Meeting Notes #14
Sunday Sept 23, 2002, 8:15pm
Ultimate Self Defense Studio, South Boston, MA
Attendees. Martin B, Glenn H, David K, Alex L, Victor M, Dev R, Terry T

The meeting began without Dev and Martin who were late. A longer than usual
(~20 min) was given to putting attention to the fingers, bones, muscle and
structure of the left hand. Focus was brought to each finger starting with
the thumb and moving to the 4th finger. Attention was placed on each finger
starting with the tip moving to the third bone and associated muscle,
structure and skin, to the third middle joint, then the second
bone onto the second joint, then on to the first bone then the knuckle,
then the bones in the hand that connect to each finger and finally
the hand as a whole including the joint to the wrist. Victor stressed
how important it is to bring this attention when playing.
Trying to hold that attention the first Eb section of Larks Thrak
was attempted, slowly at first and then at a faster rate. The circle
regrouped, three fork tuned (A,G,C) and circulated.
Thrak was attempted. After failing to negotiate the R&R section,
that part was focused on with each section.
Glenn's section was very together (as he was the only person in the section).
Thrak was attempted a few more times
and although stumbles were made at the at the R&R section,
transitions we were finally able to roughly get all the way through.
Then we moved on to Eye of the Needle. After playing through,
Victor had individuals play through a section (lead and bass)
to listen to how we were hearing it as opposed to how we were phrasing it.
Some were asked to play only focusing on how they were hearing the section.
We discussed the lead section and how the focus and the phrasing affected
how it was played and what it would sound like. The basses were reminded that
the full down stroke was to be used with the finger or pick landing on the
next high string at the end of the down stroke.
We worked through a section of Third Relation again focusing on
the lead and bass and the phrasing and its effect on the piece.
Third Relation was played by the group and then Victor broke down
the primary, secondary and tertiary melodies. Victor also stressed
the staccato nature of piece and how that must be practiced at even
slower than normal tempos.
The Eb and A section of Lark's Thrak intro was played at a faster tempo than
the first time and Victor discussed working with a metronome and
how the speed at which you played effected the melodies and
would be different each day. Correct practice was encouraged
as opposed to working at a preset bpm.
We circulated again, a beautiful, then wacky affair
(both ways, confusion, notes, cords, ending
on unique ways to get sound from the guitar,
with Terry playing a chicken pickin cord before
finishing with a more harmonious chord to conclude.

MB

Meeting Notes #13
Curt Golden Takes Our Pulse
Thursday September 15, 2002, 7:30pm
Ultimate Self Defense Studio, South Boston, MA
Present: Martin B., Curt G., Glenn H., David K., Alex L., Victor M., Dev R., Dave T., Terry T.

The team gathered, until we were all present. The seating was rearranged. We were quiet for a few moments. We played a circulation, starting in C, taking a trip through "not C" and returning to C. A few more moments of quiet. Curt said that his approach was to set aside his preconceptions of how the evening might go, and just join the circle. He said his preference was to play rather than talk, and that we should just do what we normally do, as if he was sitting in on our circle for the evening.

We began by playing the "first 8 bars of the 16 bar exercise" (3rd relation exercise) for about 5 minutes. Victor called out Eye of the Needle. Curt played with us, taking the main lead part and the burbles. We played it once through, then again. The team seemed tense, and not jelling. We cycled one phrase (the "D" chord) and tapping our feet, and singing along, first with the lead line, then with the basses. This exercise seemed to help us listen to each other, and the feel improved. We played the piece again, and my impression was that it was a little more relaxed. Victor asked us to take a short quiet break, and to come back and to play the piece with the same sense of listening, but to make an effort to play it as well as we could. We did this, but on returning from the break, the piece quickly fizzled. Victor chose to switch gears, and we moved on to Thrak.

First the "rock and roll" section was presented, then we ran through the whole piece once. We repeated the "marching" exercise from Sunday, standing behind our stools, and marching to keep 8th notes, playing the piece slowly. We ran through it a couple times this way, then Victor told us to exaggerate the "up" part of our marching so it was very clear to us when we were playing on the down and up beats. He asked us to imagine we were really big. We did this, and the piece started to come alive. Several of us seemed to have worked up a little sweat. We sat back down, and played the piece a couple more times, focusing on our right feet tapping the 8th notes in the circle. My impression was that we played it well.

We then played 3rd Relation through "just to check in." Plenty of mistakes, but not horrible. Curt said "Some of those mistakes are so familiar, they're almost parts." Victor took this as an opportunity to remind us that it is useful to learn from our mistakes, and if we notice that we consistently make an error in a particular section, to work on it until we have it ironed out. "Don't let mistakes become parts." He said a rule of thumb is that if you can play a part 7 times in a row without making an error, you have actually have learned it. We played Eye of the Needle again, and though there were mistakes, it felt like the best performance of the evening. Victor acknowledged, in a humorous way, that perhaps we had been a little on edge, playing for "a poo-bah" (the official term).

