Eye of the Needle - Evolution

It is not, at this time, a public forum or document, but this is something I posted this weekend on the Guitar Craft Histories website...

Eye of the Needle

Some notes on the evolution and history of Eye of the Needle. These are gleaned from a combination of first-hand memory (often unreliable) and available recordings (often surprising).

I have a few memories of the appearance of Eye of the Needle during the first Level II, at Claymont in December 1985, but no clear sense of when in the course this took place. I remember parts turning up as people were coming from their personal meetings with Robert, and parts of it put together in an afternoon session, with the sense that we were testing something. Then in a late night session, perhaps even the same day, it seemed to come together almost instantly. It was not part of our first performance, which came 2 or 3 days into the course and involved going out to the Iron Rail. This show was mostly small group stuff. It also does not appear on the performance we did on Sunday December 8 on West Virginia Public Radio. That show involved a 6+ hour drive to Charleston, WV and an overnight stay. The next day, recording for the album commenced at Claymont. It may have been in the works at that point, but it was not in the available performance repertoire. Six days later, on Saturday December 14, it was performed at GWU, and again the day after that. The Sunday show became the source of much of the material that made it to the album. It was also videotaped.


Robert Fripp And The League Of Crafty Guitarists
LIVE!
Editions EG EEGCD 43

Recorded December 14 or 15, 1985, George Washington University, Washington, DC


The first recording of Eye of the Needle was on “Live!”. At the time of this performance, the working title was Spikes. The first time I heard the real title was in the library at Claymont in the summer of 1986, when the record was released and we heard it for the first time. This is Eye in its most rudimentary form.

• The 13/4 Intro is only played in the basic A Minor configuration, and then the piece transitions directly to the 4/4 version of A minor. While the bass players were spared the difficult descending line that later evolved, the transition from 13 to 4 was, for them/us, challenging. The anticipated C-D-E is completely different coming at the end of a bar of 13.
• There does not seem to be a “high octave” version of the 13/4 figure.
• The 13/4 figure does is not recapitulated in the middle of the piece. The long F# Minor section with harmonies and running lines goes directly back to the simple unison A Minor.
• It is also worth noting, from watching the video, that the ubiquitous alternate picking that has since become the standard was not part of it. In fact, accented picking was the norm – 123 123 123 1234. It is very audible, and likely the inspiration for the working title.
• Also a part of this piece in the early days was the preponderance of the finger pivot. One had the sense that it may have actually sprung out of work with this technique.
• The 5 against 4 polyrhythm of the Coda is entirely ascending through the chord changes, with the basses playing roots in a quietly pulsing 4.

The piece is pretty brisk in this performance, about 70-72bpm.

League Of Crafty Guitarists
Private recording of live radio broadcast - unreleased
Recorded December 6, 1986, WMMR, Philadelphia, PA

The next recording I have is from a radio broadcast at WMMR in Philadelphia, one year after “Live!” was recorded. It was part of a short tour we did during a Level II at Claymont. It was a large performance team, about 30, and included most of the group that had just returned from the first Level III in Dorset. The arrangement is substantially the same as “Live!”; much slower, beginning around 65bpm and slowing down to closer to 63bpm.

• The high octave guitar on the middle A Minor has appeared, presumably Robert.
• The bass part now includes 4s descending through the changes in the Coda.

League Of Locals
Demo tape - unreleased
Recorded April 1987, Washington DC vicinity

This Washington/Baltimore-based group was the first local or regional Guitar Circle. The tape comes from a small studio recording project we did of the then-current League repertoire. The arrangement of Eye of the Needle is identical to the WMMR recording, at roughly the same tempo.

New York Chapter Of The League Of Crafty Guitarists
Private recording of live performance - unreleased
Recorded August 21, 1987, Washington Square Church, NYC

The same arrangement as WMMR and the League of Locals. In at 70bpm and accelerating to about 74bpm.

League Of Crafty Guitarists
Live at Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA
Board tape from live performance - unreleased
Recorded March 15, 1988

Simply marked “League – Muhlenburg March 1988”, my next example comes from what I presume is a live performance, in Allentown, PA. I don’t know much more about it. The timing coincides with a Level III that was taking place at Claymont, and we would presumably have been on our way to NY to record an appearance as "guest VJ's" on VH-1. There is no audible audience, so it would have to be a board tape. It is obviously edited for this presentation. 

It is again at the slower tempo; close to 60bpm.

• The full Intro through the 4 chord changes in 13 appears, including the descending bass melody
• The return to 13 in the middle is now part of the arrangement, including the descending bass melody.
• The high octave melody with harmony in the second A Minor 13 makes its first appearance in the Intro here, as well.

League Of Crafty Guitarists
SHOW OF HANDS
Editions EG EEG 2102-2
Recorded July 4-14 1986, Manhattan Studios, New York City, NY

Virtually the same arrangement as the Muhlenburg 1988 recording. In the 66bpm range.

• In the Coda, the 4s seem to have been relegated to the descending pattern, with the 5s ascending. It is pretty hard to hear for sure.
• The low octave version of the descending bass line in the middle 13/4 A Minor has been added.

League Of Crafty Guitarists
Bootleg of live performance - unreleased
Recorded August 4, 1990, Central Park, New York City, NY

Substantially the same as “Show of Hands”, although the quality of the bootleg tape makes hearing subtleties difficult. The ascending 4s in the Coda seem to have returned. Brisk performance tempo, ~72bpm.

