A Tuning the Air Journal
Saturday January 28, 2011 – Full Team Circle with Frank and Performance Team Rehearsal with Bill and Frank
Carl and Bob out today. For the full team circle, the remaining 8 from the performance team were joined by Joel and Bill. Frank continued with the exercise he presented last week, but this time instead of passing objects around the circle – “This is a ball.” A what?” “A ball.” “A what?” “A ball.” “oh, a ball.” – we passed around notes - “This is a (plunk).” A what?” “A (plunk).” “A what?” “A (plunk).” “oh, a (plunk).” In some ways this was more difficult since the “identity” of the object was not as self-evident. On the other side of the ledger, we are musicians and we are accustomed to solving musical problems, and when approached that way we managed to discover the groove of the exercise. Remaining awake, of course, was as elusive as ever, but Frank gave us good opportunity to find ways to continue to come back.
The second hour was a series of grueling ear training exercises inflicted by Bill. These are the sorts of things I put the Music Lab through on a regular basis, but rarely do I find myself in the circle dealing with them. It was a welcome change. Tough stuff, and humbling.
For the final segment of the day we addressed Invocation – not the Guitar Craft Theme of the same name, but the Bill Rieflin composition once performed by the Seattle Guitar Circle. Along with the Shostakovich Prelude, an piece of shelved repertoire that has called to Chris for resuscitation. Not an easy piece. Chris proposed that we take on the challenge of having it ready for opening night, even if it is only a trio rendition. Dmitri will take a bit longer.
Monday is “dress rehearsal” night at the Abbey, which really means we will do a full setup, and then run the likely pieces for opening night, although not necessarily in the final set order.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
First Tech Rehearsal
A Tuning the Air Journal
Thursday January 27, 2011 – First Tech Rehearsal
A little early, perhaps, to jump into tech, but Fremont Abbey is a busy working space and we need to take whatever nights that are available. So our opportunities to get into the performance space and work out the details are coming early this season; tonight and next Monday. As it turned out, this was fortuitous. With two new players who have not performed in a circle this large, in this space, lightly amplified, with lights that shift with the music, this was a great opportunity to address the challenges.
All of our gear was in storage at the Abbey, so there was no need to load anything in. We simply arrived at 6pm, more or less like any gig night. We gathered, looked at the tasks, and then went into action. Lights, sound and house materials brought downstairs. We had a basic plan. We would set up the room as if it was a gig night, except that the audience would be represented by just a few strategically placed chairs. A couple of on-the-fly re-thinks. We needed to take a look at the arrangement of the players in the circle. There will be 10 instead of 9, but for the first 2 shows there will be 11. Moving guest artist Tony to a slightly different spot made more sense, and that involved shifting everyone one notch to the right. The other change involved a notion I have had off and on for some time, to move the tech table (lights and sound) as well as Joel from their previous position in the SW corner just inside the entrance to the SE corner adjacent to the green room door. Travis and I tossed the pros and cons around, and decided to go for it, just to see how it would work.
Set-up was a breeze. By 7pm we were ready to soundcheck. That went well, too, although it took a bit more tweaking than usual since none of us are in the channels we occupied last year.
We began the rehearsal by working with Joel on Space Zombies! From Outer Space! With the new setup, Joel felt to me must less set apart from the performance team. We worked on a bit of improv, with the idea of Joel taking part in some of those as well. About 8pm we took a break. Joel packed his gear and headed out to the C3 gig. Charles had completed the inventory of house items and necessities, and so he departed as well.
The performance team worked on Neptune, which has come together quite nicely – not quite ready for primetime, but certainly by opening night! On to Children’s Hour. For the new guys, operating in a circle of this diameter is a challenge, and delivering circulated parts in reliable time is the most challenging of all. It was good to begin addressing this early. Good progress. We played with some of the potential of a reformulated spiral circulation. No final decisions, but some interesting possibilities. That led pretty naturally to a runthrough of Twilight. Nothing particularly revelatory there. Right now neither Carl nor Greg are playing on it, so it is really just a matter of the established performance team adjusting to the new seating (well, standing) arrangement. On a personal level, I’m very happy to be on Bob’s right for this one. We did some nuts and bolts work on A Day In The Life, working in Carl who is taking on Ian’s part. Then we ran the piece. It sounded very good, and the two orchestral sections were positively ferocious. We quickly had a look at the voicing of the final E Major chord. Time was about up, so we ran Neptune one more time, and called it a night. With no audience seating to strike, and the lobby already packed up, we had the Abbey restored to neutral in only about 15 minutes. A quick gathering in the circle for completion, a little feedback, and review of the plan for the next couple of rehearsals.
