dimensional—near flatness. The hands get to know this place and can rely on it—it isn’t changing. I thought about being glad that the strings weren’t wavy…

“Who will do the minutes?”
Silence.
“Martin is looking at me, “ said Glenn.
“Well, I did it last time.”
“And I did it the time before that…so…”
….dialog….Mary Beth…dialog…bewilderment….Mary Beth says something….”So, try.”
Suddenly I’m doing the minutes with some fact checking from Glenn. My brain was mostly checked out for recording what exactly our assignment is, positioning etc because I figured Glenn would absorb it all. So here’s Glenn with the assignment on the Circle of Fifths….Thanks Glenn!

Play the 4th primary in C Major on the middle 4 strings from second position to 14th position and back again. Do this in two ways: with a one-note pause between groups of 3, and as a continuous series of notes. You're welcome MB.

MB

New England Calisthenics Project Meeeting #7 Attendees: Victor, Mary Beth, David K, Martin

11/16/03

Victor asked how we were doing with the Third Primary. He told us there would be no meeting next week (11/23), and that our work for the next two weeks is to take the Third Primary and each day move up one "notch" in the Circle of Fifths (Monday starting with G, then D, A, etc. including all the sharp and flat Major scales) and play it all the way through up and down the neck at least one time. We are to start in 5th position (first finger on the 5th fret), work up to the 14th, and work back down to 2nd position. This ensures that we get the feel for the whole scale, because then the highest pattern is the same as the lowest pattern an octave up. We are also to practice the same way we have been working on the Third Primary: first work a bit on the Second Primary to ensure good right hand technique amd when beginning the Third Primary, singing some to get both the sound of the named notes and the relationship of the notes to the scale internalized. Victor said on one course he spent one whole day on the Third Primary playing through the 12 scales, spending 8 hours on it. Victor demonstrated the way how some of the notes of the scale are stable and others lead to other notes. Victor also suggested that at the end of our practice we play a bit of the next day's scale, and to notice that to get the next day's scale, you simply sharp the 4th of the present day's scale.

When someone asked about the significance of C major, Victor told us that he'd heard one story of charlie parker practicing the C Major scale 12 hours a day, and that it was was a good idea to work one one scale and know it deeply. Someone asked why C Major was such a central thing, and Victor explained it's the white keys on the piano and the majority of music we hear is written in C.

Victor wanted to see where we were with the First and Second Primary, so we began with the Second. We were not in tune, so we dropped it and tuned. We then began again and Victor walked around making individual adjustments. Victor then brought out the metronome and had us play at faster tempi, and joining in with us on the fastest (84 I think?). All told, we spent about 25 minutes on the Second Primary.

Victor then had us play the First Primary in the 1234 fingering, again walking around and making adjustments. One of the problems was releasing the index finger before the rest. Next Victor had us play the 4321 fingering. Here we did not have consistent release points. Victor asked us to keep attention in our index fingers througout a few positions (reminding us how important it is to have attention in all the fingers even the ones not playing), then we switched to our pinkies, then our ring fingers, and to be aware that as each finger is "worked", its playing and releasing is very fast, menaing you spend very little time putting your finger down and releasing it.

Then Victor stood up on his 1-inch foam pad to drive home some points. He said and showed that there's only one place to release to ("it's not down here, it's not up here, it's here") and we had to know where that was, and that playing and releasing were in a way the only two things to be learned from the First Primary. It is vitally inmportant we get this. In fact the releasing is can be even more important than the playing. If we were not releasing correctly, it meant we were playing too fast and needed to slow down until we could release simultaneously and consistently. And that no matter how slow a tempo we were at, the playing and releasing still happen instantaneously. Victor also talked and demonstrated proper left hand positioning, starting with a curved left arm and wrist, and how everything is connected (if your wrist isn't curved correctly, you can't use your pinky correctly, etc). You should be able to fret the 6th string and the first string without changing your wrist position, but if we could do the 5th and 2nd string without moving our wrists, that would be good. We also talked about and looked at left thumb technique, and keeping a soft lock (for example, not like making an ok sign). We then played the First Primary very slowly paying special attention to releasing.

Victor spoke to us about trying to do less physical work when playing, though we may be doing more mental work.

He told us of a story about someone (I forgot who) who was working at teaching himself Yoga back in the 50's and got to a place where he suddenly, completely "got" his breathing to such an extent that he realized if he didn't continue to will it, he would stop breathing. He immediately ran outside and ran into a tree as a way to shock his system back into its proper behaviour.

