Tuning the Air Complete

At 9:54pm Pacific Time, December 16, 2011, after many anecdotes and many toasts, Tuning the Air was declared completed.

Happy Birthday Tuning the Air

December 12, 2011

Happy Birthday Tuning the Air

Seven years ago today, up on the third floor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Ballard, a weekend workshop was wrapping up. The finale was a feast for about 25 people. Jaxie, Bob, Travis, Taylor and I were among those taking part, and from time to time the workshop director would call upon us to play some music. We would get our guitars, go out in the hallway to strategize what our set would be - 2 or 3 pieces. We entered, took our place up near the head of the table, and performed.

The third and final time we were called upon, we chose for our final selection “Eye of the Needle”, which is also known as “Guitar Craft Theme III”, and is within the repertoire of anyone who has been involved with Guitar Craft for a period of time. We entered, and performed our first selection. When it came time for “Eye of the Needle”, we spread out and surrounded the audience – to the extent that 5 players can “surround” a banquet table set up for 25 diners. The effect was immediate and profound. Of course, the composition has that quality and effect for anyone who can enter in to it, but there was something in this presentation that seemed to bring the music to life in a very particular way. Collecting ourselves outside of the room after the performance, we had the clear sense that something momentous had just occurred.

At the table, and so in the audience that night were, among others: Frank Sheldon, Jan Jarvis, Hugh Elliot, George Bennett and Michael Fredrick.

This Thursday night, what was set in motion that night reaches its completion.

Full Team Circle and Performance Team Rehearsal

A Tuning the Air Journal

Saturday October 17, 2010 – Full Team Circle and Performance Team Rehearsal

A truly remarkable morning of work together.

Frank returned to the Saturday morning full team circle. We are working with “upping the ante” for everyone, giving the players not currently in the performance team an opportunity to work at that level of challenge, and giving the performance team a weekly opportunity to play (emphasis on play) with material and ideas that are not necessarily directly related to the practical needs of the next performance. This has been very fruitful work this season, and we asked Frank if he would be available to help with this process.

Frank was on fire! He arrived with what turned out to be two-thirds of an inspiration for a game/exercise; two-thirds in the sense that he had a clear idea for two contrasting approaches to an improv exercise, but the third third did not reveal itself to him until we were actually in the room and addressing the challenge. In the first part of the exercise we worked with a musical expression of a familiar exercise with “filling the room”. In this we look for our place in the room where we each have the maximum space around us. Of course, as soon as someone moves, it changes everything, and so we all move. In fact, the room is in constant dynamic motion. To this exercise, he added the instruction to play parts on our guitar as different from everything else we hear as possible. A wonderful and interestingly thoughtful cacophony. For the next stage of the exercise we were asked to do the opposite: to get as close together as possible and play exactly the same thing in the same way. Once this unanimity was established we were instructed to break up, move away, and then do it again. The human sculptures created by 12 guitarists trying to get as close together as possible (without touching) while working to come to consensus on what to play were quite amazing.

The “third third” arrived for Frank, and he instructed us to do both exercises at the same time; that is both stay as far away and as close together as possible from one another, both physically and musically. Obviously impossible. But only impossible for an individual. For the entity of the group, entirely possible, although it took us a few minutes to grasp this. A little tentative play with the conundrum, and suddenly it came to life. A number of people, afterward, noted that they had experienced the arrival of The Orchestra in that moment; a completely organic improv beast, assembling and deconstructing without pretense. An unlike the three Orchestras I have thus far worked with, this one involved and required no “section leaders”. Amazing music.

We gathered in the circle and shared observations. The full circle work completed with a short, silly, but informative exercise in telling jokes.

After a short break, the performance team reconvened for rehearsal. Frank and Bill joined us for the first hour. Bill offering his ears and musical insights to the work we were undertaking, and Frank silently working the perimeter.

This was the nuts and bolts portion of the rehearsal. In some ways kind of a letdown (albeit, a totally necessary one) from the earlier circle. For myself, however, I found that the quality of the earlier work informed the rehearsal in several unmistakable ways. The first thing I noticed was a kind of heightened sensitivity. We were working, in the first part of the rehearsal, with matters of time, feel and pulse, specifically with The Children’s Hour. In circulated parts we are particularly exposed, and I found that while I was making the same kinds of observations and remarks I always do (for better or for worse), I was experiencing a level of empathy that was unusual. Occasionally, this generally increased sensitivity in the circle manifested as a bit of prickliness, but I was at all times aware of a general good will that made the work extremely productive.

After Bill and Frank departed, and another short break, we launched into the initial presentation, parts assignments and read-through of a new/old piece of material that we may play with the California Guitar Trio when they perform here in November. As with much CGT material, deceptively simple. Not so difficult on the technical level, but requiring a level of precision that may not be so evident from the outside.

Sadly, for the next two weeks the Abbey is not available for Saturday rehearsals, so the full group circles are on hold until November 6. The performance team is going to take advantage of this to use that time to get Neptune off of the drawing board and into the repertoire.

Weekend at CCMAC: Sessions #5 and Departure

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

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

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:

This Moment: Exploring the interface of music and mindfulness.
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

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.

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

Retreat Day 4

A Tuning the Air Journal

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.