League Of Crafty Guitarists
LIVE II
Guitar Craft Services CGCD 002
Recorded October 5, 1990, Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada

Made from the board tape of a performance at the Victoriaville Festival in Canada. ~70bpm. Again, largely the same arrangement, except that the piece is introduced by the solo guitar on the high octave for the first two figures of 13. The other melody players join in at the 3rd repetition of the figure, the same time that the descending bass line comes in. The high octave part ends on a high E here. Either Robert had a guitar with a 21st fret added, or an exceptionally hard and accurate callus on his finger.

League Of Crafty Guitarists
INTERGALACTIC BOOGIE EXPRESS – LIVE IN EUROPE 1991
Discipline Global Mobile DGM 9502
Recorded March 22, 1991, Tonhalle, Düsseldorf. Germany

Recorded on the final League tour. Once again, essentially the same arrangement as “Live II”, including the solo high octave guitar in the Introduction and the non-existent high E at the end, though considerably slower; ~63bpm. This recording contains what is generally considered to be an error; the wrong descending bass line in the middle 13 section. For a long time I cynically attributed this to deft editing in post production. However, I now realize that this particular combination of parts occurs nowhere else, and the cutting and pasting necessary for the rhythmic juxtaposition would have been wildly difficult, pre-ProTools. But not impossible. Still, I’m inclined to think we just played it wrong.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

The arrangement found on “Live II” and “IBE” (ignoring the error in the bass line), are still considered to be the current standard arrangement. A few variables include:

• To start with the solo octave melody or with all the melody players together; depending on the capability and confidence of the octave player.
  
  
• The low C# in the bass in the second half of the “F#” section. If there are a number of players on the bass part, one sometimes drops down to this note in bars 5-8 of that section.
  
  
• Similarly, sometimes one player begins the descending bass line that starts on “B” (second line in the Intro, only line in the middle 13s), down an octave – jumping back up into unison when it runs out of room.
  
  
• Downstrokes vs alternate picking on the running 5s (known colloquially as the “burbles”) and in the Coda. Europeans and South Americans tend toward the downstroke, while North Americans favor alternate picking. I think it can be pretty much boiled down to “it depends on who you learned it from; Robert or Curt.”

Practical Work Continued

A Tuning the Air Journal

Sunday February 28, 2010 – Practical Work Continued

Greg, Howard and I arrived at Igor’s place at 9:30 this morning to wrap up the paint and touch-up project. We knew that the 3 new risers needed a second coat of white, as well as some additional black on the sides. Greg also noticed that one of the older risers had not gotten its white top coat. The Abbey was going to be occupied all day beginning around noon, so Greg and I loaded the 8 finished risers into our cars and drove them over right away rather than waiting, leaving Howard to begin work on the painting. A homeless guy was asleep in front of the Abbey door, and I hated disturbing him, but we needed to have access. By the time we returned, Howard had completed the white painting, and we just needed to do a little more black touch-up. More excellent coffee from Igor.

We left the risers in the carport to dry. Later today Mary Beth and Taylor will swing by to stand them up out of the way so that the carport can be used for its intended purpose. Some time tomorrow we will need to move them into storage, and then the task will be complete.

Full Circle at Fremont Abbey and Practical Work

A Tuning the Air Journal

Saturday February 27, 2010 – Full Circle at Fremont Abbey and Practical Work

Full team in for the morning circle, minus Bob who was with the kids, Joel who had another obligation today, and Christina who was out of town.

We arrived early in order to load out the 8 risers we have stored there into various cars. We were doing maintenance and paint touch-up on them in the afternoon. Another group needed to get into the Great Hall immediately at 12:30 (and experience told us that meant they would be arriving around 12:15), so we wanted to get all the heavy lifting done first, and then be able to depart with a minimum of fuss.

Frank again led us for the first hour or so, continuing on work with the “critical moment”. Focus again was on breathing, and we worked with a circulation in a steady pulse, which gave us room to choose to play or not to play a note while maintaining the flow. Several times I noticed that I was altering my breathing in order to align with my place in the circulation. Very interesting.

Frank remained for the second segment, working with us individually as Chris presented the more of A Day In The Life, testing the viability of the arrangement he is working on. This was the piano part through the first half of the piece (John’s contribution), with Chris playing the vocal melody and me on the bass. Any day I get to play a Paul McCartney bass line is a good day, in my book.

For the final 30 minutes, I presented the next variation on the double circulation exercise we began last week. This time the two circulations were in the opposite direction. An open D on a quarter-note pulse moving counterclockwise, and an assigned-note pentatonic melody in an eighth-note pulse moving clockwise. On several occasions I found that I was able to actually grasp the two “melodies” simultaneously. Afterward, the 12-player bi-directional circulation of a Bach two-part invention came back to mind. Some interest expressed.

As predicted, the folks scheduled for 12:30 began peeking in the front door right at noon. We wrapped things up and invited them in, and then we moved on to the practical work for the afternoon.

To Igor’s place. I had picked the 3 new risers and one older one from the storage space yesterday, and already had them in my car. Greg was in charge of the project and had paint and brushes and drop cloths in his car, as well as 3 risers from the Arts Center. Mary Beth and Taylor were on the team, carrying 2 risers in their car. Igor K delivered the final 3 risers, but was not on the work crew. Charles and Ian filled out the team. Igor A and I took on the task of installing additional braces on the remaining 3 that needed them, while painting commenced outside in the carport. After the braces were installed, we joined I joined the paint crew and Igor made coffee for everyone. The 3 new risers needed 2 coats of white on the top, and black on the sides. The old risers all needed a new coat of white on top, and just some touch up of the black on the sides.