Curt asked if there were any questions. Alex L asked "What is the Aim for Guitar Craft in North America?" Curt said he's not sure if he is qualified to say what the aim is, but that he's taking the 'pulse' and seeing what one might be. There was some discussion about the future of Guitar Craft in the next 3 to 5 year period. There are many people involved at about our level. How do we get on with it? Victor said his approach is to focus on the immediate work at hand, that he can get lost trying to look at the larger picture. His words echoed my own thoughts. Victor told a couple of stories *.There is a project being planned, and when it arrives, it will be too late to prepare for it. We need to start work now. A month ago. Alex asked, "In relation to the upcoming project in 2006, you have said that the work we need to do needed to start a few months ago. What is it we need to be working on?" Curt said, what if we could take where we have gotten, and yes, it's great we have gotten where we have gotten, but what if we could take our current level, and that was just the beginning? Where could we go? Curt mentioned something Burt L. had said at the recent Colorado weekend: "What if we were to take this stuff about the right hand seriously?" There are of course practicalities, housing, money and so forth that need to be worked out. Curt said, "it's like 'We're going, are you coming?'" Curt asked us each to say our names and our experience in Guitar Craft. Then, he said if there were no more questions, he had two requests. The first was, if we might circulate again. We did, and the feel and listening was elevated from the circulations at the beginning of the night. There were several lovely cadences. After the final cadence, Curt said his second request was, if he might take our pictures. We formed a semi-circle standing, and he did. The meeting adjourned.


*(Victor's Stories: One story was about someone who knocked on their Tai Chi teacher's door, and was turned away, every day for a year, before being admitted. The second was about a friend of his who was on an inner quest in the hills of Kentucky, when in a torrential downpour he came upon a monastery. Taking this a sign, he knocked on the large and imposing door. He knocked again. Finally a peep-hole opened, and he was asked "what do you want?" He said he wanted to come in and live as a monk. The man inside said "wait" and the hole shut. An hour passed, him standing in the rain, before he was admitted. )

GH and AL

[Photo: Curt Golden]

Meeting Notes #12
September 15, 2002, 8:15pm
Present: Glenn H., Alex L., Victor M., Dev R., Dave T., Terry T.

This meeting did not begin with the customary three tuning forks. Rather, Victor began the meeting by showing us the middle sections of Thrak. Since there were six of us, we were split into three groups of two; Dave T. and Glenn H., Dev R. and Alex L., Terry T. and Victor M.
For the first part of the longer "Rock and Roll" section, Dave and Glenn were shown their part, which had chords on beats one and three (of five). Dev and Alex's parts had chords on beats one and four, and Terry and Victor were left with the difficult part, (of which I don't remember). We discussed the form for a little bit, finally settling on 8 bars for the C section, 4 bars for the F section, 4 bars for the C section, 4 bars for the F section, and then 8 bars for the G section. (8,4,4,4,8)

After the form was laid out, we went ahead and learned all three sections, cycling them individually and then as a whole section. We then tried to play from the beginning through that part, (opening 4 bars of 5, the 5 against 7 polyrhythm, and then long Rock and Roll), but it quickly fell apart. We worked on it some more, and then moved on to the shorter "Rock and Roll" section, which we decided to be 8 bars of C, 4 bars of F, and then 8 bars of G. We cycled this for a while as well, and also trying to count and play it. At 9:06 we took a break.

After the break, Victor had us play standing up, shifting our weight back and forth in rhythm while playing. We cylcled the shorter "Rock and Roll" section for a while, really establishing a feel for it. Then we went back to the 5 against 7 polyrhythm section where Victor inserted a fourth part that he played alone, that would be played only during the second time. It was established that Terry, Alex, and Dev played in 5 for the first polyrhythm, while Victor, Dave and Glenn played in 7, and for the second polyrhythm the parts were reversed.

After a while of this, we went back to sitting down again, but while tapping one foot in the circle, so we could all see and make sure that each foot was in time. We worked on the "Rock and Roll" sections, as well as the polyrhythm. By this time, we had made quite an improvement, and then tried going from the 5 against 7 polyrhythm into the first "Rock and Roll" section, and then we did a few run-throughs, which got better over time.

We then tuned, using the three tuning fork method. We then played The Eye of the Needle. Victor asked us how we were coming along with Lark's and the general consent was that we needed more time to get it into our hands. So we moved onto The Third Relation, playing it a few times through.

After The Third Relation, Victor told us to choose 3 notes from a scale that he chose. Then, he instructed us to choose an additional 3 notes from a different scale that was given. We were to play our first three notes when it was the right time, and then to switch to the second set when it was the right time. Finally, we were to return to the first three. It began unconsciously as a quasi-circulation, but then moved into a more free form. There were moments of beauty.

Finally, we came back to Thrak, and ran through it again.

DR

Meeting notes #11
September 8, 2002
Attendees: Martin B., Glenn H., David K., Alex L., Victor M., Dev R., Dave
T., Terry T.

