Vancouver Open Circle 2

A Tuning the Air Journal

Sunday November 29, 2009 – Vancouver Open Circle 2

I was up early; certainly early for Sunday. I picked Greg up at 8am and we hit the road for Vancouver. It is a little under 3 hours door to door, but the border is the proverbial x-factor, so we need to allow for potential delays should there be a lot of traffic backed up at immigration. As it turned out, no delays this morning. A couple of cars in the line, and we were through in 5 minutes. This meant we arrived at Pablo’s place early enough to go out and grab a late breakfast before heading to the circle. Sotirios was already there. We piled into his van, which was also loaded with chairs, and went to a nearby restaurant for a quick bite, and then on to the studio for the circle.

Pablo’s report of the day is posted on the Guitar Circle and NST page on Facebook.

I concur with his description of events. The facility was less than ideal, but perfectly workable. A better than anticipated turnout. High note for me was having Brock turn up. It has been too long, and his presence in the circle was very helpful.

For myself, these circles, with participants at this level, are pretty labor-intensive. More or less, very little takes on a life of its own, but depends on the circle leader along with the “shills” (the more experienced players sitting in the circle: Pablo, Sotiros, Greg and Brock, in this case), to keep the thing moving. I saw a couple of things about preparing participants that I will communicate to Pablo. My sense is that the local experienced players need to work with the first-timers for an hour or so before the full circle, dealing with tuning and the most rudimentary details of technique. This worked very well in the early Seattle Circle open circles. I also see that for those who may become regular participants in these circles, it would be a good idea to get them together in between scheduled circles, to look at matters of basic technique.

After the circle, we returned to Pablo’s place. Greg and I packed our stuff in my car, and then we chilled out with the family for about 30 minutes, including coffee and patries!, before hitting the road once again. No difficulties on the drive. The border crossing took about 30 minutes this time – no trouble, simple traffic volume. Back in Seattle a little after 7:30. Dropped Greg off and headed to the local pub for a beer and a meal. Very tired.