Thursday January 27, 2011 – First Tech Rehearsal
A little early, perhaps, to jump into tech, but Fremont Abbey is a busy working space and we need to take whatever nights that are available. So our opportunities to get into the performance space and work out the details are coming early this season; tonight and next Monday. As it turned out, this was fortuitous. With two new players who have not performed in a circle this large, in this space, lightly amplified, with lights that shift with the music, this was a great opportunity to address the challenges.
All of our gear was in storage at the Abbey, so there was no need to load anything in. We simply arrived at 6pm, more or less like any gig night. We gathered, looked at the tasks, and then went into action. Lights, sound and house materials brought downstairs. We had a basic plan. We would set up the room as if it was a gig night, except that the audience would be represented by just a few strategically placed chairs. A couple of on-the-fly re-thinks. We needed to take a look at the arrangement of the players in the circle. There will be 10 instead of 9, but for the first 2 shows there will be 11. Moving guest artist Tony to a slightly different spot made more sense, and that involved shifting everyone one notch to the right. The other change involved a notion I have had off and on for some time, to move the tech table (lights and sound) as well as Joel from their previous position in the SW corner just inside the entrance to the SE corner adjacent to the green room door. Travis and I tossed the pros and cons around, and decided to go for it, just to see how it would work.
Set-up was a breeze. By 7pm we were ready to soundcheck. That went well, too, although it took a bit more tweaking than usual since none of us are in the channels we occupied last year.
We began the rehearsal by working with Joel on Space Zombies! From Outer Space! With the new setup, Joel felt to me must less set apart from the performance team. We worked on a bit of improv, with the idea of Joel taking part in some of those as well. About 8pm we took a break. Joel packed his gear and headed out to the C3 gig. Charles had completed the inventory of house items and necessities, and so he departed as well.
The performance team worked on Neptune, which has come together quite nicely – not quite ready for primetime, but certainly by opening night! On to Children’s Hour. For the new guys, operating in a circle of this diameter is a challenge, and delivering circulated parts in reliable time is the most challenging of all. It was good to begin addressing this early. Good progress. We played with some of the potential of a reformulated spiral circulation. No final decisions, but some interesting possibilities. That led pretty naturally to a runthrough of Twilight. Nothing particularly revelatory there. Right now neither Carl nor Greg are playing on it, so it is really just a matter of the established performance team adjusting to the new seating (well, standing) arrangement. On a personal level, I’m very happy to be on Bob’s right for this one. We did some nuts and bolts work on A Day In The Life, working in Carl who is taking on Ian’s part. Then we ran the piece. It sounded very good, and the two orchestral sections were positively ferocious. We quickly had a look at the voicing of the final E Major chord. Time was about up, so we ran Neptune one more time, and called it a night. With no audience seating to strike, and the lobby already packed up, we had the Abbey restored to neutral in only about 15 minutes. A quick gathering in the circle for completion, a little feedback, and review of the plan for the next couple of rehearsals.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Performance Team rehearsal
A Tuning the Air Journal
Monday January 24, 2011 – Performance Team rehearsal
A solid nuts and bolts rehearsal. All about igniting repertoire, adapting arrangements for one performer who has moved on and two who have come onboard for this season.
We worked largely on Neptune, putting Carl in the unenviable position of picking up a part almost entirely comprised of zithers and cascades. He more than rose to the challenge. In addition to Carl jumping in on a new part, the new performance team seating arrangement means that we all have to adapt to highly orchestrated zithers and circulations where we are not necessarily sitting in the order the parts are played. This is going to be a very interesting treat for the audience. For the players, a major challenge.
Also addressed were A Day In The Life and Children’s Hour. The part in ADITL that needs to be covered is an accompaniment, kind of in the viola territory, and technically pretty easy, although one section still requires a bit of research to recreate correctly. The primary challenge is for the section to play together with unanimity in the attack and feel. That comes in part from being as clear as possible with the intention of the part, but largely from hours of playing together, and that takes time. Likewise, the part that needed covering in Children’s Hour is a simple circulation, not terribly challenging from a technical standpoint, but it is a part that defines the feel of the piece, and as such it needs to be just exactly right every time.
Plans for Thursday’s tech rehearsal were discussed, as well as a retreat we are organizing for ourselves next autumn.
