Extracurricular group workout 6

A Tuning the Air Journal

Wednesday, September 28, 2011 – Extracurricular group workout 6

Five of us in the house for the afternoon workout: Chris, Greg, Mary Beth, Carl and myself.

Took on 3 pieces today. “Little Red Truck” was first. Primarily, Carl and Chris wanted to get some time in on the outro, which involves them in improvisation through an interesting set of changes. In the process, an idea for the final pass that will involve something composed for them (and possibly a different composed passage every week…?). We also took a close look at several transitions that have been weak in our runthroughs. Carl worked with a range of tempos and eventually settled on 84bpm for our working pace.

On to “Walrus”. We ran it several times. I played the rhythm guitar part, as that is a more solid base. Chris and Carl compared phrasing notes on the melody. We took a detailed look at the Outro and worked with the cello and other parts. I had a thought about a way to incorporate an instrumental interpretation of the rhythmic vocal parts that run through the ending. This will require a little research/transcription work on my part in my copious free time this afternoon, so that it can be presented at tomorrow night’s rehearsal.

Finally, Mary Beth began presenting the parts to her composition, “Constellations”. Sgt Bones is about 1 day ahead of the rest of us on this piece, so Chris and I were playing catch-up. More to follow, to be sure.

Full group tomorrow night. Bach’s B Minor Prelude is at the top of the list, as well as the circulated cascades from the middle section of “Slow Burn” and the cello and horn parts for “Walrus”.