Orchestra of Crafty Guitarists II, Day 2

A Tuning the Air Journal

Sunday October 25, 2009 – Orchestra of Crafty Guitarists II, Day 2

8:55am

A much more Seattle-like morning. Yesterday the weather gods gave us some very fair and sunny weather to greet the arrivals. Today, back to cloud cover and a persistent chill in the air.

Up for sitting at 7:15. Dark in the chapel when we arrive. Breakfast was quiet. That didn’t seem so unusual. This does not strike me as a noisy group. Last June was almost painful at times. Kitchen meeting and first guitar circle this morning. AT for high flyers after lunch. The “low flyers” have rhythm and counting exercise to address.

12:49pm

Watching my opportunities and inclinations to maintain the journal throughout the day beginning to dwindle. We shall see.

Full House/Kitchen meeting in the morning. Many people here who have not had much experience in the Kitchen, or any. This makes things interesting.

First guitar circle at 11:00am. 33 of us sitting, and Robert on his feet. My arithmetic makes that 5 people in the kitchen preparing lunch. Happy to be sitting in the circle rather than standing in the Buddy role. On the other hand… Circulations. “When Ready, Begin”, once with the instruction “Rhythm”, once “Slow to Fast and Back Again”, and once “Low to High”. Always a remarkable experience. Vast cluelessness. Wanking of all sorts. A moment or two, but nothing that would inspire much in the way of Hope. Some circulating with rhythm. Arghh. Circulating assigned notes on the low string, accompanied by a rotation of attention exercise. And then some organized Whiz circulations, also including attention rotation; never quite achieved escape velocity.

Wondering if desperation is really a necessary component of Day 1. A chocolate left on my pillow by a kind soul changed my state, if only a little. Much needed and appreciated.

8:33pm

Good afternoon of work. After lunch, the “Gnarlies” worked in the chapel on counting to 5, 6 and 7, while the high flyers worked with Sandra in the dining hall on “Up” in the form of arising from a chair. A lot of attention required to do something that more or less does itself once you have the hang of it.

Jaxie was in thinking about playing “Brasil” at tea, but after the morning circle I was very hungry to circulate for real. Myself, Jax, Bob, Igor, Ian, and Chris, with Adrian and Tony. I asked for a key suggestion, and Jax immediately responded “the note of your choice.” There you have it. 10 minutes of pure joy, ending with impromptu zithering.

After Tea, some downtime while the AADers met with Robert. Jaxie pulled out the score to a Charles Ives piece she has in mind, and there were enough TTAers close by to work out the circulation part. I was reading, but distracted by what I was hearing, and eventually joined in on the piano left hand. It will be very beautiful.

Body beat with Tony at 6pm, which I needed very much, if only to get my body moving a bit. We went ahead and performed “Brasil” at dinner. Not our best effort, but always a winner.

Large Circle in the chapel coming up at 9:15.

10:31pm

Big Circle. Big, as in 38 people sitting down and Robert on his feet. Orchestra in full exploration mode. “When Ready, Begin.” The first one was completely disrupted by a latecomer who somehow failed to grasp that there was something going on, and managed to blunder around behind the circle, and command all attention in the room, rather than wait quietly until the opportunity to join the group presented itself. A lot of information in every improv. Some good moments. A lot of wanking. Some real listening, and some of whatever the opposite of listening is. Very clear to me that the whole thing hinges on our presence within the group. Doziness is death. Robert gave some very useful direction about what it takes to be in the performing Orchestra, for those with ears to hear. A bit of whizzing, which came close to what we know it can be, at least for bursts and moments.

Not quite as desperate feeling as earlier in the day, but in that place where I just can’t imagine how we are going to get from here to there.

Over dinner, in a discussion about the Alexander Technique work we had done earlier, I described the moment when we move from sitting to standing as “and then a miracle happens.” The Orchestra moving from a pile of guitar players into a cohesive unit is a lot like that.