Two weeks to opening. Hitting that point in the process where the task feels impossible, while all of our experience tells us it will be done.
Monday January 24, 2011 – Performance Team rehearsal
A solid nuts and bolts rehearsal. All about igniting repertoire, adapting arrangements for one performer who has moved on and two who have come onboard for this season.
We worked largely on Neptune, putting Carl in the unenviable position of picking up a part almost entirely comprised of zithers and cascades. He more than rose to the challenge. In addition to Carl jumping in on a new part, the new performance team seating arrangement means that we all have to adapt to highly orchestrated zithers and circulations where we are not necessarily sitting in the order the parts are played. This is going to be a very interesting treat for the audience. For the players, a major challenge.
Also addressed were A Day In The Life and Children’s Hour. The part in ADITL that needs to be covered is an accompaniment, kind of in the viola territory, and technically pretty easy, although one section still requires a bit of research to recreate correctly. The primary challenge is for the section to play together with unanimity in the attack and feel. That comes in part from being as clear as possible with the intention of the part, but largely from hours of playing together, and that takes time. Likewise, the part that needed covering in Children’s Hour is a simple circulation, not terribly challenging from a technical standpoint, but it is a part that defines the feel of the piece, and as such it needs to be just exactly right every time.
Plans for Thursday’s tech rehearsal were discussed, as well as a retreat we are organizing for ourselves next autumn.
Two weeks to opening. Hitting that point in the process where the task feels impossible, while all of our experience tells us it will be done.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Full Team Circle with Frank and Performance Team Rehearsal with Bill and Frank
A Tuning the Air Journal
Saturday January 22, 2011 – Full Team Circle with Frank and Performance Team Rehearsal with Bill and Frank
Another good turnout for the sitting. For me, not quite the solid experience I had last week, but there you go.
The full company Circle amounted to the performance team plus Bill today, with no one from the house team joining in.
For the first hour, we worked with Frank, without guitars. He put us through a couple of exercises designed to activate the attention. Some of it was silly, most of it was fun, and all of it struck the nail on the head in a very essential way. Observations from the team spoke to the real work of the Circle, and the repercussions permeated the work for the rest of the day.
Next, to work with Bill, who is directing us in exercises to sharpen our improvisations. For this hour we worked largely on variations on a basic ear training exercise involving circulating using specific intervals. I think this was not easy for anyone. The final circulation, which was free except when Bill called for a specific intervallic parameter, had a quality that was very much what we always aspire to. It had the quality of intention, and yet flowed and breathed freely. Very promising.
For the last hour we moved on to repertoire, we ran a number of pieces, making sure all parts were covered and doing a bit of detail work. A certain hint of the sharpness we demand in performance began to appear in the playing. A Day In The Life, Prayer of Gratitude, Twilight and Space Zombies! From Outer Space were all addressed in some detail. Chris put Invocation (Bill’s piece from the Seattle Guitar Circle CD, not the GC theme) on the table as something to get into the set this season.
Saturday January 22, 2011 – Full Team Circle with Frank and Performance Team Rehearsal with Bill and Frank
Another good turnout for the sitting. For me, not quite the solid experience I had last week, but there you go.
The full company Circle amounted to the performance team plus Bill today, with no one from the house team joining in.
For the first hour, we worked with Frank, without guitars. He put us through a couple of exercises designed to activate the attention. Some of it was silly, most of it was fun, and all of it struck the nail on the head in a very essential way. Observations from the team spoke to the real work of the Circle, and the repercussions permeated the work for the rest of the day.
Next, to work with Bill, who is directing us in exercises to sharpen our improvisations. For this hour we worked largely on variations on a basic ear training exercise involving circulating using specific intervals. I think this was not easy for anyone. The final circulation, which was free except when Bill called for a specific intervallic parameter, had a quality that was very much what we always aspire to. It had the quality of intention, and yet flowed and breathed freely. Very promising.
