A Tuning the Air Journal
Saturday December 19, 2009 – Season Completion, House Circle
Full company gathered at Bob and Jaxie’s place for thoughts, recapitulations and observations regarding the season just completed. As always, these meetings begin slowly and a little awkwardly, but once there is a little momentum great stuff appears. Very good and useful observations from all around the room. We took care to stay with the current season, and avoided having the meeting morph into an opening planning meeting for the next season, but much of what came up will have strong bearing on how we go about working in the rehearsal period for Season Nine.
We acknowledged the contributions Igor has made to the production, and welcomed Mary Beth to the performance team. Shortly after noon, we declared the season complete and the break begun. It will be a short break (I keep thinking of it as a “power nap”), and then we will have 9 weeks of work before many of us head to Italy for the GC completion course and OCG special project. Opening night will be shortly after our return.
I dashed home to meet my afternoon student at 1pm. At 2pm the House Circle (or triangle, as the Greg/Christina/Mary Beth trio has been dubbed) arrived. Staying with the theme from recent weeks, we worked on developing an ear for the significance of notes and note combinations through the exploration of diatonic arpeggios. Today it was seventh chords in C Major. Interestingly, this week the trio grasped and managed a certain command of this one rather quickly, and so we made it much further than I had anticipated. And again, the free circulation at the end of 90-minutes of this kind of focused work had a very marked presence of intention and musicality that was not in the opening circulation of the day.
Sounds like the House Circle will be continuing to meet through the holiday break.
My commitment to maintaining a Tuning the Air journal is completed with this post. Over the break I will make decide whether or not to recommit for the next season.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Tuning the Air 173; Closing Night 2009, part 2
A Tuning the Air Journal
Thursday December 17, 2009 – Tuning the Air 173; Closing Night 2009, part 2
The setlist, as recalled by the House Manager, with corrections and verifications from the team:
Tuning the Air 173
Thursday December 17, 2009
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle, WA
Fall Season Show #11
Preshow:
Thursday December 17, 2009 – Tuning the Air 173; Closing Night 2009, part 2
The setlist, as recalled by the House Manager, with corrections and verifications from the team:
Tuning the Air 173
Thursday December 17, 2009
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle, WA
Fall Season Show #11
Preshow:
Joel Palmer ImprovisationsSet:
Cultivating the Beat – preplanned
Twilight – from the Hat, called by Jaxie
Touchdown Tornado, improv – from the Hat, called by Jaxie
Brazil – called by Howard
Shostakovich Prelude XXII – from the Hat, called by Taylor
Poker Night, improv – from the Hat, called by Bob
Bus Artist – from the Hat, called by Bob
Circulation in C Harmonic Minor – requested by Bob (after Voices was pulled from the Hat)
Voices of Ancient Children – from the Hat, called by Curt
Jaxie talked
Horn Up Your Ass for Jaxie's Birthday, played standing (all except Jaxie), called by Curt
Kashmir – preplanned
Batrachomyomachy – from the Hat, called by Curt
F major – from the Hat, called by Chris (Joel's choice of Hat--mystery or repertoire)
In My Room – from the Hat (Joel's choice of Hat--mystery or repertoire)
Little Gangsters – called by Jaxie
Wig Maker with swirl circulation – Curt called "one more" from the Hat; performance team extra connection/communication was needed to make sure this began with the swirl rather than right into the Wig Maker, which in Curt's words was "really good"
La Rueda – called by Igor (just as Curt was about to say "Igor's choice")
Thrak – preplanned
Eye of the Needle – preplanned
About forty percent of the audience gave a standing ovation, then folks began to slip out, get coats . . .Encore:
None this evening
Tuning the Air 173; Closing Night 2009
A Tuning the Air Journal
Thursday December 17, 2009 – Tuning the Air 173; Closing Night 2009
For the record...
