A Tuning the Air Journal
Sunday August 29, 2010 – Weekend at CCMAC: Sessions #5 and Departure
Sunday August 29, 2010
Copper Colored Mountain Arts Center
Ann Arbor, MI
5:00am – Rise
5:30am – 1-hour silent meditation with community
6:30am – Free time/breakfast
9:00am – Community blessing (without doughnuts this time)
9:30am – Free time
1:00pm – Lunch
2:00pm – Session #5
3:30pm – Seminar completion
4:45pm – Departure for Airport
Up again for the 5:30 sitting. Made some minor adjustments, and avoided yesterday’s discomfort in my legs. Back to the house for a bit of breakfast, and then a morning mostly to myself. The community had some community business to attend to. I read, showered, and got myself more or less packed and ready to head for the airport after the afternoon session. Lovely lunch of homemade pesto (basil grown here on the property). Got a tour of the second barn which has a room on the top floor with 4 walls of stunning Tibetan-style paintings of various relevant deities and teachers. My understanding of Buddhist practice and tradition is woefully inadequate, but the shear artistic impact was impressive and wonderful.
Session #5, our final session, began at 2pm. I did not plan on a heavy work session, but primarily aimed to bring the various threads of inquiry from the weekend to a completion. I began with putting the rhythmic figures the team had memorized and practiced, together. Again I was pleased to discover that this had been taken seriously, and so I was able to move the exercise much further along than I had dared to hope or anticipate. More work with boomwhackers, taking the basic circulation exercises we had explored yet another step.
We re-gathered in the circle to share observations before drawing the weekend to a close. Very good insights that indicated to me that what was being presented, beyond the superficial activities, was comprehended and the team seemed to recognize the value of what they had experienced. Ended the meeting and the class with the Tuning the Air hand clap circulation and “let it go” gesture, which brought the weekend to a very powerful completion for me.
A little free time. Got my stuff together and ready for travel. Cleaned out my room. Walked about the property enjoying the heat. Hit the road for the Detroit Airport a little before 5pm. Breezed through security. Had time to grab some functionally adequate food before departure time, since there would be no food on the plane and nothing in my refrigerator when I got home.
Travel was smooth. I even had no one in the seats adjacent to me – almost unheard of these days. The only dark spot on the trip was the brain-dead Delta employee at the gate who saw the duffle bag I was carrying the boomwhackers in and insisted that it would not fit in the overhead. My explanation that on the way out it had fit just fine, taking up the same space as a little wheelie bag, did not sway her. The fact that it fit in the stupid little measuring thing at the gate was not enough to convince her that her estimation of the bags size was possibly in error. Meanwhile, as this conversation was going on, people were passing by us dragging steamer trunks on wheels that were never going to fit in any overhead compartment ever. In the end her idiocy trumped my energy for argument, and the bag was checked. Pea brains rule the world. Not enough to spoil my weekend, though.
Back to Day 2
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Weekend at CCMAC: Sessions #2, 3 and 4
A Tuning the Air Journal
Saturday August 28, 2010 – Weekend at CCMAC: Sessions #2, 3 and 4
Saturday August 28, 2010
Copper Colored Mountain Arts Center
Ann Arbor, MI
5:00am – Rise
5:30am – 1-hour silent meditation with community
6:30am – Free time/breakfast
9:00am – Community blessing (followed by doughnuts!)
9:30am – Session #2
12:00noon – Free time
1:00pm – Lunch
2:00pm – Session #3
4:30pm – Break
5:00pm – Out to Ann Arbor with three of the CCMAC team for an awesome dinner
7:00pm – Session #4
Sitting at 5:30 is pretty brutal, even for me. Plus, it has been a long time since I’ve done my morning sitting cross-legged on cushions. But I didn’t bring my kneeler with me (along with the laptop, a decision designed to keep me down to carry-on for the flights), so I suffered legs falling asleep.
Session #2 began at 9:30am. The two or three people from the Ann Arbor vicinity who took part in last night’s free class did not decide to follow through and sign up for the full weekend. I choose not to take this personally. So the team for the balance of the weekend are all part of the group here that runs the Arts Center. There will generally be 13 or 14 in the circle, depending on a few individual schedules (a couple of the participants will need to miss at least one session due to their work obligations). One advantage to this turn of events is immediately apparent. This is already a group. This is a community following a particular spiritual path, from the Buddhist tradition, and they are used to working together. This makes my life a bit easier, in certain respects, since turning a mob of strangers into a group is generally where a lot of my energy goes at the beginning of a seminar. Not necessary here.
We began with a return to clapping circulation exercises, picking up on the work from last night and going further and deeper.
