Saturday October 3, 2009 – Monthly Open Circle and Rehearsal
Nine in the living room for the sitting, including Don D who was in town from Ohio just for the day. Caught up with Don over coffee at my place before heading to Fremont Abbey Arts Center for the Monthly Open Circle.
The list that Igor K sent me of those attending the Circle had 8 names on it, including 2 newcomers and one old-timer we have not seen for quite some time. I knew there would be more than that, since Performance Team members are notorious for not RSVPing.
There were ultimately 14 in the Circle, plus myself on my feet. Neither of the first-timers showed. So I had a large Circle made up entirely of experienced players; some more experienced than others, but nevertheless a much higher level than an Open Circle. So I threw the Open Circle concept out the window and invited the Orchestra to visit. It did not fail me.
- When ready, begin.
- When ready, begin again, Fast.
- When ready, begin again, Autumn.
- When ready, begin again, Rhythm.
Moved on to some circulation exercises in F Harmonic Minor, taking advantage of the high E on Jaxie’s guitar and the high F on Igor’s. So we worked from the lowest C up to an F that few Circles have access to, 4 octaves and a fourth. Circulated a graduated series of diatonic triads, diatonic sevenths, and diatonic seventh combined with the mode they define.
I could have gone on like this all day, but time was not unlimited.
- When ready, begin again, F Harmonic Minor.
- When ready, begin.
Most of us were grabbing lunch or a snack in the break, so it was close to 12:45 before we got down to work in earnest, Don D sitting and observing.
Began with a Division of Attention exercise based on the Running Fives figure from “Eye of the Needle”, counting in 4-bar groups of 4/4 bars. From here to reviewing the placement and count of these lines within the piece. We played through the entire piece several times, with everyone playing their usual parts until the sections with these Running Fives appear, and for those sections everyone playing that part in unison. Pretty revealing, and useful. We finally played the full piece in its full arrangement, and I found that I was able to hear that part, which I often play, with new ears while maintaining contact with my own part.
On to a few rhythmic issues that have arisen in the performance in the Great Hall. Specific work on the Whiz section of the Zeppelin medley, and then moving on to “Thrak”. With “Thrak”, the honeymoon seems to be over, and our weaknesses quickly became very apparent. Addressed them in various ways that revealed much. Ended with a very funny version of a Thrak-related exercise that Tony, Trey and I did for a few weeks at Red Lion House. At this point it began to get fun, and we actually had to cut it off in order to move on to other necessities.
A short break, and then I asked Howard to re-present Luciano’s composition, “La Rueda”, with a particular arrangement I had in mind for the circulations. It involves 6 players on the main part, organized in such a way that the melody rolls across the circle like a wave. The accompaniment part is circulated by the remaining three players: Chris, myself, and Jaxie. We drafted Don to sit in for Jaxie, and in this way we managed to learn the first two sections of the piece in rather short order. It was clear that this is going to be a winner, and so we will follow up in whatever time we can carve out of our rehearsals.
With thirty minutes left, Chris had to leave to go to work. Don put his guitar away, and the remaining 7 of us ran “Cultivating the Beat” and “Where Is The Nurse”. I asked Don if he had any requests, and he responded with “Batrachomyomachy”, which we played. Igor found a brand new mistake to make. Much laughter. The rehearsal was complete.
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