We were done in about 2 hours. The new risers still need a second coat of white, but that will have to wait until the first has dried. We left all 12 standing in the carport to dry.

Tech Work at Fremont Abbey Arts Center, part 2

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday February 25, 2010 – Tech Work at Fremont Abbey Arts Center, part 2

Taking the testing of sound reinforcement in the Great Hall to the next stage. The full team was involved in this one though only the performance team strapped on guitars.

I arrived at Travis’ place a little before 6pm to load out the gear. I brought the mixer from home, as well as spare xlr cables and electrical extension cords, and of course my guitar and personal gear. Travis already had his car loaded, so we made quick work of getting 2 speakers and the stands into mine and headed to Fremont Abbey. We decided not to use the risers for this week’s work, in part to keep things as simple as possible, as well as to give ourselves maximum flexibility in terms of where we sat.

Interestingly, when we arrived the director of the arts center was in the Great Hall with several others discussing possibilities for sound damping panels they are planning to install. So, a lot of attention to the sound in the Great Hall today. We set the stands where we thought the speakers would work best – two on the north wall and two on the south wall, but not quite buried in the corners. Others began arriving around 6:30, and the cables were laid out. The length of the available speaker cables determined where the mixer could be set up, which wound up being more or less in the circle with us, like a 10th player.

Everyone was present and accounted for by 7:30, including two new potential company members who would take on running sound if we go that way.

Joel plugged his computer into the sound system and ran recordings of some of his ambient looping ala the preshow. Every face in the room immediately lit up – it sounded just the way we imagined it could sound. With the stereo it was a joy – he has always been in stereo, but only through a pair of small practice amps. Through the sound system in a surround format there was a huge qualitative change.

We sound-checked, with the new sound guys getting accustomed to this set up and the challenges of working with 9 guitars. Greg, Igor and Joel were our resident ears, taking up various positions in the room, inside and outside the circle, and giving feedback on the sound. We took the volume way down. We took the volume way up. We played loud and boisterous pieces. We played quiet and subtle pieces. We circulated. We A-B-ed the same pieces with and without amplification. We expanded the radius of circle several feet, and we moved in a bit closer. For the most part we played standing up, so that our heads would be at roughly the same elevations they would be were we sitting up on risers. On the sound guy’s urging, we moved the speakers 45º so that there was one in the middle of each of the 4 walls. This made the most noticeably improvement (and, naturally, it complicates things in terms of the movement of the audience).

Before tearing down and loading out we came together without guitars to discuss our sense of this experiment. I asked for an initial thumbs up/down, just to see where our inclinations were, without regard for the practical implications – is this a direction we wish to pursue? The only thumbs down actually came from someone who had needed to leave early, and so was not there to articulate their thoughts, but had given Jaxie some very definite feedback before they left and she summarized it as best she could. Interesting.

More discussion. An assortment of pros and cons identified, but no cons that shook anyone from their initial thumbs-up. The next step will be to invest in a couple more speakers with stands so that we are working with a matched set, as well as cables of an appropriate length and a snake. Next Thursday we will do it again. In principle, of course, this is an experiment we can pull the plug on at any time, but there is a clear and strong feeling that we need to move forward with this.

Performance Team Rehearsal at the Wilsons

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday February 22, 2010 – Performance Team Rehearsal at the Wilsons

The Performance Team in a room, all together, for the first time this season. For me, the sense was that this was “rubber meets the road” day. We sat quietly, and I had a lot of thoughts rolling through my brain. It seemed that however much talking and planning and practical work there was to be done, beginning with Music was necessary, so I initiated a bit of circulating that took wing very nicely.

I felt like playing Brasil, and so we did.

From there, I began by addressing something that I thought needed to be said out loud. Even though I felt confident that it was understood by everyone already, actually articulating it felt necessary, in order to clear the way for what is in front of us. At the end of last season, and again when we first met to begin this season, a lot of thoughts, feelings and ideas had been expressed about the direction of the production, where we had come from, where we were, and where we wished to go. From this, we abandoned what had to some degree become “business as usual” in the way we work, going back to the fundamentals. Probably the most significant and important outcome of this was working together as the full circle, without the artificial segregation between the Performance Team and the House Team. In doing this, as Jaxie articulated it, we were going back to the Circle as the heart of the work, with the performance arising out of that work.

For myself, what had to be unambiguously articulated was that if we are going to move into a new direction, testing and incorporating the ideas that had been voiced, as well as whatever is going to come up as we move forward, the initiative and responsibility for this has to come from every member of the team. Put a little more bluntly – we’ve been working together for a long time, and so a bit of clunky candor is rarely a problem – no one should be waiting for me to read their mind and initiate their ideas for them, or to give them permission to voice an idea. Any level of passivity is never useful in this group, but at this stage even simple modesty or minor reticence is counterproductive. And the fact is that for 5 years I have been in the nominal drivers seat as far as the music goes, and it seemed important to me that the team hear from me directly that it is time to step up and step out.

That pretty much uncorked things, and the ideas flowed rather freely. Almost every aspect of the production was on the table, from the ramifications of the sound reinforcement question to ways of including the entire circle in performance to the ratio of hat to setlist, and everything in between.