Tuning the Air 173
Thursday December 17, 2009
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle, WA
Fall Season Show #11
This is the completion of 5 years of work. Some notable notes and dates:
Thursday December 17, 2009 – Tuning the Air 173; Closing Night 2009
For the record...
Tuning the Air 173
Thursday December 17, 2009
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle, WA
Fall Season Show #11
This is the completion of 5 years of work. Some notable notes and dates:
- The first appearance of "something" was on Dec 12, 2004, at the closing feast of a work weekend with the Pear Tree Group and out of town guests, at Trinity.
- The first performance of what would become Tuning the Air was on Feb 21, 2005, at Trinity.
- The first performance under the name, Tuning the Air, was on Apr 11, 2005 at Trinity.
- 2005: 38 shows from Apr 11 - Dec 26, every Monday "without fail". Yes, we performed the day after Christmas.
- 2006: 42 shows from May 6 - Dec 18
- 2007: 35 shows, in 2 "seasons". The spring season was 20 shows at Trinity. Fall was 15 shows split between Trinity and CHAC
- 2008: 26 shows, Thursdays at FAAC, in 2 seasons, in the Cafe.
- 2009: 32 shows in 2 seasons. Winter/spring in the Cafe, autumn in the Great Hall.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Rehearsal at the Wilsons
A Tuning the Air Journal
Monday December 14, 2009 – Rehearsal at the Wilsons
Final rehearsal of the season, and a transitional moment. Except for La Rueda, which we had set aside for tonight when we were all present, we made no particular effort to practice or drill anything. Lots of circulating and improvising, and then pieces called as the spirit moved. In My Room and the Shostakovich Prelude came up, and as circulated pieces that was certainly a good and useful call, but no sense of pressure to “fix” anything. We play these pieces and we know how to play these pieces, so simply recalling them to the hands is sufficient. Some discussion about Cultivating the Beat, and how it works in the lead-off slot of the set.
Onward to closing night, a very short break, and then the future.
Monday December 14, 2009 – Rehearsal at the Wilsons
Final rehearsal of the season, and a transitional moment. Except for La Rueda, which we had set aside for tonight when we were all present, we made no particular effort to practice or drill anything. Lots of circulating and improvising, and then pieces called as the spirit moved. In My Room and the Shostakovich Prelude came up, and as circulated pieces that was certainly a good and useful call, but no sense of pressure to “fix” anything. We play these pieces and we know how to play these pieces, so simply recalling them to the hands is sufficient. Some discussion about Cultivating the Beat, and how it works in the lead-off slot of the set.
Onward to closing night, a very short break, and then the future.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Sitting, Meeting, Rehearsal, House Circle
A Tuning the Air Journal
Saturday December 12, 2009 – Sitting, Meeting, Rehearsal, House Circle
Saturday morning is effectively my morning to “sleep in”. Even though there is a group sitting at my place, it is 90 minutes later than the weekday sittings, so I get to indulge myself. The cat, however, does not recognize the difference between weekdays and weekends, so sleeping in is really more of a pipe dream than a reality.
After a coffee break, we took the first 30 minutes of what would normally be rehearsal time to meet with the full company and work out the logistics of next Thursday; what will we load out of the Abbey after the show, where will it go, how will it get there? Those decisions made, we moved on to more important questions, like how many and what kind of pizza to order for the after show, end of season, bash at my place. Finally, a quick decision about the schedule for the completion meeting for the season, and that was that.
Rehearsal was without Travis, who is in Oregon this weekend on family business, and Bob who was home on family business. We circulated a bit and then continued the practice of running everything that is in the Hat of Repertoire (as well as a few things that are not) in order to ensure that anything called during performance is indeed performance ready. We stopped to iron out one or two rough spots, and skipped over a couple of pieces that really need the full group, putting them off until Monday night. We are not diving into anything new at this stage. The work for next season will involve a great deal of that, as well as reevaluation of current repertoire. For this season, now only one gig to go, playing what we play as well as it can be played is the plan. We wrapped things up a little early, which gave me the opportunity to grab a little lunch before the House Circle met.
