Orchestra of Crafty Guitarists II, Day 4

A Tuning the Air Journal

Tuesday October 27, 2009 – Orchestra of Crafty Guitarists II, Day 4

11:17am

Awake early for some reason. Sitting was not harassed by thoughts of exercises for the guitar circle, which was a pleasant change. Profound Silence visited about 15 minutes in, hung around for a while, and popped back in for breakfast.

Robert worked with Those Who Fly At A Somewhat More Modest Altitude on the essentials of keeping time for the first hour of the morning. Fernie, Jax and myself in the Buddy role. For me that primarily means sitting off to the side inwardly counting my ass off, and beaming it into the circle as best I can. No evidence of particular success. Kindergarden time.

House of Guitars next.

12:57pm

House of Guitars. Still figuring things out.

10:45pm

Having to reach deep back into my memory now. Lunchtime feels like a lifetime ago. Getting to that point where convenient moments in the day to recapitulate are getting rarer and rarer.

After lunch Jaxie, Sandra and Frank met with Those Who Fly At A Somewhat More Modest Altitude in the Chapel. Sandra and Frank were working their magic on the team while Jaxie worked with them on a guitar exercise she has been chewing on for a day or so. Since lunch I had been sitting in the dining hall to practice, for the first time since I arrived, and elected to stay with it rather than attend this meeting. It felt very good. About 30 minutes into the meeting I did pop in briefly, just to see how it was going, and to offer Jaxie any moral support she might need. In fact, it was going swimmingly well, and they had already gotten much further than I had really expected. So I listened for a few minutes, had a smile or two, and then went back to my practice, delighted to be unnecessary.

At Tea, the team from the chapel marched in, surrounded the dining area, and demonstrated what they had accomplished. It was glorious. I told Jaxie is was a minor miracle. Tony was even more effervescent.

After Tea, Tuning the Air Performance Team+4 met again with Robert in the Chapel to take yesterday’s work a step or two further. Went well beyond that. More later. Or maybe not. Eventually. Some future history I would think.

Body beat; always a tonic.

After dinner, our first Orchestra rehearsal in actual formation. The Tuning the Air Performance Team is the inner circle, augmented by Mary Beth, Pablo and Fernando; a formidable group. Left an open seat for Bob, who will be joining us tomorrow night for rehearsal and Thursday for the gig.

Robert walked us through the general shape of the evening. Tonight’s “When Ready, Please Begin” instructions were particularly silly. Served to loosen up the team, I think, and there were some very good moments, it seemed to me. At least from my seat it all seemed very promising. If nothing else, it was fun, which it was definitely not feeling this morning.

A lot of energy generated for me, for whatever that is worth. Makes the prospect of going to bed a little daunting, but I think that is where I am headed.