Extracurricular group workout 10

A Tuning the Air Journal

Wednesday, November 9, 2011 – Extracurricular group workout 10

Chris called in sick, so today it was a sextet: Curt, Jaxie, Mary Beth, Carl, Greg, and Tony. We primarily worked on pieces that Tony will be playing, giving him a little extra work on details.

We began with “Mad World”, focusing on the timing of the hocketed melody. I was paying particular attention to this, to make sure the score I put together for the Contemporary Guitar Ensemble is accurate.

Next up, “Tango Apasionato”. This is new to all of us, so we took the time to run it several times, looking at details of phrasing, dynamics, feel, fingering, and timing.

On to “Fallout”. Tony has taken on the wiggly melody part, so we gave him some space to work with Jaxie on matters of timing and phrasing. I got a bit of a calisthenic workout in the bargain, which was actually much needed.

We pulled out a quintet version of the B Minor Prelude which somehow managed to be remarkably coherent, although I suppose I’ve been playing the piece long enough that I am getting better at filling in the missing bits.

Tony fully Tonyized “Larks’ Tongues”. It is going to be a bit of fun while he is here (2 performances!)

We ran “Walrus” once, with available players and the metronome.

One final “Tango” and we called it a day.