Three for the HC meeting; Mary Beth, Christina and Greg. The key of the day was C Harmonic Minor, and I had them begin with a free circulation in that key, “the notes of your choice, the direction of your choice.”
For the balance of the 90-minute meeting we worked through a sequence of arpeggios in this key, moving through diatonic triads in all inversions. It was a 4-note figure played by 3 people, played in 6/8, which meant there was a discontinuity between the musical form and the “feel” which ended up being the primary grist for today’s mill. Somehow, we never take these things quite as far as I originally imagine will be possible in and hour and a half, but there is a substantial track record for hitting the mark on exactly what needs to be worked on.
Before calling it a day, I again called C Harmonic Minor to be circulated with “the notes of your choice, the direction of your choice.” The difference in the quality of this circulation in contrast to the opening one was striking. Living in a key for 90 minutes, the notes begin to take on significance, even if we don’t have the vocabulary to articulate how it works. It never fails to move me.
At the House Circle, I sit outside of the circle, generally without my guitar unless there is something that needs to be demonstrated. I direct the action, unfolding the complete exercise I have in mind as logically as I can without resorting to more than a few words. It is a very valuable exercise for me, although energetically taxing. I suspect the team sometimes thinks I am just tormenting them; as soon as they begin to get it, I tend to up the ante, and the pattern is so well established that at this point they can generally anticipate what the next iteration is going to involve – although they often leap a few steps ahead to something we may or may not actually get to.
What is so challenging for me, and the reason I am generally exhausted when it is over, is that the “deal” I have made with myself is that I will play every note myself, in visualization. I don’t ask anyone to play something I can’t play myself, and so I play everything in my head. I fail with regularity, but for the most part I can tell them what note they are playing and where it can be found on the guitar and on what beat or part of the beat it should fall, at any time. This takes a pretty major effort, which is sustained for the entire 90 minutes.
This is a practice/technique/strategy I found/fell into on Saturday September 9, 2000. It was in Lebanon, NJ. The Level One course was completed and the beginners were on their way home, but the Level Two+ course was extended out another day and a half. It was late morning in the gymnasium we used as a ballroom. The L2’s had been given the challenge of circulating a 4-octave C Major scale up and down without making a mistake – in this exercise when anyone hits a wrong note, the group begins again, with the person who made the mistake initiating the new beginning. The instruction is not to leave the room until the task has been successfully completed, and has been known to take many hours. With this group it took about 2 hours – as I recall they were a little late for lunch, but did not miss it entirely. I was sitting outside of the circle, without a guitar, observing and lending my attention and support. I think Tony and Bill were doing the same, although I cannot be certain of my memory in this. Sitting still, maintaining a part of my attention in my body, and following the progress of the exercise, I began to “play” every note in my head in the form of a very focused visualization. I also said the name of the note, internally, the scale degree and the solfege syllable. I did this with every note. If the next note was to be middle C, I would see my finger on the note on the fretboard, see it on the staff, hear the word “C”, hear the word “1”, and hear the word “Do”, all simultaneously. And since it took so long and so many attempts, I was able to “see” the note played in every conceivable location: there are 3 places that middle C can be played.
When I walked into the room that day, I had a journeyman’s command of C Major. That is, I knew it exactly as well as the demands on me required me to know it. I could get around gaps in my knowledge by sticking to my comfort zones. It was a completely workable and functional “knowledge”. When I walked out of the room, I was profoundly exhausted, but I could say “I know C Major on the guitar in New Standard Tuning.” It was a remarkable leap, accomplished without every laying my hands on an instrument.
Since then, it has been one of my primary learning tools.
Saturday December 12, 2009 – Sitting, Meeting, Rehearsal, House Circle
Saturday morning is effectively my morning to “sleep in”. Even though there is a group sitting at my place, it is 90 minutes later than the weekday sittings, so I get to indulge myself. The cat, however, does not recognize the difference between weekdays and weekends, so sleeping in is really more of a pipe dream than a reality.