Then a 40-minute session of Body Beat. I had originally envisaged this for the afternoon session. It is a good way to generate energy in that after lunch midday slump. But the weather forecast is for high temperatures and humidity today. The barn-converted-to-arts-center has fans and some air conditioning, but I am concerned that even with that it will be too much. Even at 11am it is pretty warm when we wrap it up. Good work, and the team manages to rise to most of the challenges. Clapping on backbeats always a stumbling block, but not nearly as daunting for this group as for most, so naturally I push it!
Back to the circle, and out with the boomwhackers. We reviewed the rhythmic figures I presented to be memorized last night, and introducing the next ones. The penny seemed to drop that this is going to require a bit of personal work and review in between class sessions.
After lunch, Session #3 began at 2pm. It was in fact pretty warm in the barn, and I wanted to keep the physical activity low-key. Dug into my storehouse of Frank Sheldon exercises, and introduced two. First was the “Winking Game”. This never fails to illuminate the state of our attention. Plus, it is a bit silly, kind of fun, and when it clicks there is a wonderful elegance about the way the group interacts and moves that is instantly noticeable. Excellent observations from the team. Then to another Frank classic: circulating words. We worked with creating stories one word at a time in circulation. The fans in the room made speaking up an absolute necessity, and forgetting to speak up a good indication of attention having meandered. I asked one of the participants to summarize the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and then had the group tell it in circulation (“the first 4 words of your story will be ‘once upon a time’, and you will indicate the end of the story with ‘happily ever after’.”) The version of Goldilocks that emerged was a little strange, but certainly entertaining. This helped the group to get a sense of narrative, with a beginning and a middle and an end, and so the next totally improvised story had much more coherence, ending in raucous laughter over some strange images with potentially bawdy interpretations.
Introduce the next set of rhythmic figures to be memorized. Now it is abundantly clear that this exercise is going to involve personal work. Ended the afternoon session with some thrakking in 5 and 7, with hand claps and then boomwhackers. Wrapped up Session #3 at about 4:15.
Went into town with Hootie as well as both the president and the executive director of CCMAC (who happen to be a married couple). Great bbq, and interesting conversation discovering a lot of crossed paths. Time for a little rest and personal gathering before the next session.
Session #4 at 7pm. I began by introducing the final rhythmic figures to be memorized for the weekend. Drilled them to make sure everything was in place. A number of people made notes for studying. The plan is to put it all together at the final session on Sunday afternoon.
Just beyond the middle, and the evening of a good day of pretty hard work. A bit of fun seemed in order. A number of the people in the class are studying drumming on conga drums, and an inquiry determined that there were enough extra drums around that we could have an entire conga drum circle. The risk, as I saw it, of this was that by putting familiar instruments in everyone’s hands we might revert to familiar and comfortable patterns. This is not a drum seminar, and I am definitely not a drum teacher. We are working with opening up, directing and dividing attention, connecting with the other players. Thankfully, the team seemed to get this, and so outside of a bit of random banging as the drums were set up, we managed to remain on task. We went to a number of circulation exercises already introduced, and pushed a bit further. The sound of the drums certainly adds a bit of fun, which helps. Definite improvement. We thrakked, this time adding an 11 pattern to the 5 and 7. This, as always brought the energy level up. I reminded the group of the basic exercises in directed attention we have been using to contain our energy and this was instantly understood. A lot of juice in the room. Moved on to set up The Whizz. We managed a certain velocity, and even flirted with escape velocity. Not sure what kept us from really taking off. Is it the nature of drums? The hot weather? Something in the nature of this particular group? Perhaps simply not enough people to really handle the current. I don’t know. Certainly fun, and very cool sounding on the drums.
Wrapped things up at about 9pm. Back to my quarters. Chilled and did a bit of reading, and early to bed (5:30 will again come sooner than I realize).
Back to Day 1
On to Day 3
Saturday August 28, 2010 – Weekend at CCMAC: Sessions #2, 3 and 4
Saturday August 28, 2010
Copper Colored Mountain Arts Center
Ann Arbor, MI
5:00am – Rise
5:30am – 1-hour silent meditation with community
6:30am – Free time/breakfast
9:00am – Community blessing (followed by doughnuts!)
9:30am – Session #2
12:00noon – Free time
1:00pm – Lunch
2:00pm – Session #3
4:30pm – Break
5:00pm – Out to Ann Arbor with three of the CCMAC team for an awesome dinner
7:00pm – Session #4
Sitting at 5:30 is pretty brutal, even for me. Plus, it has been a long time since I’ve done my morning sitting cross-legged on cushions. But I didn’t bring my kneeler with me (along with the laptop, a decision designed to keep me down to carry-on for the flights), so I suffered legs falling asleep.