One big question arose about how much we should be falling back on existing repertoire, versus writing/learning new material. The general wish is that we do not revert to spending all of our rehearsal time banging on repertoire, abandoning or setting aside the work we have been exploring with the larger group. In the end, the sense was that we realistically need to rely on a certain amount of existing repertoire at least at the beginning, but that we want this to be an evolving and dynamic season in which we add new material and let go of whatever is no longer relevant. Howard suggested that we might look at the season as a work in progress, with the aim of getting to where we would like to be for the opening of the Fall season, rather than putting the pressure on ourselves to get it all worked out and “right” before we open on April 15.

Working in this spirit, a list was compiled of existing material that we could have up and available on very short notice. We came up with:

• 49 Notes
• Eye of the Needle
• Voices of Ancient Children
• Batrachomyomachy
• Where is the Nurse?
• Wig Maker
• Twilight
• Lament
• Harmonium
• Trapiche
• Thrak
• Sigh and a Kiss

After a break, we ran these pieces with a minimum of comment, outside of practicalities. It is not a complete list, and probably includes pieces that in the end will be dropped. But it is where we are beginning.

Thursday will be an all-in Tech Night at Fremont Abbey, working with a sound system to discover if it is something we wish to incorporate in this season’s concept.

Full Team with Frank at Fremont Abbey

A Tuning the Air Journal

Saturday February 20, 2010 – Full Team with Frank at Fremont Abbey

Virtually all hands on deck this morning. Bob was home with the family. Frank had recovered from whatever had him under the weather last week, so we began by working with him. Continuing on the theme of the “critical moment” that occurs as we begin to “do” something. Today, the focus was on keeping contact with the breath. To explore this, he directed us in a number of exercises that superficially looked/sounded as if they were about music, but in fact were about observing what is happening at that critical moment. This generated a lot of observations, and carried through the rest of the rehearsal for me.

After an hour, we took a short break, and then came back to revisit some of the work we did last week. I had missed having Frank there last week to help us through the challenges of these exercises, so I thought it would be useful to have another go this week. We began with the exercise of repeating notes in the C Major scale. For some reason this felt even more difficult this week, and when we got to the point of moving to any note within the range, it really never quite took wing. Another short break and we were on to the exercise of bi-directional circulating, a clockwise drone of open D’s under a counterclockwise circulation of notes from A Harmonic Minor. I noticed again that when this became musical rather than mechanical, the mechanics tended to take care of themselves. We moved from the melody in time to the melody on the off-beats, and eventually to the melody in double-time.

After rehearsal, Greg and a small team remained to do upgrades on the risers, adding an additional brace.

Performance Team Rehearsal at the Wilsons

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday February 18, 2010 – Performance Team Rehearsal at the Wilsons

Down two tonight, with Chris still in Utah and Howard stuck on a deadline for work. So we were 7 in the circle.

An opening free circulation. Magic. I’m tempted to append “as always” to that assessment, because our circulations so far this year seem to have kicked up a notch. Jaxie had an idea for a moving geometric circulation scheme; fairly simple in principle, but not so easy in practice. Moving from “notes of your choice” to notes from a particular scale helped to give the pattern more clarity. Moving from there to assigned notes – seven of us in the circle, and seven notes in the C Lydian Dominant scale – helped a little more. Moving, with some experimentation, to an arpeggiated version of the scale brought yet more form. Not sure if this exercise has legs on a practical or performance level, but it was sobering.

After a break, we returned to a little more repertoire. Travis and Jaxie went to another room to look at parts for The Bus Artist, while I prevailed on the rest to run bits of Sigh and a Kiss so that I could work through the part that I had learned earlier in the day. My experience is that playing a new part for the first time in context is very disorienting, since what seems like the flow and shape of the part changes in relation to the other parts. So, getting this over as soon as possible helps me – now when I practice the piece, I will be able to hear it in its true relationship to the other parts. This also gave Mary Beth the opportunity to play the part she has also just recently learned into the form. Once I had confirmed some note detail and phrasing issues with the composer, we ran the entire piece several times. We also ran The Wig Maker, getting Mary Beth up and running on the chords for the middle section.

For the last 15 minutes, we worked with a strategy for structured improv that proved to be a bit of fun, with definite potential.

Saturday will be the full team at Fremont Abbey.

Performance Team Rehearsal at the Wilsons

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday February 15, 2010 – Performance Team Rehearsal at the Wilsons

The first meeting of the season of the performance team. Chris was out of town, so we were 8 in the circle. This was Mary Beth’s first formal PT rehearsal.

Mary Beth was going to be heading downtown after rehearsal to join the House Circle, which was performing at an open mic at the Triple Door. Someone asked what the would be performing. The setlist was to be a Circulation in C Harmonic Minor followed by 49 Notes. With that in mind, I called for a Circulation in C Harmonic Minor. This quickly evolved into a rather stunning improvisation. A good omen.

It was not specifically planned that tonight would be a night of repertoire, but it felt as though the time had come to simply reintroduce ourselves to the material. Someone joked that Mary Beth would need to learn the first violin part of Cultivating the Beat. There was a quick discussion of what the current and possible future allocation of parts might be, and then someone (Jaxie, I believe) suggested we go ahead and play it. A bold choice to lead off our first shot at repertoire since December 17. It was rusty. It was slow. It was also a bit of fun.

