Meeting Notes #34
Sunday, February 23, 2003 Attendees – Martin B, Glenn H, David K, Alex L, Victor M, Dev R, Dave T, Terry T,

The meeting began by arranging the stools in a circle and tuning using the three-fork method. Victor stated again that anyone missing a meeting should hook up with someone from the meeting to go over what was covered, in person. Someone asked if that someone had to be Victor and Victor said no but it could be. We brought attention the soles of our feet and the floor and earth. Then we brought attention to our head and the space above it. Then we brought or attention to our whole bodies and the space around it.

We began with the 4th primary on the D string from the second position to the 12th  and back. Victor moved around the circle giving individual notes and guidance.

We worked for the rest of the meeting on Flying Home. Victor went over the structure of the piece:

2 x Am (first time with tag line to back to Am, second time with tag line to Dm)
4 x Dm
4 x E (one beat pause after the second phrase)
4 x Dm

3 x Am (first time with no tag line, second time with tag to Am, third time with tag to Dm)
4 x Dm
4 x F
4 x Dm

4 x Am (first and second with no tag line, third with tag to Am, fourth with tag to Dm but ends with the note A)

Victor went into the other room to work with Terry while everyone else worked on various combinations of the sections. First we ran the A, D, E A. Victor returned and we stood behind our stools and marched to hold the quarter note pulse. We looped the A and D sections. Victor said we should do it until we played it correctly 4 times through. We almost made it. We worked through the various sections, marching to the quarter note pulse. We played it through a few times and then Terry came back in and we ran the complete piece a couple of times with Dave T playing the high part in 6 over the last D section. We worked on the transition from the D to the A sections Victor also had the bases drop the last note out at the end of the E section the second time through. We worked on the transition from the D to the A sections.

We finally ran the entire piece twice.

Victor stated that missing a meeting is now like two so you would have to quadruple the effort to catch up. He will be off next weekend so there is no meeting at the USD studio.

Glenn said we could do a meeting at his place next weekend.

The next formal meeting will be in two weeks and may include an audience with a friend of Victor’s who has a radio show “Beauty in the Margins” (“In the margarine?” Alex asked.) Victor asked us to work/focus on three things as well as Flying Home:

1.The 4th primary and all strings knowing the name of the notes. He said we should have 4 distinct parts:

a.      The “zero position” – the default left hand position for the notes to be played

This should be set over the notes to be played and should not be adjusted during the movement to each position (ie which finger is fretting which note).

b.      The playing of the notes

c.      The simultaneous release (release to just above the string)

d.      The move to the next zero position

2. The hand clapping of the polyrhythm in Larks Thrak.

3. Sitting or relaxation for at least 5 minutes preferably first thing in the morning. Apr´s shower is fine. If not in the morning at least sometime during the day.

After a moment of silence we played a C circulation ending in cords. There seemed to me to be a distinct energy in the room and group.

MB

Meeting Notes #33

Sunday, February 16, 2003

In attendance: Victor, Alex, Glenn, Dave, David, Martin, Dev

Our meeting began with 2 statements from Victor:

For the next portion of the project, if you expect to miss a meeting, it is
important that you meet with someone who was at the meeting, to hear what
happened in person.

Victor would also like to have phone numbers available to everyone. Glenn will
be the clearing house for the numbers.

Following this, Victor led us in an attention exercise: Through the hands;
the area below our feet; above our head; to the front and back; to the
left and right.

Next, Victor presented the fourth primary (or the fifth primary, depending
on who you talk to), in C Major, on the second string, using the open E as
the passing note between positions. Victor mentioned that during the exercise,
one should be aware of relaxing the elbow, simultaneous release of the fingers
of the left hand, one finger not releasing more than any other.

For the rest of the meeting, we began work on Flying Home. The Bass
intro/re-Intro/outro is presented to all. We then split into 2 teams, Bass team (Alex, David, Martin,Dev) to work the intro and D section. Victor, Dave and Glenn work on the leads. We rejoin to work through the intro and D section together. The E and F sections of the Bass are presented to all.
Finally, the form of the piece presented (Intro, D, E, D, re-Intro,
D, F, D, outro). We should concentrate on this work, with emphasis on the
transitions. Also, we should revisit Thrak in the hands, with counting of each
part, and tapping the foot in 4.