After a coffee break, we took the first 30 minutes of what would normally be rehearsal time to meet with the full company and work out the logistics of next Thursday; what will we load out of the Abbey after the show, where will it go, how will it get there? Those decisions made, we moved on to more important questions, like how many and what kind of pizza to order for the after show, end of season, bash at my place. Finally, a quick decision about the schedule for the completion meeting for the season, and that was that.
Rehearsal was without Travis, who is in Oregon this weekend on family business, and Bob who was home on family business. We circulated a bit and then continued the practice of running everything that is in the Hat of Repertoire (as well as a few things that are not) in order to ensure that anything called during performance is indeed performance ready. We stopped to iron out one or two rough spots, and skipped over a couple of pieces that really need the full group, putting them off until Monday night. We are not diving into anything new at this stage. The work for next season will involve a great deal of that, as well as reevaluation of current repertoire. For this season, now only one gig to go, playing what we play as well as it can be played is the plan. We wrapped things up a little early, which gave me the opportunity to grab a little lunch before the House Circle met.
Three for the HC meeting; Mary Beth, Christina and Greg. The key of the day was C Harmonic Minor, and I had them begin with a free circulation in that key, “the notes of your choice, the direction of your choice.”
For the balance of the 90-minute meeting we worked through a sequence of arpeggios in this key, moving through diatonic triads in all inversions. It was a 4-note figure played by 3 people, played in 6/8, which meant there was a discontinuity between the musical form and the “feel” which ended up being the primary grist for today’s mill. Somehow, we never take these things quite as far as I originally imagine will be possible in and hour and a half, but there is a substantial track record for hitting the mark on exactly what needs to be worked on.
Before calling it a day, I again called C Harmonic Minor to be circulated with “the notes of your choice, the direction of your choice.” The difference in the quality of this circulation in contrast to the opening one was striking. Living in a key for 90 minutes, the notes begin to take on significance, even if we don’t have the vocabulary to articulate how it works. It never fails to move me.
At the House Circle, I sit outside of the circle, generally without my guitar unless there is something that needs to be demonstrated. I direct the action, unfolding the complete exercise I have in mind as logically as I can without resorting to more than a few words. It is a very valuable exercise for me, although energetically taxing. I suspect the team sometimes thinks I am just tormenting them; as soon as they begin to get it, I tend to up the ante, and the pattern is so well established that at this point they can generally anticipate what the next iteration is going to involve – although they often leap a few steps ahead to something we may or may not actually get to.
What is so challenging for me, and the reason I am generally exhausted when it is over, is that the “deal” I have made with myself is that I will play every note myself, in visualization. I don’t ask anyone to play something I can’t play myself, and so I play everything in my head. I fail with regularity, but for the most part I can tell them what note they are playing and where it can be found on the guitar and on what beat or part of the beat it should fall, at any time. This takes a pretty major effort, which is sustained for the entire 90 minutes.
This is a practice/technique/strategy I found/fell into on Saturday September 9, 2000. It was in Lebanon, NJ. The Level One course was completed and the beginners were on their way home, but the Level Two+ course was extended out another day and a half. It was late morning in the gymnasium we used as a ballroom. The L2’s had been given the challenge of circulating a 4-octave C Major scale up and down without making a mistake – in this exercise when anyone hits a wrong note, the group begins again, with the person who made the mistake initiating the new beginning. The instruction is not to leave the room until the task has been successfully completed, and has been known to take many hours. With this group it took about 2 hours – as I recall they were a little late for lunch, but did not miss it entirely. I was sitting outside of the circle, without a guitar, observing and lending my attention and support. I think Tony and Bill were doing the same, although I cannot be certain of my memory in this. Sitting still, maintaining a part of my attention in my body, and following the progress of the exercise, I began to “play” every note in my head in the form of a very focused visualization. I also said the name of the note, internally, the scale degree and the solfege syllable. I did this with every note. If the next note was to be middle C, I would see my finger on the note on the fretboard, see it on the staff, hear the word “C”, hear the word “1”, and hear the word “Do”, all simultaneously. And since it took so long and so many attempts, I was able to “see” the note played in every conceivable location: there are 3 places that middle C can be played.