Mary Beth ran down the parts she is already familiar with from the repertoire list, and from there we simply called pieces. Very little stopping to fix anything. It wasn’t that sort of rehearsal. We simply wanted to play music together and get our legs back under us. Touched upon this evening:

• 49 Notes
• Batrachomyomachy
• Cultivating the Beat
• Eye of the Needle
• Sigh and a Kiss
• The Wig Maker
• Tuning the Air (F Harmonic Minor)
• Twilight
• Voices of Ancient Children
• Where Is The Nurse?

I even found myself assigned a new part to learn. This is a rare occurrence.

With about 15 minutes left in the allotted rehearsal time, Jaxie described an improvisation strategy she had in mind, and we launched into it. As if to bookend the evening, it was remarkable in many ways.

A quick discussion of the overview of the schedule for the next 9 weeks leading up to Opening Night. We wished Mary Beth, and the House Circle, good luck on their performance, and went our separate ways.

Full Team at Fremont Abbey and Work Day (Afternoon)

A Tuning the Air Journal

Saturday February 13, 2010 – Full Team at Fremont Abbey and Work Day (Afternoon)

We were once again a full team for the Saturday morning work. Unfortunately, Frank was a bit under the weather so we weren’t able to continue our specifically Alexander focused work this week. And Bill is in Humans-land and was not able to be their either. Our sense, nevertheless, was that the lines of work we have been taking so far are doing us a lot of good and should be continued.

I took up the task of leading the group on Bill’s work with intention in note choices. Decided to remain in my own seat and direct from there, as my sense was that I need this work as much as anyone else. I had two exercises in mind, and began with the second. This was a return to some work we did rather extensively when I first moved to Seattle. It has to do with bidirectional circulating. The challenge is to follow and really hear each circulation distinctly, and in particular to be present when we are sitting in the seat where the circulations cross. We began with an open D circulated to the left, and then added a free circulation in D Harmonic Minor moving to the right at the same tempo. This eventually moved to having the free circulation go to a double time. Never quite got to triplets. Perhaps another time.

After a break, I introduced the other exercise I had in mind. In this one we worked with C Major in one octave, beginning on middle C. To begin with we circulated the first C. Once that had gone around at least once, anyone was free to move us up to D. Again, after a minimum of one circuit, whoever chose could move us up to E. Etc. Obviously, the person just after the person who made the change was in the hot seat, since the rest of us had a little more time to respond. From here the game modified, allowing the change to occur a little more quickly, and eventually we moved to choosing to move to any note within the scale. I found this a very useful ear training exercise.

Another short break. For the final hour Bob took over and presented the next incarnation of the exercise he has been working with us on involving a rather swift set of changes, with improvisations. This came together remarkably quickly – a sign of improvement I would hope, and not just dumb luck – and at moments became extremely musical.

We departed Fremont Abbey and headed home. I had some lunch and gathered gear. A smaller group of us gathered at Igor A’s house to spend the afternoon building three more risers. Having gone through this a couple of years ago (at that time we built 9 in a day), we didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. I had already amassed the raw materials, and the more handy among us had all of the power tools we needed. We worked outside under a carport, and things went very fast. In 2 hours we had 3 more risers. Painting will have to come later. We took the new ones (and 1 old one we had with us to use as our template) down to Ballard to the new storage space, and declared the task complete.

Tech Work at Fremont Abbey Arts Center

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday February 11, 2010 – Tech Work at Fremont Abbey Arts Center

One of the other things identified at Monday night’s meeting as necessary and pressing was the exploration of sound reinforcement options for the show. We are not committed to using sound reinforcement, but there is a sense that it really needs to be explored seriously in order to make an informed decision. And we are very good at avoiding this one in favor of more interesting pursuits. At Capitol Hill Arts Center we had resisted adding this component – it is a major functional pain in the ass, requiring both a lot of extra work in setting up the performance space and a full-time sound person, not to mention the inevitable changes in the flow of the performance – but once we committed to it, the improvement was pretty stunning, and hard to imagine how we had done without it. When we moved to FAAC, we were first downstairs in the Café, where sound reinforcement had a much more optional feel, and never crossed our collective threshold of necessity. But since we have been upstairs the question has returned with a greater sense of urgency.

We decided that our first full evening rehearsal at FAAC, 2 weeks from now, would focus on this question. Travis’ sense was that we needed to do a little preliminary work to test it out, and that this would be best accomplished with a small team. Looking for an opening in the Abbey evening schedule, tonight was the best option. A couple of emails to the Abbey staff confirmed that it was available, and so we jumped on it.

Travis, Taylor, Jaxie and I arrived at Fremont Abbey at 8pm. We each had our guitars, a guitar cable, a DI box and a mic cable. Travis brought two speakers with stands, a small mixer and 2 amps – actually, he discovered he had left one of the amps at home, and had to run back to collect it, while the rest of us set up the system as far as possible without it.

When he returned, we completed the setup and did a quick soundcheck. We are working with a mono mix, as we did at CHAC several years ago, with the idea that it will fill in some of the holes in the sound. For the players it will improve hearing each other, with less time delay to compensate for. For the audience it will decrease the proximity effect, where they can primarily hear the players close to where they are seated.

Eye of the Needle quickly emerged as our primary test piece. Taylor or Travis noted that we were four of the five players who originally encircled the guests at the 2004 feast, and EotN was what we performed that night. This was the night Tuning the Air was born.