AL

Meeting Notes #32

Sunday, February 9, 2003

Attendees: Terry T, Martin B, Glenn H, David K, Victor M, Alex L, Dev R
Place: Ultimate Self Defense Studio, South Boston, MA

The meeting began with a question to each participant: What do you need to
work on in order to achieve the aim of the course? We each explained what
we thought our individual work needed to be, and Victor asked pertinent and
probing questions to help us be clear about what that work was.

Next, we worked our way through four of the repertoire pieces: Eye of the
Needle, Third Relation, Lark's Thrak and Calliope. In particular, Calliope
had an improved quality of "togetherness and fun" that had been missing to
this date. The basses especially noted that they felt more together than
they had ever been. At this time we noted that our tempos had been much
steadier as well. Victor noted that this was the case after we, as a group,
had decided that we would no longer speed up. He also suggested that we
should make the decision as a group to apply this other areas of the work.

Finally, as we concluded the meeting, Victor suggested that, on the way
home, we each review the meeting in our heads.

AL

January 26, 'Super Bowl Sunday' 7:30 PM.
Glenn's house, 40 Sargent Ave, Somerville MA.
Glenn Hughes and Terry Tungjunyatham in attendance.

The meeting had been officially canceled, but Terry hadn't found out about the cancelation. We decided to work for a while together.

*Tuning using a modified "two fork" method.
*5 minutes or so, working on the '8 bars of the 16 bar' exercise.
*Calliope. We ran through the song at approximately 92. Sloppy. We spent some time focusing on the hard parts, working on keeping the fingers moving independently, and using less pressure. Also transitions. Ran though the piece again at a slower tempo. More personal practice is required.
*3rd primary/note name exercise. Terry demonstrated how he has been working on singing solfège syllables with the notes. Glenn demonstrated the note names from top to bottom. We ran through the note names once together.
*"Ping Pong" circulation in C Major.
*Played C Major from low C to high C (17th fret of G string) trading notes. Then just up and back down at a faster tempo in the 3 octaves, trading notes.
*Worked on playing thirds up and down in the first 3 octaves in the key of C Major, and then sixths. Played the sixths both in unison, and trading notes.
*Played through Larks Intro twice. Looped the transition from Gb to Eb.
*Looked at what playing at 120 bpm is like... Talked about strategies for picking at higher tempos.
*Played through 3rd Relation twice. The first time we began much too fast, probably being influenced by the work we had just done at speed picking. It fell apart in the final descending line. Began again at 88 bpm, and played it through reasonably well.
*Eye of the Needle. There was some push and pull on the tempo. Fairly clean otherwise.
*Talked for a while about stick playing,and our progress as aspiring guitarists. Worked a little on chord forms.

GH

Meeting Notes #30
Sunday, January 19, 2003

We began with Victor leading us through a relaxation exercise. At the end, Victor asked us to try and take the whole-body awareness we had and try to maintain some part of it while we watched and listened to our performance from Friday night. It was suggested that this could enable us to experience it in a less judgemental way. We than watched and listened to the performance, with some good-natured ribbing along the way. We then discussed various aspects of the performance and the preparation beforehand along with some issues about where we were and what still needed to be done. One particular moment that stuck out for me was us talking about the quality of work that still needed to get done, and Victor saying that in fact the project itself isn't really the repertoire itself, it's the things we are trying to incorporate into our playing.

DK

Friday, January 17 2003

GCNE's Second public performance.
9 PM, Boston Center for the Arts
539 Tremont Street, Boston

After the performance, Victor said that the event had the quality of the middle. Thinking back on it, I believe we had a taste of what the end might be like. We have come a distance to get this taste, yet, there is still much work to be done.