Session #2 began at 9:30am. The two or three people from the Ann Arbor vicinity who took part in last night’s free class did not decide to follow through and sign up for the full weekend. I choose not to take this personally. So the team for the balance of the weekend are all part of the group here that runs the Arts Center. There will generally be 13 or 14 in the circle, depending on a few individual schedules (a couple of the participants will need to miss at least one session due to their work obligations). One advantage to this turn of events is immediately apparent. This is already a group. This is a community following a particular spiritual path, from the Buddhist tradition, and they are used to working together. This makes my life a bit easier, in certain respects, since turning a mob of strangers into a group is generally where a lot of my energy goes at the beginning of a seminar. Not necessary here.
We began with a return to clapping circulation exercises, picking up on the work from last night and going further and deeper.
Then a 40-minute session of Body Beat. I had originally envisaged this for the afternoon session. It is a good way to generate energy in that after lunch midday slump. But the weather forecast is for high temperatures and humidity today. The barn-converted-to-arts-center has fans and some air conditioning, but I am concerned that even with that it will be too much. Even at 11am it is pretty warm when we wrap it up. Good work, and the team manages to rise to most of the challenges. Clapping on backbeats always a stumbling block, but not nearly as daunting for this group as for most, so naturally I push it!
Back to the circle, and out with the boomwhackers. We reviewed the rhythmic figures I presented to be memorized last night, and introducing the next ones. The penny seemed to drop that this is going to require a bit of personal work and review in between class sessions.
After lunch, Session #3 began at 2pm. It was in fact pretty warm in the barn, and I wanted to keep the physical activity low-key. Dug into my storehouse of Frank Sheldon exercises, and introduced two. First was the “Winking Game”. This never fails to illuminate the state of our attention. Plus, it is a bit silly, kind of fun, and when it clicks there is a wonderful elegance about the way the group interacts and moves that is instantly noticeable. Excellent observations from the team. Then to another Frank classic: circulating words. We worked with creating stories one word at a time in circulation. The fans in the room made speaking up an absolute necessity, and forgetting to speak up a good indication of attention having meandered. I asked one of the participants to summarize the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and then had the group tell it in circulation (“the first 4 words of your story will be ‘once upon a time’, and you will indicate the end of the story with ‘happily ever after’.”) The version of Goldilocks that emerged was a little strange, but certainly entertaining. This helped the group to get a sense of narrative, with a beginning and a middle and an end, and so the next totally improvised story had much more coherence, ending in raucous laughter over some strange images with potentially bawdy interpretations.
Introduce the next set of rhythmic figures to be memorized. Now it is abundantly clear that this exercise is going to involve personal work. Ended the afternoon session with some thrakking in 5 and 7, with hand claps and then boomwhackers. Wrapped up Session #3 at about 4:15.
Went into town with Hootie as well as both the president and the executive director of CCMAC (who happen to be a married couple). Great bbq, and interesting conversation discovering a lot of crossed paths. Time for a little rest and personal gathering before the next session.
Session #4 at 7pm. I began by introducing the final rhythmic figures to be memorized for the weekend. Drilled them to make sure everything was in place. A number of people made notes for studying. The plan is to put it all together at the final session on Sunday afternoon.
Just beyond the middle, and the evening of a good day of pretty hard work. A bit of fun seemed in order. A number of the people in the class are studying drumming on conga drums, and an inquiry determined that there were enough extra drums around that we could have an entire conga drum circle. The risk, as I saw it, of this was that by putting familiar instruments in everyone’s hands we might revert to familiar and comfortable patterns. This is not a drum seminar, and I am definitely not a drum teacher. We are working with opening up, directing and dividing attention, connecting with the other players. Thankfully, the team seemed to get this, and so outside of a bit of random banging as the drums were set up, we managed to remain on task. We went to a number of circulation exercises already introduced, and pushed a bit further. The sound of the drums certainly adds a bit of fun, which helps. Definite improvement. We thrakked, this time adding an 11 pattern to the 5 and 7. This, as always brought the energy level up. I reminded the group of the basic exercises in directed attention we have been using to contain our energy and this was instantly understood. A lot of juice in the room. Moved on to set up The Whizz. We managed a certain velocity, and even flirted with escape velocity. Not sure what kept us from really taking off. Is it the nature of drums? The hot weather? Something in the nature of this particular group? Perhaps simply not enough people to really handle the current. I don’t know. Certainly fun, and very cool sounding on the drums.
Wrapped things up at about 9pm. Back to my quarters. Chilled and did a bit of reading, and early to bed (5:30 will again come sooner than I realize).
