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.