GH

Meeting Notes #29
Sunday, January 12, 2003

Attendees: Martin B, Glenn H, David K, Victor M, Dave T, Terry T
Place: Ultimate Self Defense Studio, South Boston, MA

Glenn Writes:

We formed our stools in a semi-circle and ran through the pieces. Victor gave us some pointers about how to approach our upcoming performance. He said that we should generate our physical presence, even before we come on stage. The moment we are on stage the performance as begun. An old Crafty practice is to, once standing on stage, first look at each other, acknowledging the team, then look at the audience, then back to each other, then sit down. Just this can communicate a lot.

David Writes:

I remember this a bit differently. I thought it was bring attention to your self, to your hands, to the group, to the audience, and to the group again. I don't remember "look" being mentioned.

Also, I think it was this meeting where Victor mentioned the thing I brought up last night; if during a performance you find you are having trouble bringing attention to your hands, instead of withdrawing your attention inwards, try expanding outwards.

Terry Writes:

I came in while the team was going through the Third Relation. For a moment I became an audient. I observe the team perform while trying to imagine what type of contribution that I can make to the team when I join in.

After the team was done, I sat down and Victor called for Third Relation again.

Victor then called for Larks Thrak. The Larks section was not quite together and the Thrak section flopped. We performed the piece again. This time Thrak was good but Larks was still not together. So Victor got up and stood across us while we play. Victor came back to the group and asked that we play Larks in a faster tempo. We performed Larks twice more in this fashion. A question was raised about the parts and Victor clarified the mixed up in the C section. Victor mentioned that it is not uncommon to drop out when we're unsure of the parts.

Next is Calliope. The group was not quite together when coming back into the re-intro. Dave T. suggests that we count 3-4 silently. Victor called for Calliope once more but at a much faster tempo. He said that this is close to the intended tempo of the piece.

A circulation began in C maj then slowly drifts in to something else. The challenge was to keep the circulation fluid and consistent. We were successful for a few of rounds.

The final piece was Aspiration. A question was raised afterwards if Victor would be the only one to do the solo in the middle. Victor said that for now he should be the one to do it. For performance note, the beginning and the end should be played with harmonics only.

Afterwards, we had a q&a session about the upcoming performance. Victor will be away on Sunday 26th. Meeting adjourned with a brief period of silence.

Alex Writes:

As we reviewed our work "performing" the pieces, some observations were made
regarding the quality: that we were still missing too many notes, that our tempo
was much better, that our playing was more together. One of the team expressed
the hope that this quality of togetherness could be brought to the performance,
without the excess fear and excitement that usually accompanies a performance.

Victor related a Guitar Craft tradition in preparing for the performance. One
starts with attention in your own hands and body, then outward to the rest of
the group, next out to the audience, back to the group, and finally returning to
the body and hands. A progression that starts from within, to outside yourself
and back again. In this way we can establish a presence for ourselves, before a
performance begins, rather than during it. This can have a remarkable effect on
an audience, and has been known to sharpen their attention to the group as they
arrive.

Our performance begins before we take the stage.

Summary

Since September we have continued to focus on the following pieces: Circulation, Larks/Thrak, Aspiration, Eye of the Needle, Third Relation and Calliope. We have focused on principled use of both hands, the ability to maintain directed contact with the wholeness of the hands, intonation and tuning, simultaneous contact with the 1/4 note pulse,16th note grid and key melodic phrase points of the pieces, accent picking, the ability to visualize the larger moment of the piece, awareness of our nonverbal communication with others in the group and our connection with our aim.
We have given one private performance for a single listener, who a happened to be a gifted musician. His first comment was: "It was more like hearing one big guitar player than several different players."
We have given one public performance. This one resulted in the immediate solicitation to perform in two different venues. The public performance very much had the feel of a new beginning. Like many moments of the project so far, the whole of the group seemed to far exceed the ability of the sum of its members. It would seem to mark the beginning of the middle.
The team was asked to be clear that should performance be undertaken to explore the stated principles of the project through different conditions and energies, it must remember that the experience is in service of the aim of the project, not and end in itself, and its success will be measured by whether it helping us toward the aim of the project.