Our first run through was clearly too loud, and actually made hearing one another more difficult rather than easier. We noted that no matter the volume, the sound will always be subject to the reverberant quality of the room. The aim of sound reinforcement is to improve our ability to work with that quality, not to change it. If we wish to change the character of the room, that is an entirely different matter, and probably outside the scope of our capacities, since it would involve pretty significant changes to the space itself.

At a somewhat lower volume, our ability to hear one another improved vastly. We were working with 2 speakers, where in the final form it will be a 4-speaker system, so it was not a perfect test, but sufficed. At even lower volume, the sense of intimacy returned. We played In My Room, since Taylor, Travis and I form the triangular rhythm section for the piece, and it is always a struggle. In this the improved ability to hear one another was most striking.

We also worked with placing ourselves closer together, and further apart. Good information all around. It was clear and the sense unanimous that this was something well worth pursuing further. When we have our first tech rehearsal at the Abbey in 2 weeks, we will work with the full team and a full sound reinforcement setup, in order to make the final decision.

After 90-minutes and one rather terrifying mishap with a dropped guitar, we packed up and went home.

All Day Practical Work

A Tuning the Air Journal

Wednesday February 10, 2010 – All Day Practical Work

A couple of pressing tasks that were not going to be able to be addressed without some preliminary legwork, and since I had an open schedule between my only two lessons of the day, the first at 8am and the other at 4pm, it seemed time to just deal with them.

I began by driving up to the local Big Corporate Hardware and Home Improvement Store to see about getting the materials necessary to build 3 more risers. We have an afternoon of practical work on Saturday, built around this task, so this was not optional. We needed eight 8-foot 2x6’s, a bunch of screws, and the most problematic item, a 4’x8’ sheet of ½ inch plywood. With a little jockeying, I was pretty sure that the boards would fit in my car, but definitely not the plywood, and I really didn’t have a plan for that going in. It turned out that The Store has a truck that it rents out for only about $20 for 75-minutes, which seemed to solve that problem. I called Igor A – we will be working at his house on Saturday – and told him that I had found a solution and would be dropping the materials off within the hour. I went to the customer service desk and waited in line, only to be informed that the truck was out for service and they did not know when it would be available. So I went ahead and bought the 2x6’s and the screws, and called Igor to tell him that I would only be delivering those. Left with no clue how we would be able to solve the plywood dilemma.

Dropped the lumber off and proceeded down into Ballard to lease the space in the self-storage facility we had settled on. On Monday I had visited and priced out several, and presented the Board with my recommendation. Since the full Board was present at the “meeting” portion of Monday evening’s rehearsal, we had approved the plan on the spot. Getting the space rented, with the necessary paperwork, was pretty painless, but took the better part of an hour, and so by the time it was accomplished it was well past lunch time, and I was starving. As I pulled away I noticed a local, large but clearly not corporate or part of a chain, lumber store across the street. Made a mental note.

Got home and had some lunch. I was a little tired, and kind of felt as though I had done my duty for the day, and would practice or take care of some work on the History Project. But I was nagged by the fact that there was only one key for the padlock I had used for the storage space, and headed up to the hardware store to get it duplicated. That done, the next logical step was to go back to the storage space and test the keys to verify that they worked. So, back to Ballard. The security system let me in the building – success. The keys worked – success. As I stepped out, I saw the lumber store and it was clear that I needed to go make some inquiries. A day of following my feet.

They had what I needed, and only a couple of bucks more expensive than at the Big Store. More importantly, they could deliver it at no charge. Score. Note to Self: always shop local FIRST. There were a number of reasonable delivery windows before Saturday, but my inner voice was shouting, “get it over and done with now”, so I agreed to this afternoon at 4pm. Of course, Igor was not going to be home at that time and I had a lesson scheduled for 4pm, but that was my problem to solve. Called Travis, who had earlier indicated he would be available to help if necessary. Unfortunately, he had been overrun by deadlines and was the only person left in his office, so his availability had evaporated. I was about to call my student to cancel or push the time back, when I remembered that Christina was working from home while her car was in for service. Called her. Her car was ready, but in order to pull off the timing I would need to give her a lift to the dealership. I picked her up, drove her to Lake City, dropped her off, and made it home in plenty of time to meet my student.

After the lesson I called her and confirmed that the delivery had been made. She had sent me an email complete with phone-photo proof, but I hadn’t opened up my computer yet. With that, I sent out a confirmation email to the team with the week’s schedule including the riser construction work on Saturday, and declared my day done. Turned off the computer. Silenced the phone. Did a bit of personal work around the apartment. Then grabbed the Beatles Chronicles and headed down to the pub for some recreational reading, a beer and dinner.

Full Company Rehearsal at the Wilsons

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday February 8, 2010 – Full Company Rehearsal at the Wilsons

Continuing the work with the full company. A slightly smaller group than recently, and some confusion about the schedule meant one player arriving on the late side. We were 10, and then 11 in the circle. Jaxie, just back from the GC Intro course in NJ, initiated some polyrhythmic work that had been addressed at the course. Working in 5 pairs of players, each pair circulating in a specific assigned rhythm, the result began rather chaotically and only once or twice emerged into something discernibly coherent. Silly, and a bit of fun, but Music was hard pressed to make itself known. When we moved into two groups of 5, (or maybe 5 and 6, as I believe Ian had arrived by then), there was much more ease in the playing, and so playful and even occasionally musical result.