When I walked into the room that day, I had a journeyman’s command of C Major. That is, I knew it exactly as well as the demands on me required me to know it. I could get around gaps in my knowledge by sticking to my comfort zones. It was a completely workable and functional “knowledge”. When I walked out of the room, I was profoundly exhausted, but I could say “I know C Major on the guitar in New Standard Tuning.” It was a remarkable leap, accomplished without every laying my hands on an instrument.
Since then, it has been one of my primary learning tools.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Tuning the Air 172
A Tuning the Air Journal
Thursday December 10, 2009 – Tuning the Air 172
Arrival and setup again went swimmingly fast and without incident. I got a lot of personal practice in, as a result, and as more players joined in we did a fair amount of group warmup as well.
Good house, once more. Very receptive audience. The Hat was remarkable, with a couple of fascinating “coincidences”. The setlist, as recorded by the House Manager and amended slightly in emails from Greg and Joel, was as follows:
Tuning the Air 172
Thursday December 10, 2009
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle, WA
Fall Season Show #10
Preshow:
*After Batrachomyomachy was called by Igor, we returned to the Hat, and out came, naturally, Batrachomyomachy. An audience member’s cell phone went off, and it was taking some time to find it. I quickly determined the ring tone was in C Major, and called for a C Major Improv. The audience member slipped out to deal with finding and silencing the phone. After C Major, In My Room was just screaming to be played, so I called it. Moving on from there we again consulted the Hat, and sure enough, In My Room was the next to come out. At least that’s how I remember the unfolding of events.
Thursday December 10, 2009 – Tuning the Air 172
Arrival and setup again went swimmingly fast and without incident. I got a lot of personal practice in, as a result, and as more players joined in we did a fair amount of group warmup as well.
Good house, once more. Very receptive audience. The Hat was remarkable, with a couple of fascinating “coincidences”. The setlist, as recorded by the House Manager and amended slightly in emails from Greg and Joel, was as follows:
Tuning the Air 172
Thursday December 10, 2009
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle, WA
Fall Season Show #10
Preshow:
Joel Palmer ImprovisationsSet:
Cultivating the Beat – preplannedEncore:
Little Gangsters – from the Hat
Whatever you were going to play, play something else - from the Hat of Mystery
Shostakovich Prelude XXII - from the Hat
Basketball for Nine Guitarists - from the Hat of Mystery
Brasil – from the Hat
Lament – from the Hat
My Precious Dream – from the Hat
Jaxie talked to the audience
Kashmir – preplanned
Tuning the Air - from the Hat of Mystery (scale picked by Taylor, F minor)
Batrachomyomachy – called by Igor*
C major improv called by a cell phone ring in the audience and then by Curt
In My Room - called by Curt*
Long Ago Today - from the Hat (Jaxie chose to trust the Hat)
Bus Artist – called by Jaxie
La Rueda – from the Hat
Thrak – preplanned
Eye of the Needle – preplanned
Twilight – called in the Green Room
*After Batrachomyomachy was called by Igor, we returned to the Hat, and out came, naturally, Batrachomyomachy. An audience member’s cell phone went off, and it was taking some time to find it. I quickly determined the ring tone was in C Major, and called for a C Major Improv. The audience member slipped out to deal with finding and silencing the phone. After C Major, In My Room was just screaming to be played, so I called it. Moving on from there we again consulted the Hat, and sure enough, In My Room was the next to come out. At least that’s how I remember the unfolding of events.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Rehearsal at the Wilsons
A Tuning the Air Journal
Monday December 7, 2009 – Rehearsal at the Wilsons
Bitter cold day. Cold guitars = funky and evolving tuning.