For the last hour we moved on to repertoire, we ran a number of pieces, making sure all parts were covered and doing a bit of detail work. A certain hint of the sharpness we demand in performance began to appear in the playing. A Day In The Life, Prayer of Gratitude, Twilight and Space Zombies! From Outer Space were all addressed in some detail. Chris put Invocation (Bill’s piece from the Seattle Guitar Circle CD, not the GC theme) on the table as something to get into the set this season.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Performance Team Rehearsal
A Tuning the Air Journal
Monday January 17, 2011 – Performance Team Rehearsal
The plan for this season (subject to the necessary) is to use our Saturdays for full company circles and improv work, and Mondays for repertoire-focused rehearsal. This was the first opportunity for the newly expanded performance team to sit down and work together. Unfortunately Jaxie was down with a fever, but with Bob running upstairs from time to time to check on her and to deliver bowls of soup, her presence was in the circle. Chris came with a new seating arrangement in mind, not only incorporating the new players, but shaking up things for the others as well. Purely coincidentally (or so Chris claims), the 2 married couples in the group are now sitting together. Some humorous musings about whether or not this is wise. As we worked through the current repertoire, we made notes about what might require reorchestration for this seating arrangement. We also looked at the parts will need to be reassigned in light of Ian’s absence. We played everything we could. As is typical for the first rehearsal, some pretty stupendous train wrecks; all taken with good humor, at least this week; next week it won’t be quite so funny. Carl and Greg largely sat out, observing and listening, and making note of places where they might be able to contribute. They are not asked to jump in and learn a lot of repertoire at this stage, but rather to focus on circulation and the improvs, and to take on repertoire only as and when it calls to them.
Some discussion of our observations from the improv work we did on Saturday. Chris asked me to re-present one of the Chick Corea pieces. I presented the basics of Children’s Song. It is a very simple (not to be confused with “easy”) piano piece, consisting of an ostinato left hand and a lovely melody in the right hand. As I envision it for guitars, each hand is actually arranged for 2 players. But for tonight I simply taught everyone both hands as single parts so that we could quickly get a grasp on the sound, feel and form.
Chris also proposed the return of the Shostakovich prelude to the performance repertoire. This certainly got me enthusiastic, and we took a look at how best to arrange it for the current team and the new arrangement of players in the circle. Carl and Greg will join Travis and myself on the left hand part. The other six will take on the circulated right hand. In the earlier arrangement, we circulated the melody around a 6-pointed star formation. Inside the circle, this was a stunning auditory experience. But the new seating arrangement does not support this geometry. Chris asked me to consider an arrangement for this group, and one immediately presented itself. We just took on the first bar and repeated it in order to test the feasibility of the scheme. I took Jaxie’s seat for this, and it seemed a practical solution that still takes advantage of the 3-dimensionality of the performance; more of an arrow than a star. I got Carl to take Jaxie’s seat so that I could sit in the middle of the circle and hear the movement, which I found very satisfying. Taking Chris’ seat, he sat in the middle and listened as well, approving the plan. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for this to come together. Except for Mary Beth, everyone circulating the melody has done it before. Unfortunately, or maybe not, only Lucky Howard is going to be playing a part he has performed before. We shall see.
Scores will be flying around the team as we get back up to speed on our known parts and dive into the new parts. Opening night is only 3 weeks away!
Monday January 17, 2011 – Performance Team Rehearsal
The plan for this season (subject to the necessary) is to use our Saturdays for full company circles and improv work, and Mondays for repertoire-focused rehearsal. This was the first opportunity for the newly expanded performance team to sit down and work together. Unfortunately Jaxie was down with a fever, but with Bob running upstairs from time to time to check on her and to deliver bowls of soup, her presence was in the circle. Chris came with a new seating arrangement in mind, not only incorporating the new players, but shaking up things for the others as well. Purely coincidentally (or so Chris claims), the 2 married couples in the group are now sitting together. Some humorous musings about whether or not this is wise. As we worked through the current repertoire, we made notes about what might require reorchestration for this seating arrangement. We also looked at the parts will need to be reassigned in light of Ian’s absence. We played everything we could. As is typical for the first rehearsal, some pretty stupendous train wrecks; all taken with good humor, at least this week; next week it won’t be quite so funny. Carl and Greg largely sat out, observing and listening, and making note of places where they might be able to contribute. They are not asked to jump in and learn a lot of repertoire at this stage, but rather to focus on circulation and the improvs, and to take on repertoire only as and when it calls to them.
Some discussion of our observations from the improv work we did on Saturday. Chris asked me to re-present one of the Chick Corea pieces. I presented the basics of Children’s Song. It is a very simple (not to be confused with “easy”) piano piece, consisting of an ostinato left hand and a lovely melody in the right hand. As I envision it for guitars, each hand is actually arranged for 2 players. But for tonight I simply taught everyone both hands as single parts so that we could quickly get a grasp on the sound, feel and form.