Back to Day 1
On to Day 3
Friday, August 27, 2010
Weekend at CCMAC: Travel and Session #1
A Tuning the Air Journal
Friday August 27, 2010 – Weekend at CCMAC: Travel and Session #1
The class description on the Copper Colored Mountain Arts Center website read as follows:
Summer in the Midwest; hot and humid. My room is a small office in one of the houses, converted for guests. I have a lovely view of the grounds. The buildings are air conditioned. Whew. I share supper with the residents of the house at 6pm, keeping it light since 7pm is showtime.
Session #1 (of 5) was free and open to the public. Most of the participants would be taking part in the entire weekend, but an unknown number might show up just for this session. So my challenge was to present, in about 90 minutes, material that would set the weekend in motion, while being a coherent whole for those who would not be returning. I talked a little about my background and introduced the them of working with attention. A little more PT Barnum/razzle dazzle, perhaps, than I might have unleashed at the first session had it not been for the visitors. Introduced circulation with some simple forms using hand claps, pushing the complexity up to the edge of the available attention. We did several iterations of an exercise circulating our names, as well as the names of those sitting to our left and right. This not only serves as a way of introducing ourselves, but also injects a bit of levity into a proceeding that can sometimes become a little self-consciously serious, and introduces a necessary element of play into the way we approach the challenges.
At this point, the dramatic introduction of the boomwhackers. I learned this trick from watching Sandra and Rob; you walk into the center of the circle, open the bag and unceremoniously dump 50 colored and tuned pvc tubes onto the floor, making a raucous clatter that never fails to elicit smiles all around, even if you know it is coming (at least that has been my experience). I invited everyone to choose the two tubes that attracted them, and we launched into some more challenging circulation work.
Wrapped the session up at about 8:30, introducing a couple bars of specific rhythm to be memorized by those taking part in the entire weekend. This will be a thread we will follow, adding more bars each session until (hopefully) it can be all put together by the closing meeting. It is clear to me that except for a couple of guitarists known to me, the team is a combination of non-musicians and people who have begun studying hand drumming. That makes boomwhackers the closest we will get to working with melody or harmony. Changing harmonic elements is one way to inject variety into repeated exercises, but that little ploy is not going to be available to me this weekend. Most of the people taking part in the weekend seem to be part of this community, which means they have an established practice, and that will likely be what makes this work.
In that slightly psychotic jet-lagged state; very tired from a long day of travel and work, but in a time zone where it is later than my internal clock will acknowledge, I went back to my room and fell into a longish nap. Got up long enough to slip out to the kitchen for a midnight snack, then a quick wash-up and back to bed in earnest. This community does a one-hour silent meditation at 5:30am, and jet lag or no jet lag that hour is going to sneak up on me fast.
On to Day 2
Friday August 27, 2010 – Weekend at CCMAC: Travel and Session #1
The class description on the Copper Colored Mountain Arts Center website read as follows:
This Moment: Exploring the interface of music and mindfulness.I was up bright and early in Seattle. My ride to the airport arrived right on time. No problems at the airport, and everything fit in carry-on. Arrived Detroit a little early. RV (aka, I have come to learn, “Hootie”) met me out front and we made the 45ish minute drive to the Ann Arbor vicinity. Off the interstate, onto some state roads and then a dirt road, and Copper Colored Mountain Arts Center.
Weekend Workshop, August 27th-29th
Open to musicians and non-musicians alike. We will use Musical exercises integrating mindfulness and rhythm to create a dynamic space, deepening the connection between awareness and the joy of music. Using instruments, clapping, boomwhackers and group circulation techniques, we will explore the relationship of attention, rhythm and group interaction. Instructed by Curt Golden.
Friday August 27th, 7:00pm Free Introductory Evening
Saturday August 28th, 9:30am-12:00pm, 2:00-4:30pm, 7:00pm-?
Sunday August 29th, 2:00pm-4:00pm
Summer in the Midwest; hot and humid. My room is a small office in one of the houses, converted for guests. I have a lovely view of the grounds. The buildings are air conditioned. Whew. I share supper with the residents of the house at 6pm, keeping it light since 7pm is showtime.
Session #1 (of 5) was free and open to the public. Most of the participants would be taking part in the entire weekend, but an unknown number might show up just for this session. So my challenge was to present, in about 90 minutes, material that would set the weekend in motion, while being a coherent whole for those who would not be returning. I talked a little about my background and introduced the them of working with attention. A little more PT Barnum/razzle dazzle, perhaps, than I might have unleashed at the first session had it not been for the visitors. Introduced circulation with some simple forms using hand claps, pushing the complexity up to the edge of the available attention. We did several iterations of an exercise circulating our names, as well as the names of those sitting to our left and right. This not only serves as a way of introducing ourselves, but also injects a bit of levity into a proceeding that can sometimes become a little self-consciously serious, and introduces a necessary element of play into the way we approach the challenges.