Victor then spoke of how in some traditions the whole spinal collumn is considered to be body's brain, and that the body's center of gravity just below the navel and a litle towards the back, is also the center of it's enery. When we work on hands it can be very useful to be in touch with these centers.

Victor spoke a little about the idea of the 3 centers, (moving (?), intellectual and emotional) and how each of the three centers could be considered to have 3 parts. 2 of which correlate to the other two centers, and one which correlates to itself

Also how when we play we should look more about what can be taken away, rather than physically worked harder. And mary beth said it seemed that what we are trying to achieve with our bodies is the opposite to what the "tree banger" did with his breathing (we are trying to get physically controlled reaction to become more autonomous.)

Victor told us about how he spent a week just working on the Hammerhead exercise, working on releasing, and on the relation of his spine and center of gravity, and that after this week his left hand could always play faster than his right.

When working on something, you can choose one principle to pay attention to. Then work on the same thing again, this time adding in paying attention to something new. and so on.

No meeting next week (11/23), next meeting 11/30.

DK

New England Calisthenics Project
Meeting #4
11-10

meli, martin, david, terry and victor. we then began by bringing all of our attention to our left leg. Then we began work on the C major scale using an exercise of saying the notes, up one octave, then descending to the next note in the scale the ascending and octave again, continuing until the whole scale had been covered. We tried with varied success at a couple of faster tempos then at a fast (~84) just between C and C . This seemed to click and Victor stated that was the kind of realization we were looking for.
We then began to work on tetra chords in the C major scale on the inside 4 strings. We focused on the C major scale starting a C on the 5th String 5th position ascending to the D on the 2nd String 10th fret and then descending from the B on the 2nd  String 7th fret to the G on the 5th  String 12th fret, and repeating this pattern. Victor named the modes played in each scale.

We began by singing the note while playing and then mentally continuing the note names without vocalization. Victor noted we must continue to apply the left and right hand techniques we have already been working on to the tetra chord work. We then added the next ascending pattern added starting at E on the 5th string 9th fret ascending to F on the 2nd string 13th fret, then descending from the D on the 2nd string 8th fret to B on the 5th string 15th fret. Victor explained how this is symmetrical across and up and down the neck unlike OST. He stated that this was a not only a foundation but was the most difficult thing to master physically. He stated that we should work towards being able to name not only the note and it’s fret board position but to understand the tension and release conveyed by resolving from or to notes in the scale and modes. Victor asked us to work on this exercise and learn the 2nd through the 14th position.
Victor asked us to start with the second primary at all practices and apply what we have learned to the tetra chord exercise. Victor reminded us of the release and position during this
David spoke of lots of tension in his left hand during the tetra chord exercise. He asked us how we were doing with the other exercises. Meli commented as to the differences width of her picking depending on the speed. Victor addressed this and spoke of the need to establish the correct amount of movement otherwise faster speeds may not be attained.
Victor spoke of seeing an electric guitarist shredding, but actually strumming very fast and muting all the other strings, giving the appearance of fast picking.
Martin spoke of his progress with arching the pinky how this was difficult at the First and Second position and that at stretched positions like the tetra-chords the arch was close to just not locked, and this transitioned to a major point that Victor made about being aware of how our body does what we ask of it. Although we mentally must conceive of what is needed for correct execution we cannot think our bodies to do the task.  We must be aware of how the body (thinks) performs what is asked of it and focus on that pattern and realization.  Victor stated that if we could do this it would help us establishing the focus on our other centers. Victor related this to the light that went on at the end of the saying the scale exercise at speed. The mind is aware of what is required and the body responds knowing what must physically be done to accomplish the task. When this happens there is a rightness of the motion, mechanics and completing of the exercise. We spoke of working with the job of the day exercise and how that was working.  David spoke of making the visualization right before sleep or getting up to do a task forgotten. Meli spoke of forgetting the task, but substituting another. Martin said he was not able to do the exercise every day.
We ran the 2nd primary exercise and Victor looked at everyone’s positions assisting where needed.