49 Notes had been knocking on my door all night. I initiated some circulation work in C Harmonic Minor, which is enharmonically identical to the scale used in that piece, with the idea of setting it up. I was still struggling with whether or not it was time to introduce repertoire into our rehearsals – except for some experiments with Neptune and A Day In The Life which were really for the benefit of the arrangers who needed to test their approaches, we have been specifically avoiding repertoire so far. In the end, I chose not to ignore the knock on the door, which was getting louder. The “performance team” followed the House Circle’s lead on this one, as they have been working on it rather intensively in recent weeks. Afterward, the next words out of my mouth were “Eye of the Needle”, which Taylor then brought in. It seemed bass-heavy, so I switched to the running lines with Chris about halfway through the piece.

A short break. We then met without guitars to discuss and develop an overview of the next weeks, in terms of the simple practicalities of getting a reliable schedule on the calendar, as well as a number of tasks that need to be accomplished. We also compared notes on personal schedules, including travel to Italy for the GC completion course. We hammered out a workable schedule that includes the Performance Team getting down to work, but continues the work with Frank and the full company circle as well. So for now, we are focused on the Performance Team on Mondays, the full company on Saturdays, and Performance Team/Tech Work on Thursdays.

One important decision to come out of this came from the realization that between Italy and some personal vacation times, if we opened on April 8 it would be with a team that had not rehearsed all together for 3 weeks. So we decided to push opening night back to April 15.

Everyone hates meetings, and no one more than me. Nevertheless, they are necessary and useful, and much more efficient than consensus-by-email.

Monthly Open Circle

A Tuning the Air Journal

Saturday February 6, 2010 – Monthly Open Circle

A later-than-usual sitting this morning gave me some time to get on the phone early and check in with family in the DC area getting hammered by snow. A harrowing tale or two, and my brother is stuck in Orlando since no flights are going to Washington, but everyone is alive and well and safe.

The course in NJ was very present to me in the sitting.

Over to Fremont Abbey. Good turnout for the Open Circle. Fifteen sitting in the circle, plus myself and Frank on our feet. It was chilly in the Great Hall, and numerous attempts to get the furnace to kick in failed to change much. There are new thermostats since the last time we were there, and perhaps we haven’t quite figured out their operation. So it remained chilly, but not too bad. Unlike the east coast, winter here has been pretty mild. Sun was pouring through the stained glass windows.

We had 2 first-timers in the circle, plus 2 non-company regulars (“regular” defined as having attended 2 or more previous Open Circles in recent months). I introduced Frank, who gave a very brief explanation of what the Alexander Technique is and how it relates to playing guitar. He explained how he would work, moving around the circle and helping with suggestions and direction, and gave the 4 who had no previous experience the option to opt out of this if they did not feel comfortable. All indicated a willingness to give it a go. So, with the assurance that they could change their mind at any time, we dove in. Frank subtly worked his way around the circle for the entire day. Obviously the TTA team knew how to make good use of his presence, but it was particularly gratifying to see pennies drop for the first-timers as well.

Music was present from the very beginning. I gave the instruction to “choose one note…” and there was an immediate and palpable presence to what presented itself. This first improvisation was very short and simple. Sensing there was more, I gave the instruction, “when ready, begin again”. Again, Music from the first note. This improvisation sounded like a composition to me, and sustained that quality nearly to the end. And even when it seemed that the clarity of focus had slipped a little, there was an intentionality to the searching that remained.

From there we launched into some basic circulation exercises. I noticed that the 2 first-timers immediately grasped the essence of the practice, and were very clearly in contact with the people they were receiving notes from and passing notes to. Only later, as the challenges became more complex, did in notice any sign of the more typical insulation that newcomers often display. And even then, they did fine. Moving around the circle skipping seats – no problem. Two groups, one on and the other off the beat – no problem. When we moved on to a scale circulation with assigned notes from the Minor Lydian scale in C (C-D-Eb-F#-G-Ab-Bb), up and down in 4 octaves and a third, we managed to achieve moments of flow, fast but with ease, that I felt were remarkable.

Short break. When we returned, we worked with circulating in a pentatonic Major scale I had noticed Bill playing earlier in the day. This particular scale is made up of Do, Me, Fa, So, and Ti. In the key of C, C-E-F-G-B. For the newcomers, working with choosing notes from a particular scale made life a lot more difficult, but with a little help from more experienced neighbors they seemed to be able to locate a handful of notes that would give them both some options as well as a little reliability. Beautiful scale, and the circulations were of a pretty high order. We added a capacity to play improvised chords together out of the available notes: a C Major triad, and E Minor triad, and a kind of G7 using just G-B-F ( no D in the scale). We pulsed gently, choosing and adjusting our notes until a satisfying voicing was arrived at. A chord sequence of C to Em to G7, 16 beats each, was established, and two teams took turns providing chords while the other improvised in circulation. The work within this structure lacked some of the innocence of the “any note of your choice” work in the first half, but still there was a very solid musicality to it.

As time was winding down we dropped the chord accompaniment and simply circulated. When the circulation wound down, there was a sudden “Hallelujah” from downstairs. A 30-ish-person choir (I later determined) was beginning a rehearsal. We acknowledged them with a little thrakking in 3 and 4, more impish than mean-spirited, or at least that was my intention. The work of the day was closed with one more “when ready, begin” followed by 3 chords sounded on my cue.