At this point, the dramatic introduction of the boomwhackers. I learned this trick from watching Sandra and Rob; you walk into the center of the circle, open the bag and unceremoniously dump 50 colored and tuned pvc tubes onto the floor, making a raucous clatter that never fails to elicit smiles all around, even if you know it is coming (at least that has been my experience). I invited everyone to choose the two tubes that attracted them, and we launched into some more challenging circulation work.
Wrapped the session up at about 8:30, introducing a couple bars of specific rhythm to be memorized by those taking part in the entire weekend. This will be a thread we will follow, adding more bars each session until (hopefully) it can be all put together by the closing meeting. It is clear to me that except for a couple of guitarists known to me, the team is a combination of non-musicians and people who have begun studying hand drumming. That makes boomwhackers the closest we will get to working with melody or harmony. Changing harmonic elements is one way to inject variety into repeated exercises, but that little ploy is not going to be available to me this weekend. Most of the people taking part in the weekend seem to be part of this community, which means they have an established practice, and that will likely be what makes this work.
In that slightly psychotic jet-lagged state; very tired from a long day of travel and work, but in a time zone where it is later than my internal clock will acknowledge, I went back to my room and fell into a longish nap. Got up long enough to slip out to the kitchen for a midnight snack, then a quick wash-up and back to bed in earnest. This community does a one-hour silent meditation at 5:30am, and jet lag or no jet lag that hour is going to sneak up on me fast.
On to Day 2
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Performance Team R&D
A Tuning the Air Journal
Saturday August 14, 2010 – Performance Team R&D
Met briefly with Travis and Chris at 9:30, to discuss the proposed realignment of organizational structure for Tuning the Air. My life gets easier. Or, so one might hope. We’ll see. Mostly, my energy will be somewhat redirected. Briefly touched on some practical issues, including getting promotion up and running. A question about the CGT potential at Fremont Abbey in November. Before we could get far into that, however, it was 10am and the rest of the performance team was arriving.
Six of us got together this morning, plus a special east coast guest who sat in as an observer. The plan largely to begin shaking the dust off. Fremont Abbey is booked for September, and so we cannot open the show until October. Making a virtue of a necessity, Chris thought that we could use this time, which ordinarily would have been the beginning of the formal rehearsal crunch, to work on some simmering ideas for new material. No guarantee that any of it will make it into the show, but injecting a little “new music energy” into the process, just to see what happens.
We began with some work on the scales that Ian introduced last season in the context of the Voodoo Situation. In rehearsals we rarely had time to give these tonalities the kind of exploration they require if we really intend to present them with any level of mastery, let alone playful creativity. This work helped a lot, bringing both the “Augmented Scale” [C-C#-E-F-G#-A] and the “Lydian Augmented Scale” [F-G-A-B-C#-D-E] more into our common experience. Some beautiful things came up as we discovered the natural tonal centers. Took a brief look at the zither potential of the Augmented Scale, and quickly saw that there is something there to be explored further.
Chris and Howard presented Vrooom. Howard worked with Bob on the lead lines. Chris took Ian, Travis and myself aside to get the bass line going. A tricky little ditty. It needs more lead players. Taylor may already know the lead; not sure if Jaxie and/or Mary Beth have ever addressed it. It is a piece that the League has been playing for some time, and we tend to bump into it whenever we attend a course in Europe. Fun. Twisted. Entirely doable.
A short break to stretch. We took some of that time to come back to the CGT question. Travis, who has been the point person on the discussion, brought us up to date on the email conversations that have taken place so far, and the various options that have been discussed. Cleared up a few questions, and set a plan in motion to get a bit more to the heart of the matter. More to follow.
After the break, Bob introduced what will be the middle section of a piece he is working on. It involves 3 truly twisted bass lines in 15. The circle was divided into 3 groups of 2 (it will be 3 groups of 3 when we are all together). Each group responsible for one of the bass lines. Chris and I had the one in “C”. While we played it (Struggled? Scrambled? Faked it?), Howard and Travis improvised Cmin7 chord vamps in the midrange, and Bob and Ian improvised melody/solo lines in the upper range. When we switched to the Ian/Bob bass line (in “D”), Chris and I moved to chord improvs and Howard/Travis took on the lead/solo improvs. When the Howard/Travis bass line (“E♭”) was on, Chris/Curt moved to lead, and Ian/Bob to chords. Bob set up a specific form for these changes:
We were scheduled to go to 1pm. At 12:45 we agreed we had reached saturation.