The aim of the next stretch will be to complete the beginning and begin the end. This will mean, being able to actually fulfill on all the separate intents of the project while letting go enough to have an identifiable new ability to coordinate them together. It will mean learning Bicycling to Afghanistan and Flying Home. It will probably involve unforeseeable events and tactics to create new seats of experiential insight into the wholeness of the aim of the project.

Author: VM
Editor: GH

Meeting Notes #28
Sunday, January 5, 2003

Attendees: Martin B, Glenn H, David K, Victor M, Dave T, Terry T
Place: Ultimate Self Defense Studio, South Boston, MA

We began by tuning using the three-fork method.

Victor started by discussing the ramifications of the performance at All Asia Café.

He said that it might signal the end of the beginning of the project and/or the beginning of the middle. The performance had the quality of the enthusiasm that was there at the beginning of the project. That being said the middle is also the most difficult part of the project.

Middle of the beginning: Turning a corner, finishing up the beginning, preparing for the end. You have to work really hard, but paradoxically, you have to also let go of working hard in the way that you did at the beginning. You start to catch glimmers of what the end will be like.

We need to make sure we are applying the correct principles to both hands and the bringing of attention to our hands is of paramount importance. We discussed what the three major problems seemed to have been at the performance. Martin said that the speed of Third Relation was too fast. Victor said that yes tempo was one problem. Martin said the louder pieces especially Larks Thraak were difficult due to the inability to hear all the parts. Victor said there were two more major problems. One was attention in our hands, exemplified by the open strings and incorrect notes in the beginning of Eye of the Needle.

The other was tuning. David said the environment made it difficult to hear the beat of his strings. Victor stated that we have to be careful to keep in focus the original aims of the project and that was not performance. While the performance may me a good gauge or tool to judge the state of the group it should be used as a lens with which to view the status of the project with respect to the original aims. That not to say that the performance is not enjoyable and a worthwhile endeavor to be undertaken. Honor the project by putting the performance within its context.

We then worked on some exercises to assist us in addressing some of these issues. First without guitars we did an exercise to help us be aware of the time grid of quarter and sixteenth notes behind the music. While marching in place in quarter notes we tapped with out hands on our chests in sixteenth notes. Victor stressed the importance of making the notes even. We then used this exercise with a vocalization of the beats of the bass and lead parts of the main melody section of Calliope. We all did both the bass and lead sections separately and then split into the parts we actually play in the song. After doing this as an entire group, Victor called on bass and lead duos to perform the exercise individually (Terry and Dave, Glen and David, Dave and Martin). Victor stressed the importance in keeping the vocalization, to a short syllable, and staccato in nature. He said that all master musicians are able to have this time/pulse grid available to them and that was one of the differences between competent musicians and masters. He discussed how we must work on and make a physicalization of this focus part of our practice and playing.

He discussed how the focus on each of the different (1/4, 1/16, plus where we were placing our notes) times would allow us to regulate the tempo of the piece. While the focus solely on quarter notes might tend to slow a piece down, focus solely on 16th notes might tend to speed a piece up. By being aware of the three time grids we would be able to pick our tempo and adjust it as necessary. Victor related how he had used this to help master a Tony Geballe piece that had a 16th note rest section.

Victor asked us to incorporate this exercise into our practice routine for at least few (3 – 5) minutes per day.

Then with guitars we moved on to the issue of tuning. Victor showed us an exercise that he wished us to do to help with being aware of tuning. While playing one note continuously cross-picked he vocalized that same note. He then vocalized the third and fifth harmonics and their corresponding fretted note. The third harmonic was slightly sharp or flat compared to it's harmonic. Victor said we should be able to be aware of that difference. David asked what we can do if, in performance, you find one of your stings is sharp. Bending a flat sharp or pulling the string towards the bridge to flatten a sharp was shown. Victor said a small about of vibrato was permissible with going overboard. Victor said it was very important for the basses to be aware of this especially in a piece like Eye and was a major factor in defining the performance of the song. The basses should also be aware of what they are playing with respect to the lead for example the root, third or fifth. Victor again said we should incorporate this exercise into our practice routine for at least few (3 – 5) minutes per day.