Howard was ambushed by a client, and so had to miss the rehearsal.
Began with a circulation in F Harmonic Minor, which served to center the group and the room, or so it seemed to me. Continuing with the strategy of keeping all of the current repertoire (and even a little bit of non-current repertoire) fresh, well-rehearsed, and ready to be played at a moment’s notice should it come out of the hat. Began with Eye of the Needle, including a bit of review of the work we did in October at Raft Island. From there, it was all about calling tunes and running them. Only where there was some specific issue to be addressed did we repeat anything. Even though they are not in the set, I called the missing 2/3 of the "Turkish Trilogy", Not My Sharona and Where Is the Nurse?, as well as Onyx. Gave La Rueda a couple of runs, which was particularly interesting since Howard sits in the pole position of the circulation and counts it off in performance. When we have to work on a circulated piece while missing a player or two, it is inevitably revealing and very useful: a strategy worth adopting intentionally, I would say. Howard sits in Position 5 (Beat 3) of the 6-part Shostakovich circulation, and this was the first time in my memory that we rehearsed the piece with a gap in that particular slot, and I found it strangely disconcerting. Counting that more or less takes care of itself as a rule for me was getting turned around in surprising ways. Live and learn.
Onward to the final shows of the season.
Monday December 7, 2009 – Rehearsal at the Wilsons
Bitter cold day. Cold guitars = funky and evolving tuning.
Howard was ambushed by a client, and so had to miss the rehearsal.
Began with a circulation in F Harmonic Minor, which served to center the group and the room, or so it seemed to me. Continuing with the strategy of keeping all of the current repertoire (and even a little bit of non-current repertoire) fresh, well-rehearsed, and ready to be played at a moment’s notice should it come out of the hat. Began with Eye of the Needle, including a bit of review of the work we did in October at Raft Island. From there, it was all about calling tunes and running them. Only where there was some specific issue to be addressed did we repeat anything. Even though they are not in the set, I called the missing 2/3 of the "Turkish Trilogy", Not My Sharona and Where Is the Nurse?, as well as Onyx. Gave La Rueda a couple of runs, which was particularly interesting since Howard sits in the pole position of the circulation and counts it off in performance. When we have to work on a circulated piece while missing a player or two, it is inevitably revealing and very useful: a strategy worth adopting intentionally, I would say. Howard sits in Position 5 (Beat 3) of the 6-part Shostakovich circulation, and this was the first time in my memory that we rehearsed the piece with a gap in that particular slot, and I found it strangely disconcerting. Counting that more or less takes care of itself as a rule for me was getting turned around in surprising ways. Live and learn.
Onward to the final shows of the season.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Monthly Open Circle and Performance Team Rehearsal
A Tuning the Air Journal
Saturday December 5, 2009 – Monthly Open Circle and Performance Team Rehearsal
Ice on some of the roads this morning.
The final Open Circle of 2009. Due to a scheduling conflict we had to move it to a different location. A very pleasant and attractive room in a neighboring community center. Functionally adequate, but something less than inspiring; after attending one of these events in the Great Hall, pretty much anything else is a letdown. The heating system tended to drown out the playing when it kicked in. Nevertheless, a very good circle, well attended with a couple of new faces as well as one returnee who seems to be catching the bug. Looking for just the right material that would work for the absolute beginners, but still challenge the experienced players, was a little trickier than usual for some reason. The standards were not clicking as well as they generally do, so I had to try and then move on from a number of strategies before we hit our stride with a musical fragment that I haven’t pulled out in many years. In the end, kind of fun. These events are never the same twice.