Saturday August 14, 2010 – Performance Team R&D
Met briefly with Travis and Chris at 9:30, to discuss the proposed realignment of organizational structure for Tuning the Air. My life gets easier. Or, so one might hope. We’ll see. Mostly, my energy will be somewhat redirected. Briefly touched on some practical issues, including getting promotion up and running. A question about the CGT potential at Fremont Abbey in November. Before we could get far into that, however, it was 10am and the rest of the performance team was arriving.
Six of us got together this morning, plus a special east coast guest who sat in as an observer. The plan largely to begin shaking the dust off. Fremont Abbey is booked for September, and so we cannot open the show until October. Making a virtue of a necessity, Chris thought that we could use this time, which ordinarily would have been the beginning of the formal rehearsal crunch, to work on some simmering ideas for new material. No guarantee that any of it will make it into the show, but injecting a little “new music energy” into the process, just to see what happens.
We began with some work on the scales that Ian introduced last season in the context of the Voodoo Situation. In rehearsals we rarely had time to give these tonalities the kind of exploration they require if we really intend to present them with any level of mastery, let alone playful creativity. This work helped a lot, bringing both the “Augmented Scale” [C-C#-E-F-G#-A] and the “Lydian Augmented Scale” [F-G-A-B-C#-D-E] more into our common experience. Some beautiful things came up as we discovered the natural tonal centers. Took a brief look at the zither potential of the Augmented Scale, and quickly saw that there is something there to be explored further.
Chris and Howard presented Vrooom. Howard worked with Bob on the lead lines. Chris took Ian, Travis and myself aside to get the bass line going. A tricky little ditty. It needs more lead players. Taylor may already know the lead; not sure if Jaxie and/or Mary Beth have ever addressed it. It is a piece that the League has been playing for some time, and we tend to bump into it whenever we attend a course in Europe. Fun. Twisted. Entirely doable.
A short break to stretch. We took some of that time to come back to the CGT question. Travis, who has been the point person on the discussion, brought us up to date on the email conversations that have taken place so far, and the various options that have been discussed. Cleared up a few questions, and set a plan in motion to get a bit more to the heart of the matter. More to follow.
After the break, Bob introduced what will be the middle section of a piece he is working on. It involves 3 truly twisted bass lines in 15. The circle was divided into 3 groups of 2 (it will be 3 groups of 3 when we are all together). Each group responsible for one of the bass lines. Chris and I had the one in “C”. While we played it (Struggled? Scrambled? Faked it?), Howard and Travis improvised Cmin7 chord vamps in the midrange, and Bob and Ian improvised melody/solo lines in the upper range. When we switched to the Ian/Bob bass line (in “D”), Chris and I moved to chord improvs and Howard/Travis took on the lead/solo improvs. When the Howard/Travis bass line (“E♭”) was on, Chris/Curt moved to lead, and Ian/Bob to chords. Bob set up a specific form for these changes:
C min – 4 barsFirst we simply circulated (and connected) the bass lines. Once that was more or less (mostly less, but who is keeping score) established, Bob added the chord improvs, ad finally the lead/solos as well. Playing the bass lines was certainly a challenge, but keeping contact with the long 15 count while improvising was what nearly always undid us. We did manage to hit a stride and for a few repetitions of the form it was possible to hear the potential of this arrangement. Improvising within a structure. And the movement of parts around the circle could be very effective in the performance space.
D min – 4 bars
C min – 4 bars
D min – 4 bars
E♭ min – 8 bars
We were scheduled to go to 1pm. At 12:45 we agreed we had reached saturation.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Retreat Day 4
A Tuning the Air Journal
Sunday August 8, 2010 – Retreat Day 4
Sunday August 8, 2010 – Retreat Day 4
- 6:00am – Rise
- 6:30am – Curt and Tony walk to W. Broadway to join team
- 7:00am – Sitting
- 7:45am – Breakfast prep
- 8:00am – Breakfast
- 8:30am – Personal meetings. Preliminary cleanup. Curt, Tony and Victor (and later, Tom) get with guitars, Curt sharing Seattle ear training exercises.
- 9:30am – Work in the Circle with guitars; new exercise from RF
- 10:30am – House restoration
- 11:30am – Final meeting
- 12:25pm – Completion of retreat acknowledged with enthusiasm
- 12:27pm – Intentional walk to the restaurant at the end of the block for a post-retreat/pre-departure meal and decompression.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Retreat Day 3
A Tuning the Air Journal
Saturday August 7, 2010 – Retreat Day 3
For the work in the Circle this morning, Tony introduced an exercise he is doing with the NY Circle, involving traditional bell ringing changes. Very challenging for us.