Victor stated that the specific energy that was generated by the performance was available and could be put back into the group. There were things like the monitor situation that was out of our control but this would often be the case. Victor said he sometimes picks closer or further away from the bridge as to be able to hear himself in the mix.

We then worked on attention in the hands. Victor again stressed how important this and this was why he asked us to do this each time before we played. He discussed the bringing of attention to each part of both hands and both hands as a whole and how we must work on this as much as possible. Victor said it amount that we would be able to do this would vary greatly day to day. We should start off, trying to keep our attention in our hands for short then longer and longer periods of time. If we can do it do it for fractions of a minute, can we extend that to minutes, then an entire song, or a group of songs.

Victor said our brain telling us to wait for a time that would be better to do this should not dissuade us. Regardless of being tired or other factors we should still work on this. It's always about moving from where you are when you begin, to someplace a little farther along when you end, not about achieving some absolute goal.

We then worked on playing with attention in our hands. We looped the main melody section of Third Relation, first just playing it to get warmed up. Victor showed Martin some wrong notes he was playing. Then we looped it again trying to keep our attention in both hands. Victor stated that a this point we should all be aware and applying the correct right and left hand technique. He stressed that at the beginning of the middle these fundamentals are the hardest part and that private lessons (Victor said jokingly “I'll give them away at this point, just don't tell my wife!”) were of utmost importance, especially if you have problems with or questions about these fundamentals.

He said, when you get to a point where you using your fingers in exactly the way you would like to, you are half way there. The next step is to extend the duration that you can stay focused on how you are using your hands. You can shift your attention around. What is your 4th finger doing? What is your right hand doing? Stay with the part of your hands that you choose for as long as you can.

Bringing the attention to the hands: connects the inner musician with the outer.

Glenn remarked that when he is improvising, and it starts to go really well, he freaks out, and it crumbles. Victor said that, at that point, people who are not egotistical have the choice to not freak out, whereas people who are talented have the choice to make it not about their egos. He said that's why Guitar Craft tends to attract people who are not particularly talented, or people who have chosen to set their egos aside.

We then played through some of the repertoire. Third Relation was first. Victor asked Dave to play the “burbles” with down strokes. Dave said he had changed it when Curt was there because he felt it fit better with the way the group was playing it. Victor said the down stroke would be our version.

We then played Calliope. The clean picking and the transitions for the descending lines for the leads and transitioning for the tag to the intro (without string scrape) were discussed as things to focus on. The rest from tag to the intro was discussed.

We played Larks Three times. The first time I felt Larks wasn't bad but Thraak was very disjointed. The second time was not much better. Victor said we should focus on that time grid and our physicalization of it, as we were not rocking out the R&R section. It is honorable to "sit out" the intro but Victor hopes that we would bias towards jumping in. This is not a performance project, so it is not our concern what the world thinks about us. The third time was better than the first two and Victor commented better that the performance at All Asia. He suggested we revisit the work on this that we did in the beginning of the project as this piece holds great perils if played incorrectly, but could be impressive if played correctly. Victor said not that we are trying to impress anyone, but our inner audient, and we must be careful to not chastise ourselves about our mistakes.

Aspiration: In the beginning, everyone should stick to harmonics.

We took a break

We finished up with circulations. Victor stressed how the physical gesture of receiving and passing the note became more important in a live performance. He also stated that we should be able to handle faster tempos in circulations. We played three circulations the first going one direction, he second and third going both directions across the circle.

Victor stressed that this was not a game and could not be planned. We should keep in mind the idea of this sounding as one guitar and to be aware of the musicality when playing the right notes. The more choices there are in a circulation, the more there is the possibility of making it about your choice, rather than about the music.

The next meeting will be January 12th at 7:30 following the Bennett meeting.

MB with additions by GH