MB

New England Calisthenics Project
When: Sunday October 26, 2003. 8:15 pm
Where: Ultimate Self Defense Studio, South Boston, MA
Attendees: Mélisande GF, David K, Victor M, Terry T.

we decided to warm up with 'bicycling to afghanistan'.  then we formally began the meeting with the stretching exercise

we began our work with the 2nd primary at about 60 bpm playing the 16th beat. the main focus was to get the forearm and shoulders to relaxed.  we played for about 10 may be 15 minutes. to me it felt longer than that.  the team mentioned that our arms and hands feel fatigued.  victor suggested that no part of the right hand should be touching the strings.  also, try to feel as if the hand is a bridge suspended by cables.  no extra work, no tension.

we came back to the 2nd primary again, but this time at about 80 bpm.  this time we did not play as long.  again, victor stressed the importance of having the shoulder, forearm, hand to be relaxed.  also, we may try to relax our the arm and hand by putting attention in feet.  then we played the primary on the D string only.  again trying to get the right arm and hand to relaxed.  also trying to get the pick stroke to be absolutely precise.

2nd primary again at 104 bpm.  this time, keep trying no matter how suck it is.  as we doing it at beginning, victor asked, may be 30 minutes.  the answer was mostly may be b/c at the moment we still feel pretty good, but we might feel pain if done longer.  then after awhile victor suggested that we only play the D string.  then he assigned different notes to each of us so we can hear our individual playing.  then victor called it off.

so we begin again with the 2nd primary but this time at 80 bpm.  it seems that after playing at 104 bpm for 30 minutes, we did not feel as much fatigue as before.  we did it for about 10 to 15 minutes then victor called it off.

we put our guitars down and began doing some stretching exercise.

we came back to work on the 1st primary and it's various alternate fingerings.  we played the 1st primary at about 60 bpm.  the team made the effort to play the various alternate fingerings right next to each other and victor would call out the next variation ahead of time.  me and david found that the variation involving the first to the fourth finger in either decending or acsending is quite difficult.  victor stressed the importance of not pressing on to the strings with too much pressure.  another important point was to always be aware of what the fingers are doing, especially the ones that are not playing.  the fingers should always be right above the position where it's going to be placed.  the active fingers should not have any effect on the inactive fingers.  

victor inquired about our job of the day and the circulation of the limbs excersices which brought up some discussions.  

TT

New England Calisthenics Project
Meeting #2

9-28

meli, martin, mary beth, alex, david and victor. we addressed some of the practicalities of the circulation of the attention through the limbs. we then began addressing the right hand and the second primary. we established a slow and steady rythm and victor made individual corrections. victor noted it is a good idea to return to a sense of the wholeness of ourselves between every specific adjustment we might make. otherwise we wont assimilate the effect and direction of the change, and could wind up going in circles. we tried a faster tempo. this made the same corrections more blatant. we took a break and did a long spinal stretch, and followed by a full extension of the arms, and an ancient chinese exercise known as a the bear. this gave us a sense of the fullness of our body. we then resumed our work with the second primary integrating this sense. we were asked to approach this exercise as though we had already mastered it. with a complete sense of the rightness of the functioning of the hand and the whole of the body. we then started the exercise at a slightly faster tempo than before, but stopped shortly into it to see how far we might have strayed from our vision. we then worked in short sprints at this faster speed, keeping our focus on the wholeness and vision of the ideal. for a break victor described his analogy of this work with building a house. how to build a house you need an architect who is reponsible for the vision, a crew who focuses on executing the specific tasks with quality, and the foreman who's work it is to coordinate the tasks and resources of the crew while maintaining contact with the vision of the architect. we are the people buying the house, who need to be on good terms with all 3 of these roles throughout the process. at the end of the night victor made sure there were no questions regarding the functioning of the right hand for the second primary amongst these specific hands. we are going to continue to work with the second primary for this next week.

VM

New England Calisthenics Project
Meeting #1

9-21-03

terry, meli, mary beth and victor arrived and addressed the following: basic circle etiquette, the sometimes seemingly contradictory stategies of working in a circle (i.e. pushing oneself as much as possible, while at the same time having no judgementalism about the success of the quality or quantity of one's efforts....) we addressed the basic relaxation exercise, which is to be done every day for the rest of the project, and the 2nd primary which we are addressing for at least the following week. we are to pay special attention in our work with second primary to those moments where our hand moves from accurate intentional functioning to unintentional ways of moving, and try to observe and understand what the influences are that cause this to happen. some possibilities might be excess tension, emotional turbulence, mental fatigue etc.. the 'limb rotation' exercise was presented. victor spoke how one important aspect of this exercise is to help us observe the extent to which we can have some power over our inner life throughout our day to day life. it will be important if we are to succeed in our stated aims for this project to come to understand and come to terms with which influences and ways of living help us to have power and which ones undermine our power. at 10:15 david and alex arrived from a harrowing drive from connecticut. we spent some extra time with them bringing them up to speed.

VM