Chris also proposed the return of the Shostakovich prelude to the performance repertoire. This certainly got me enthusiastic, and we took a look at how best to arrange it for the current team and the new arrangement of players in the circle. Carl and Greg will join Travis and myself on the left hand part. The other six will take on the circulated right hand. In the earlier arrangement, we circulated the melody around a 6-pointed star formation. Inside the circle, this was a stunning auditory experience. But the new seating arrangement does not support this geometry. Chris asked me to consider an arrangement for this group, and one immediately presented itself. We just took on the first bar and repeated it in order to test the feasibility of the scheme. I took Jaxie’s seat for this, and it seemed a practical solution that still takes advantage of the 3-dimensionality of the performance; more of an arrow than a star. I got Carl to take Jaxie’s seat so that I could sit in the middle of the circle and hear the movement, which I found very satisfying. Taking Chris’ seat, he sat in the middle and listened as well, approving the plan. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for this to come together. Except for Mary Beth, everyone circulating the melody has done it before. Unfortunately, or maybe not, only Lucky Howard is going to be playing a part he has performed before. We shall see.
Scores will be flying around the team as we get back up to speed on our known parts and dive into the new parts. Opening night is only 3 weeks away!
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Tuning the Air Season 11 Opening Meeting and Guitar Circle
A Tuning the Air Journal
Saturday January 15, 2011 – Tuning the Air Season 11 Opening Meeting and Guitar Circle
Good morning turnout. Ten in for the morning sitting at my place. Sitting in a group is qualitatively different than sitting alone. Sitting as part of an established personal practice is essential for us, and if that is alone, it is never really alone; we are connected by the commitment to the practice. For me, it is always apparent when we are at a point of Hazard in a process, because I find I am experiencing heavy resistance to maintaining the practice. I obviously can’t speak for anyone else, but it inevitably happens that at these points there is also a drastic drop off in attendance for the group sittings.
About the middle of the half hour a profound Silence descended. The flavor is always unmistakable. Much more than simply quiet, although the baseboard heater and the refrigerator were blissfully dormant at the time, and traffic in the neighborhood seemed to have ceased. Silence doesn’t actually require quiet, but when they coincide it is a little easier to notice, and a lot easier to enjoy. This kind of Silence, in my experience, tends to appear when sitting in a group more than when I am alone. I don’t actually know what the mechanics are, but for me it as if we collectively summon it. Or, perhaps, a group is more capable of generating the energy required to open up a space for it. Something like that, at least subjectively.
A bit of excitement as we moved to Fremont Abbey for rehearsal. First, the parking lot we usually use is no longer available, so parking was a little extra challenging, even on a Saturday morning. We need to take this into account on show nights. Then, just to keep things interesting, when I arrived and had found an ideal parking place, I realized that over the holiday I had removed the Abbey key from my overburdened key chain, so I had to abandon my ideal parking place in order to rush back home for the key.
Nevertheless, we were all there and gathered for the opening meeting. The first hour was without guitars. We welcomed 2 new players to the performance team, and acknowledged that we also have one departure. So, we are up one in the aggregate. It will be 10 performers for the first time since our first season. Still not the 12 that has always been my wish, but on the way. For the first couple of shows Tony will be in town, so we will be eleven. So close! For this season we have 10 shows and then a week off (the church needs the space for Easter week activities) and then 10 more weeks. A good run. Not the 40 weeks we did the first two years, but a substantial commitment. Very likely, the week before the Easter break we will have as many as 20 3rd and 4th graders joining us!
The biggest challenge for us is going to be practicalities. We have effectively raided the house team in the expansion of the performance team, so we are shorthanded. Some discussion of how this is going to be addressed. We are also without a publicist this season (she took on a real job with real pay), and so there are a lot of tasks to be filled. As Mary Beth expressed it, this needs to be an “all hands on deck” season, with everyone taking on additional responsibilities. Everyone involved is overcommitted to begin with, and this is not going to be easy. Necessary, but not easy.
A short break, and we moved to the circle with guitars; the full newly reconstituted performance team plus Joel, Bill and Rob. Without instruction, we opened with a circulation that, if such a thing can be considered a portent, spoke very well for a musical and creative season. Music was present from the very first note, the every evolution and variation organic and inevitable.
Bill will be working with the full company and the performance team this season on ways of practicing/rehearsing improvised pieces. This is something we have not addressed a lot in rehearsal. The collective experience and coherence of the group (the core of which has been playing together for about 12 years now) can be relied upon to make musical choices when the time comes. So rehearsal time has focused on the composed material. But the general observation at the end of last season was that if we aspire to taking the improvised part of the set up an octave, we need to find ways to practice improvising.