After lunch Jaxie, Tony and I presented a report on the status of the Seattle Circle Guitar School. The ensuing discussion went into and through Tea (Tony preparing Turkish Coffee for the second day in a row!). Very good feedback, as well as some brainstorming about related reading, plus potential donors to help us get through the initial period. The photos of the Kids Circle performing at Tuning the Air was again a big hit, meeting universal enthusiasm. The videos of that show were also very effective, not to mention a source of amusement – never a bad combination.
Awesome Pad Thai from the kitchen team of Jaxie, Tom and Robert. Associatively, a number of kitchen-related Guitar Craft histories, recorded by Tony.
[go to Day 4]
Saturday August 7, 2010 – Retreat Day 3
- 6:00am – Rise
- 6:30am – Curt and Tony walk to W. Broadway to join team
- 7:00am – Sitting
- 7:45am – Breakfast prep
- 8:00am – Breakfast
- 9:15am – Work in the Circle with guitars – Tony presenting a bell ringing exercise
- 10:30am – Meet to complete presentation of reports on professional life: Jaxie, Curt, Sandra, Tony.
- 12:30pm – Lunch prep
- 1:00pm – Lunch
- 3:30pm – Report on Seattle Circle Guitar School
- 4:00pm – Tea (continue SCGS discussion)
- 4:30pm – SSG I meeting
- 5:00pm – SSG IV meeting
- 5:30pm – Vayu Prana Meditation
- 6:15pm – Dinner prep and AT/Breathing work with Sandra
- 7:00pm – Dinner
- 8:30pm – Personal meetings
- 9:30pm – Work in the Circle with guitars
For the work in the Circle this morning, Tony introduced an exercise he is doing with the NY Circle, involving traditional bell ringing changes. Very challenging for us.
After lunch Jaxie, Tony and I presented a report on the status of the Seattle Circle Guitar School. The ensuing discussion went into and through Tea (Tony preparing Turkish Coffee for the second day in a row!). Very good feedback, as well as some brainstorming about related reading, plus potential donors to help us get through the initial period. The photos of the Kids Circle performing at Tuning the Air was again a big hit, meeting universal enthusiasm. The videos of that show were also very effective, not to mention a source of amusement – never a bad combination.
Awesome Pad Thai from the kitchen team of Jaxie, Tom and Robert. Associatively, a number of kitchen-related Guitar Craft histories, recorded by Tony.
[go to Day 4]
Friday, August 6, 2010
Retreat Day 2
A Tuning the Air Journal
Friday August 6, 2010 – Retreat Day 2
Big news of the day: Robert finally had his initiation into the Guitar Craft Kitchen.
Over lunch, received the news from England that Alice Lawton has flown away. She and Ken, who passed away last year, hold a special and happy place in Guitar Craft history, specifically in the Red Lion House era, and were a great support to us.
[go to Day 3]
Friday August 6, 2010 – Retreat Day 2
- 6:00am – Rise
- 6:30am – Curt and Tony walk to W. Broadway to join team
- 7:00am – Sitting
- 7:45am – Breakfast prep
- 8:00am – Breakfast
- 9:15am – Work in the Circle with guitars
- 10:15am – Meet to present reports on professional life: Tom, Victor, Dev
- 12:45pm – Lunch prep
- 1:00pm – Lunch
- 2:30pm – Personal time, dinner pre-prep
- 4:00pm – Tea
- 5:00pm – Vayu Prana Meditation
- 5:30pm – Work in the Circle with guitars
- 6:00pm – Dinner prep
- 7:00pm – Dinner
- 9:30pm – Listen to JGB talk on the Formatory Apparatus, and follow-up discussion
- 11:00pm – Curt and Tony walk back to W 4th Street for the night
Big news of the day: Robert finally had his initiation into the Guitar Craft Kitchen.
Over lunch, received the news from England that Alice Lawton has flown away. She and Ken, who passed away last year, hold a special and happy place in Guitar Craft history, specifically in the Red Lion House era, and were a great support to us.
[go to Day 3]
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Retreat Day 1
A Tuning the Air Journal
Thursday August 5, 2010 – Retreat Day 1
Arose at Tony’s place about 6:30am. Sat at 7am. Already in the 80’s outside with serious humidity. A shower and breakfast, and then he and I headed out to the Whole Foods on Houston (just typing that phrase makes me shake my head) to do the basic shopping for the weekend. Tony took a page (or maybe 2?), and I took a page (largely the vegetable and fruit page). An hour or so later, 8 or 10 bags of groceries. Citibank saw a $250 charge try to go through at a grocery store in NYC, and elected to not approve the purchase, on the chance that the card had been stolen (speaking to them later, my snarky reference to the fact that I had purchased the airline ticket on that card didn’t make much of an impression). So, Chase got that business today, and Citibank did not. We hailed a cab and headed down to SoHo to the retreat location. Managed to make all the keys work, unloaded the groceries, turned on the air conditioning (by this time 80ยบ was only a fond memory).