The performance team went back to my place for rehearsal. The House Circle is working on one of Andrew’s compositions in preparation for recording it, and headed over to Greg’s place for that. Following on from last week, the sense continues to be that if everything is in the hat, our best strategy is to make sure that everything is always well practiced and ready to go. We began with a little circulating. Of course this is good for grounding a group, but honestly my primary motivation was to help me transition from the personal state I need to adopt for the Open Circle to being a player in an ensemble. Once again we simply called pieces and ran them, with the metronome, pausing if necessary to look at any issues that we might have noticed either in performance or in rehearsal, and then moving on. A little more structured rehearsal work on La Rueda when it came up, since it is our newest piece and we still haven’t quite achieved that level of command that makes it possible for us to execute it with reliability. We don’t have train wrecks with it, but the qualitative difference between being in the groove with it and merely playing it “right” is pretty significant.
Working on a big screen/good sound system viewing of the Jimi at Monterey dvd tomorrow night.
Saturday December 5, 2009 – Monthly Open Circle and Performance Team Rehearsal
Ice on some of the roads this morning.
The final Open Circle of 2009. Due to a scheduling conflict we had to move it to a different location. A very pleasant and attractive room in a neighboring community center. Functionally adequate, but something less than inspiring; after attending one of these events in the Great Hall, pretty much anything else is a letdown. The heating system tended to drown out the playing when it kicked in. Nevertheless, a very good circle, well attended with a couple of new faces as well as one returnee who seems to be catching the bug. Looking for just the right material that would work for the absolute beginners, but still challenge the experienced players, was a little trickier than usual for some reason. The standards were not clicking as well as they generally do, so I had to try and then move on from a number of strategies before we hit our stride with a musical fragment that I haven’t pulled out in many years. In the end, kind of fun. These events are never the same twice.
The performance team went back to my place for rehearsal. The House Circle is working on one of Andrew’s compositions in preparation for recording it, and headed over to Greg’s place for that. Following on from last week, the sense continues to be that if everything is in the hat, our best strategy is to make sure that everything is always well practiced and ready to go. We began with a little circulating. Of course this is good for grounding a group, but honestly my primary motivation was to help me transition from the personal state I need to adopt for the Open Circle to being a player in an ensemble. Once again we simply called pieces and ran them, with the metronome, pausing if necessary to look at any issues that we might have noticed either in performance or in rehearsal, and then moving on. A little more structured rehearsal work on La Rueda when it came up, since it is our newest piece and we still haven’t quite achieved that level of command that makes it possible for us to execute it with reliability. We don’t have train wrecks with it, but the qualitative difference between being in the groove with it and merely playing it “right” is pretty significant.
Working on a big screen/good sound system viewing of the Jimi at Monterey dvd tomorrow night.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Tuning the Air 171
A Tuning the Air Journal
Thursday December 3, 2009 – Tuning the Air 171
The fastest setup ever; under 20 minutes. Gave us a lot of time to warm up. This is a blessing and a curse. The acoustics of the Great Hall make individual practice and warmup difficult, because it turns into a din and that is very hard for me to bear. On the other hand, group warmups have a habit of turning into rehearsals, and so we risk over-preparing and blowing our freshness. As a compromise, a number of us formed a standing circle, much closer together than we actually sit in the performance circle, and ran a bunch of material that is not in the current repertoire. Where Is The Nurse?, Not My Sharona, Onyx, Bloed Spoed. All challenging pieces that work well as callisthenic warmups. Except for Bloed Spoed, which hasn’t been performed or rehearsed for more than a season, they sounded quite good, and Bloed Spoed was at least fun, and in any case this gave us the requisite adjustment to the sound of the room. Returned to a bit more personal practice before giving Joel a few minutes of silence in which to soundcheck, after which we gathered in the performance circle to formally warm up as a group. Circulated in F and G majors; not wonderful, but they served to shake off some of the rust. Then on to necessary bits of repertoire: the Shostakovich prelude, In My Room, Cultivating, the double reverse swirling zither and the Kashmir circulation.