With that in mind we bounced around a number of exercises, games and strategies for generating improvs. It is apparent that when we set ourselves some simple parameters, we are a lot clearer in our statements and responses, and more musical in general. The specific nature of the parameter is almost irrelevant. It seems that if we can manage to cultivate a repertoire of improv strategies, it will serve to give us a somewhat higher platform to take off from. A couple of surprisingly simple possibilities suggested themselves as we worked this morning.
A good beginning.
Saturday January 15, 2011 – Tuning the Air Season 11 Opening Meeting and Guitar Circle
Good morning turnout. Ten in for the morning sitting at my place. Sitting in a group is qualitatively different than sitting alone. Sitting as part of an established personal practice is essential for us, and if that is alone, it is never really alone; we are connected by the commitment to the practice. For me, it is always apparent when we are at a point of Hazard in a process, because I find I am experiencing heavy resistance to maintaining the practice. I obviously can’t speak for anyone else, but it inevitably happens that at these points there is also a drastic drop off in attendance for the group sittings.
About the middle of the half hour a profound Silence descended. The flavor is always unmistakable. Much more than simply quiet, although the baseboard heater and the refrigerator were blissfully dormant at the time, and traffic in the neighborhood seemed to have ceased. Silence doesn’t actually require quiet, but when they coincide it is a little easier to notice, and a lot easier to enjoy. This kind of Silence, in my experience, tends to appear when sitting in a group more than when I am alone. I don’t actually know what the mechanics are, but for me it as if we collectively summon it. Or, perhaps, a group is more capable of generating the energy required to open up a space for it. Something like that, at least subjectively.
A bit of excitement as we moved to Fremont Abbey for rehearsal. First, the parking lot we usually use is no longer available, so parking was a little extra challenging, even on a Saturday morning. We need to take this into account on show nights. Then, just to keep things interesting, when I arrived and had found an ideal parking place, I realized that over the holiday I had removed the Abbey key from my overburdened key chain, so I had to abandon my ideal parking place in order to rush back home for the key.
Nevertheless, we were all there and gathered for the opening meeting. The first hour was without guitars. We welcomed 2 new players to the performance team, and acknowledged that we also have one departure. So, we are up one in the aggregate. It will be 10 performers for the first time since our first season. Still not the 12 that has always been my wish, but on the way. For the first couple of shows Tony will be in town, so we will be eleven. So close! For this season we have 10 shows and then a week off (the church needs the space for Easter week activities) and then 10 more weeks. A good run. Not the 40 weeks we did the first two years, but a substantial commitment. Very likely, the week before the Easter break we will have as many as 20 3rd and 4th graders joining us!
The biggest challenge for us is going to be practicalities. We have effectively raided the house team in the expansion of the performance team, so we are shorthanded. Some discussion of how this is going to be addressed. We are also without a publicist this season (she took on a real job with real pay), and so there are a lot of tasks to be filled. As Mary Beth expressed it, this needs to be an “all hands on deck” season, with everyone taking on additional responsibilities. Everyone involved is overcommitted to begin with, and this is not going to be easy. Necessary, but not easy.
A short break, and we moved to the circle with guitars; the full newly reconstituted performance team plus Joel, Bill and Rob. Without instruction, we opened with a circulation that, if such a thing can be considered a portent, spoke very well for a musical and creative season. Music was present from the very first note, the every evolution and variation organic and inevitable.
Bill will be working with the full company and the performance team this season on ways of practicing/rehearsing improvised pieces. This is something we have not addressed a lot in rehearsal. The collective experience and coherence of the group (the core of which has been playing together for about 12 years now) can be relied upon to make musical choices when the time comes. So rehearsal time has focused on the composed material. But the general observation at the end of last season was that if we aspire to taking the improvised part of the set up an octave, we need to find ways to practice improvising.
With that in mind we bounced around a number of exercises, games and strategies for generating improvs. It is apparent that when we set ourselves some simple parameters, we are a lot clearer in our statements and responses, and more musical in general. The specific nature of the parameter is almost irrelevant. It seems that if we can manage to cultivate a repertoire of improv strategies, it will serve to give us a somewhat higher platform to take off from. A couple of surprisingly simple possibilities suggested themselves as we worked this morning.
A good beginning.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Tuning the Air winter hiatus
Beginning a daily regimen of reviewing and practicing parts and repertoire, including pieces that we have not performed in some time, in preparation for a new Tuning The Air season that will feature the most radical realignment of the performance team ever.
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