We headed back up to the Village to Tony’s place to get the guitars and a few necessities (Tony and I will be returning to his apartment to sleep throughout the weekend). Again cabbed back to SoHo, and found that Jaxie had arrived. A few bits of Housecraft, and then we hit the streets for a slice for lunch. The rest of the team would be arriving between 2 and 3pm. Hot and crowded out, we brought the pizza back to eat in comfort.
Tom called to let us know he and Robert were a few blocks away, so we went down to meet them. Loaded out their car, and Tom left to put it in the parking lot. Dev and Victor arrived next, looking a bit wrung out, having driven from Boston with no AC in the car. Victor came in, and Dev set out to the parking lot. Sandra arrived, and we loaded her gear out. Tony accompanied her to the parking lot. By tea time, we were all present and accounted for.
Over tea, some discussion about the weekend, with Robert leading off regarding his aims. We all weighed in on our sense of the weekend, and talked about the flow of the days, meals (everyone is on kitchen duty at every meal – only dinners are at all involved, but even they are going to be as simple as possible).
Eight of us in a wonderful kind of choreography as we improvised our way through the dinner prep. Dinner had a force in it. I gave Mr Bennett’s blessing, nearly stumbling on the line that often gets ironically inverted. More discussion over dinner about Guitar Craft, GC History, and this group.
For the evening meeting, Robert presented the exercise for our morning sitting, which ties directly into the exercise we will be taking on throughout the day. Afterward, some guitaring seemed to be calling us. We sounded tired and a bit dispersed, but a necessary breaking of the ice. Robert, still on UK time, called it a night about 10:30. The rest of us sat and talked another hour before Tony and I left for the 20-minute trek back to his place, and the rest settled into their beds.
[go to Day 2]
Thursday August 5, 2010 – Retreat Day 1
Arose at Tony’s place about 6:30am. Sat at 7am. Already in the 80’s outside with serious humidity. A shower and breakfast, and then he and I headed out to the Whole Foods on Houston (just typing that phrase makes me shake my head) to do the basic shopping for the weekend. Tony took a page (or maybe 2?), and I took a page (largely the vegetable and fruit page). An hour or so later, 8 or 10 bags of groceries. Citibank saw a $250 charge try to go through at a grocery store in NYC, and elected to not approve the purchase, on the chance that the card had been stolen (speaking to them later, my snarky reference to the fact that I had purchased the airline ticket on that card didn’t make much of an impression). So, Chase got that business today, and Citibank did not. We hailed a cab and headed down to SoHo to the retreat location. Managed to make all the keys work, unloaded the groceries, turned on the air conditioning (by this time 80ยบ was only a fond memory).
We headed back up to the Village to Tony’s place to get the guitars and a few necessities (Tony and I will be returning to his apartment to sleep throughout the weekend). Again cabbed back to SoHo, and found that Jaxie had arrived. A few bits of Housecraft, and then we hit the streets for a slice for lunch. The rest of the team would be arriving between 2 and 3pm. Hot and crowded out, we brought the pizza back to eat in comfort.
Tom called to let us know he and Robert were a few blocks away, so we went down to meet them. Loaded out their car, and Tom left to put it in the parking lot. Dev and Victor arrived next, looking a bit wrung out, having driven from Boston with no AC in the car. Victor came in, and Dev set out to the parking lot. Sandra arrived, and we loaded her gear out. Tony accompanied her to the parking lot. By tea time, we were all present and accounted for.
Over tea, some discussion about the weekend, with Robert leading off regarding his aims. We all weighed in on our sense of the weekend, and talked about the flow of the days, meals (everyone is on kitchen duty at every meal – only dinners are at all involved, but even they are going to be as simple as possible).
Eight of us in a wonderful kind of choreography as we improvised our way through the dinner prep. Dinner had a force in it. I gave Mr Bennett’s blessing, nearly stumbling on the line that often gets ironically inverted. More discussion over dinner about Guitar Craft, GC History, and this group.
For the evening meeting, Robert presented the exercise for our morning sitting, which ties directly into the exercise we will be taking on throughout the day. Afterward, some guitaring seemed to be calling us. We sounded tired and a bit dispersed, but a necessary breaking of the ice. Robert, still on UK time, called it a night about 10:30. The rest of us sat and talked another hour before Tony and I left for the 20-minute trek back to his place, and the rest settled into their beds.
[go to Day 2]
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