The meeting began with tuning with the 3 tuning forks. Victor began passing
a note to Dave T., which lead to a circulation in C major. After the
circulation ended, Victor passed another note to Dave T. This second round
of circulation was with any note. The circulation came to an end

Eye of the needle
Victor counted off Eye of the Needle and we began the piece. The piece came
to its conclusion.

16 bar exercise
Victor counted off the 16 bar exercise. At one point he asked the members
voice out the up beats with the word 'and'. Then, as we continued the 16
bar exercise, Victor asked us to visualize the up beats with out counting
aloud. One of the challenges presented during this exercise was to maintain
the same quality and duration of each note. Victor asked the group to play
the exercise in staccato which even out the duration of the notes. The
exercise came to an end after several minutes

Third relation
The group performed Third Relation. After its conclusion, Victor discussed
the fact that each of us is struggling in different ways in performing the
pieces we've learned so far. Some issues he could address to the group and
some issues need to be addressed individually. Victor encouraged the
personal lessons with each of the members.

Break

After the break Victor asked each of the members to perform 4 bars of
anything that we have learned so far with quality. Each of us performed our
4 bars. Then Victor asked the group to partner up with the person across
the circle and perform 4 bars of anything learned with quality. Glenn H.
and Dev R. performed 4 bars of Eye of the Needle. Dave T and Terry T
performed the D minor bass line of Third Relation. Martin B., Alex L. and
David K. performed the first 4 bars of the 4/4 section of the Eye of the
Needle. The question came up of whether or not we are more conscious in our
playing when in the group than when we are practicing. We now have a
challenge. How do we perform with the same level of confidence in the group
as we do at home?

Victor asked the group to loop 4 bars of D minor section or Third Relation.
Then the members with the melody part were asked to perform the D minor
section alone. The members with the bass parts performed the D minor
section alone. Both of the parts performed together again, looping the 4
bars of the D minor section.

The same procedure applied to the 4 bars of the A minor section as above.
However, this time Victor asked the melody members to tap the body of the
guitar in eighth notes while the bass members performed the 4 bars of A
minor section and maintain a constant beat. After that the bass members
tapped the guitar while the melody members performed the A minor section.
Afterwards some members of the group felt that the tapping was not constant
and it was sped up towards the end.

Victor asked the members to perform Third Relation in its entirety. The
melody members performed first, then it was the bass members. Victor
mentioned that performing Third Relation should felt like something "regal"
or "royal"

The rest of Larks fingerings and chords were presented.

After learning Larks, the group was divided in two to perform Thrak.
Personally, I felt that the group was closer to "it" than ever before.
There were mistakes but each of us found ways to recover and Thrak continued
on until Victor called it an end. Victor then presented the group with
another exercise. The members were to switch parts after each round. This
exercise presents a good challenge for the members who are more familiar
with the 5 and not the 7 and vise versa.

Circulation
Victor passed a note, which began a circulation in C major. At one point
Victor passed additional note right after the first note. The second note
traveled through the circle as constant as the first note. The circulation
quietly came to an end.

Meeting adjourned

TT

Meeting Notes #10

Who: Glenn H, Alex L, Martin B, Terry T, Victor M, Dave T
When: September 1, 2002, 20:15
Where:Ultimate Self Defense Studio, South Boston, MA

We begin with a moment of quiet, followed by the multi-fork tuning program (A,
then G, then C). This is followed by a circulation, with the following
criteria:

Circulate in C Major (CDEFGAB)
Cued chords in C Lydian (CDEF#GAB)

The circulation presents some beautiful moments, and an ending which is almost
clear. The quality of the circulations have improved over the course of the
past month I have been away.

Following this, a discussion of the letter from Curt to the Circles, and the
Five Questions (capitalization mine). This brings a question to Victor as to
what he sees as the answer to the questions. His answers are interesting
regarding the question of whether we are a Circle or not, and what his aim for
the project is. By the end of the discussion, I'm not sure we have clear
answers to any of the questions, other than that for matters of practicality,
Victor speaks for us.

We then begin Eye of The Needle. The quality of this piece is improving as
well, though maintaining a consistent tempo is still an issue. I have a moment
of complete absence in the introduction, and am unable mentally or physically to
find my place until the beginning of the 4/4 section. Very disconcerting.
After we have played through the piece, we begin to work on playing while
counting, and sub-vocalizing different beats in the 4/4 section. While humorous
at times, it gives a certain underlying rhythm (Boom, Chack, Boom-Boom, Chack)
that provides a different counterpoint to the piece.

From here, a pass at the complete version of Third Relation. I sit out part, so
that I can hear the variations in the lead line that I missed from last week,
and the Dancing D's. After this, we take a break, shortened for Martin and me,
as we learn the parts we are not familiar with.

After the break, we retune and discuss our experiences with the Beginning,
Middle and End. There are some very interesting observations regarding each of
the three parts. Following this, we review the first 8 bars of the Lark's
section of Lark's Thrak, and learn the next 8 bars. This is followed by cycling
the first two sections (5's and first 5 with 7) of the Thrak part of Lark's
Thrak.

We conclude with a circulation having the same criteria as the first.

AL