Full circle with the entire company, talking through the set, and then we were “on”, which meant the Green Room for the performers. Even from backstage it was clear that Joel was on fire. A good omen.
As we entered, we found a good sized audience; the center chairs occupied and a few overflow as well. Also a good omen.
The hat was on as usual. Only two pieces were called by name from the circle. One of them, La Rueda, actually came out of the hat right after it had been called and performed. Trust the hat. On several occasions the call was for more than one piece to be pulled – “two from the Hat of Repertoire”, or “one from each hat” – and this helped to facilitate the flow considerably. We’re beginning to get the hang of it.
Exceptional audience. Attentive and supportive, generally silent, rather than “quiet” in that repressed sort of way that occasionally happens. As we stood after the final piece we received what felt like a genuine and spontaneous standing ovation. This was repeated after the encore.
The setlist, as notated by the House Manager was:
Tuning the Air 171
Thursday December 3, 2009
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle, WA
Fall Season Show #9
Preshow:
Thursday December 3, 2009 – Tuning the Air 171
The fastest setup ever; under 20 minutes. Gave us a lot of time to warm up. This is a blessing and a curse. The acoustics of the Great Hall make individual practice and warmup difficult, because it turns into a din and that is very hard for me to bear. On the other hand, group warmups have a habit of turning into rehearsals, and so we risk over-preparing and blowing our freshness. As a compromise, a number of us formed a standing circle, much closer together than we actually sit in the performance circle, and ran a bunch of material that is not in the current repertoire. Where Is The Nurse?, Not My Sharona, Onyx, Bloed Spoed. All challenging pieces that work well as callisthenic warmups. Except for Bloed Spoed, which hasn’t been performed or rehearsed for more than a season, they sounded quite good, and Bloed Spoed was at least fun, and in any case this gave us the requisite adjustment to the sound of the room. Returned to a bit more personal practice before giving Joel a few minutes of silence in which to soundcheck, after which we gathered in the performance circle to formally warm up as a group. Circulated in F and G majors; not wonderful, but they served to shake off some of the rust. Then on to necessary bits of repertoire: the Shostakovich prelude, In My Room, Cultivating, the double reverse swirling zither and the Kashmir circulation.
Full circle with the entire company, talking through the set, and then we were “on”, which meant the Green Room for the performers. Even from backstage it was clear that Joel was on fire. A good omen.
As we entered, we found a good sized audience; the center chairs occupied and a few overflow as well. Also a good omen.
The hat was on as usual. Only two pieces were called by name from the circle. One of them, La Rueda, actually came out of the hat right after it had been called and performed. Trust the hat. On several occasions the call was for more than one piece to be pulled – “two from the Hat of Repertoire”, or “one from each hat” – and this helped to facilitate the flow considerably. We’re beginning to get the hang of it.
Exceptional audience. Attentive and supportive, generally silent, rather than “quiet” in that repressed sort of way that occasionally happens. As we stood after the final piece we received what felt like a genuine and spontaneous standing ovation. This was repeated after the encore.
The setlist, as notated by the House Manager was:
Tuning the Air 171
Thursday December 3, 2009
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle, WA
Fall Season Show #9
Preshow:
Joel Palmer ImprovisationsSet:
Cultivating the Beat – preplannedEncore:
In My Room – from the Hat, w/Circulation in C major called by Curt
Tell Me Your Deepest Secret (Improv) – from the Hat
Batrachomyomachy – from the Hat
Brasil – called by Howard
Lament – from the Hat
Bus Artist – from the Hat
Zithers (Improv) – from the Hat
Jaxie talked to the audience
Kashmir – preplanned
D major circulation – called by Howard
La Rueda – called by Howard
Little Gangsters – from the Hat
Sigh and a Kiss – from the Hat
My Precious Dream (for Debbie) – from the Hat
King for a Day – from the Hat
Thrak – preplanned
Eye of the Needle – preplanned
Long Ago Today
Twilight
(both called in the Green Room)
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