I did learn afterward that one of the non-company members had been recording the session, which was a disappointment. We have never said anything explicit about this, but I would have hoped that permission would have been asked ahead of time, and we could have headed that one off. I guess in a world where we get our picture taken every day by cameras installed on traffic lights, ATMs and sundry security systems, this is something we just need to be very clear about upfront.

Undercover Blues Band Rehearsal

Thursday February 4, 2010 – Undercover Blues Band Rehearsal

This band needs a gig! In fact, what this band really needs is a regular gig; monthly would be perfect. Very clear at this afternoon’s rehearsal that the identity of the band is emerging. Very fun/funny work on Wang Dang Doodle. Bill heads out to England in a week to tour with The Humans, then he returns for a couple of weeks before we both go to Italy for the Guitar Craft completion course and Orchestra of Crafty Guitarists special project. But somewhere in there is space for a gig… isn’t there? Okay, maybe after we get back from Italy, but soon.

1. Boom Boom (John Lee Hooker) – Curt, in E
2. Born Under A Bad Sign (Booker T Jones) – Igor, in D
3. Built for Comfort (Willie Dixon) – Curt, in A
4. Deep Elem Blues (Traditional) – Igor, in E
5. Dust My Broom (Robert Johnson) – Curt, in D
6. First Train Home (Peter Green) – Igor, in Bb minor
7. Going Down Slow (James Burke Oden) – Curt, in A
8. How Blue Can You Get? (Leonard Feather) – Curt, in C
9. It Hurts Me Too (Elmore James) – Igor, in C
10. Little Red Rooster (Willie Dixon) – Curt, in A
11. Mean Town Blues (Johnny Winter) – Curt, in A
12. Messin’ With The Kid (Junior Wells) – Igor, in E
13. One Way Out (Elmore James) – Igor, in A
14. Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo (Rick Derringer) – Igor, in A
15. Rollin’ And Tumblin’ (Muddy Waters) – Curt, in E
16. Sitting on Top of the World (Walter Vinson) – Curt, in G
17. Sound the Bell (Johnny Winter) – Igor, in G
18. Two Trains Running (Muddy Waters) – Curt, in E
19. Wang Dang Doodle (Willie Dixon) – Curt, in E
20. Yonder Wall (Elmore James) – Curt, in A
21. You Don’t Love Me (Willie Cobbs) – Igor/Curt, in A

And in the back of my mind, flirting with The Hunter and Outside Woman Blues as well. This group learns at least one new tune every rehearsal, so it’s not unreasonable.

Undercover Blues Band at Benaroo, Sep 2009

photos: Christina Florkowski

Full Company Rehearsal at the Wilsons

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday February 1, 2010 – Full Company Rehearsal at the Wilsons

Chris and Igor were out sick, and Bill was celebrating his dad’s birthday, so we were able to fit into the Wilson living room.

A call for a circulation in G Major.

Jaxie presented an exercise in zithering using chromatic “magic chords”. First with return, then continuous, then continuous counterclockwise (ascending) 10 times and clockwise (descending) 10 times and repeat. The aim for this, rather than whizzing, was a smooth swirling sound in the spirit of what Taylor has been experimenting with for Neptune. From there we worked with a version that moved by skipping forward one seat and then back one seat: 1-3-2-4-3-5-4-6-etc. This proved rather difficult at the beginning. In order to keep steady time we adopted a sharper attack to our chords at first, dropping the slow glissando of the zither. For a time the metronome was introduced, but largely ignored. Once the pattern was established it was possible to reintroduce the zithering gliss of the chords while maintaining tempo. The crossover from the end of the circle to the beginning, jumping from the highest chord to the lowest, was not working musically, so we adopted a return that was much more satisfying in that respect.

Some discussion of the Little Red Riding Hood exercise from Saturday. I think the intention was to give it another go tonight, but it seemed that sharing observations was more pressing. I had noticed at Fremont Abbey that the room does not lend itself to a lot of talking – the acoustics make that just too much work – and there had been a lot of talking about the exercise during the break, but in small groups. So it felt as though we needed to compare our experiences this evening.

A break. Afterward, Greg worked with us for a couple of minutes to test an arrangement strategy he has been experimenting with on Norwegian Wood.

For the final part of the rehearsal we worked with an exercise that had come to me on Saturday involving the entire group forming a specific chord – we began with C Major – by each choosing a note from the chord and playing it all together in a steady pulse. If we are not satisfied with the voicing, or if anyone detected that a note is missing, we are to continually adjust our choices until a satisfactory voicing is reached. Once the person who called the chord is satisfied, on their count of 4 we quickly circulate our notes, once around the circle and return to the pulsing chord. Then the next person calls out a different chord, gives a 4 count and we all shift to that chord, and repeat the process.

The first time around the circle, with each person having an opportunity to call the chord, it was clear that there was a lot of thinking going on; a lot of time in choosing the next chord, a lot of time in finding the notes of the chord when it was called. For the second round I suggested that we move a bit more quickly, keeping it simple. Only marginal success with that. We do love our fancy chords. The third time around began to take on a certain flow.

But then it was time to go.

Sending Jaxie good wishes as she flies east to take part in this weekend’s Guitar Craft course in Neptune (yes, Neptune) New Jersey. She will be working with Robert, Sandra, Tony, Victor, Tom, Dev and Patrick, and I am jealous.