Everyone leaving town was on the road by about 3:00pm. Tony, Jaxie and I did one last turn around the House. Tony and I were back at his place at 3:30pm. He is napping. I am going to do the same. Dinner plans for us with Jaxie at a Peruvian restaurant (I do love NY).

Retreat Day 3

A Tuning the Air Journal

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

NYC was kind to us; I managed to sleep with open windows and no A/C. When Tony and I stepped out onto W 4th Street at 6:30am it was noticeably less hot than previous days. Not so much cool, but welcomingly warm; my body warmed up from the simple exertion of a brisk walk to SoHo, rather than simple existence in the sauna of NY in August.

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]

Retreat Day 2

A Tuning the Air Journal

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

Interesting to look back on the day in terms of remembering and documenting the schedule which, outside of the general plan for meals, is not predetermined; we look ahead a few hours, and make sure we have time set aside for a number of activities we consider essential. What utterly fails to be captured is the content of the activities, taken on by a group that has been working together for, in some respects, 25 years. Almost entirely self-organizing. After the early evening intro to the meditation we are taking on for the weekend, feet and guitars directed us to the Circle without a word spoken. Meal conversation is never strained or in any way formal, and yet it is very much a part of the activity of the retreat in which matters, often of great import, are observed, considered and discussed in depth. How do you describe eight people with minimal talking converging on a kitchen, and less than 60 minutes later there is a stupendous meal laid out on a well appointed table, everything accomplished with a care that is not at all precious. After listening to JGB’s Theme Talk, the discussion was unforced and relaxed. Walked back to Tony’s apartment thinking, “finally, after so many years of those kinds of meeting, that is the way they are supposed to be.” Not a shoe gazer in the bunch.

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]

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 80º 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]

Guitar Craft Course Recapitulation Meeting

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday April 1, 2010 – Guitar Craft Course Recapitulation Meeting

In place of our usual pre-season Thursday evening rehearsal – Fremont Abbey was booked tonight, and besides many of us were jet lagging heavily having just arrived from Italy within the past 48 hours – we met at the Wilsons to recapitulate the course. Mary Beth, Taylor and Bill were still out of town. But the rest of the team, both those who travelled to Italy and those who participated at a distance crowded into the living room. It was pretty free-form, with impressions and particular memories presented as they arose, sometimes radically different takes on the same experience, with very little narrative structure. A little like a jigsaw puzzle, after a time a picture of the course began to emerge. Four of the AAD team had met on a number of occasions to work together on guitar, with a focus on chord voicings and inversions, and they filled us in on that work as well.

We took a break, and enjoyed the stupendous cheesecake that House Manager Charles brought with him.

For the final part of the meeting, the Italy team brought the home team up to date on the meeting we had with Robert. Chris was formally introduced as the new Music Director for the 2010 season, and the discussion moved on to some of the challenges and aims for the upcoming season, including a reminder that we have two weeks – 5 rehearsals including next Thursday’s full tech rehearsal at Fremont Abbey – before opening night.

Monday March 29, 2010 – Home

Monday March 29, 2010 – Home

If it had be one of those glorious New York days, Jaxie and I would probably have taken the train into the city early, hung out a bit, and then come back in time to make the 4:45 flight back to Seattle. But, it was a yucky, rainy day. Jetlagged as we were, we were both up pretty early. She called, and we decided to sit in my room. After sitting, we looked out the window, and agreed that the trip to the city would just not be a lot of fun. So the plan became to stay here until check-out time, shuttle over to the terminal, get to our gate and plant ourselves for reading and work, probably grabbing some lunch. Not a terribly stimulating way to spend a day, but extra excitement was not particularly appealing today.

Over breakfast we began talking about how to go about setting up the Seattle Circle Music School. That may or may not be the name, but it gives me something to focus on. Our sense was that the core brainstorming team would be herself, me and Tony. Called Tony to confirm that he is in.

The sense is that there are a couple of things to be done right away. One is to begin to hammer out the mission/vision. Not necessarily the full/final thing, but something that very clearly lays out the intention and the essential principles. In this way, as we look for/at people who are going to be key, we will have some clarity in terms of what we are presenting them with, and give them a chance to determine for themselves the resonance. The other is to begin to look at the roles that need to be filled right away, and to imagine who they might be. We will of course be putting this out there for anyone in the Tuning the Air family who might see themselves in this project, but we don’t want to put the onus of this project on that team. So will very certainly be looking for people from a wider circle, and very soon. We jotted down a few bullet points and began for hone things just a bit – spitballing at this point, but learning how to recognize what is essential, as contrasted to ideas – good, clever and bright.

Back up to the rooms. I took another shower – after a week in Sassoferatto, actual water pressure is a joy. I let the TV run for a while, and then sat down to write this and address a few other bits of reading and writing. Jax quit her room about 11am and came over and we continued the brainstorming until a little before noon, when we checked out and caught the noon shuttle over to our terminal at JFK.

2:36pm

Sitting at the gate. Boarding passes in hand. Display indicates this flight will be departing for Seattle in about 2 hours. Cautiously optimistic. Had a meal. Did my SSG homework. Ready to veg.

10:54pm

Home. Exhausted. Luggage-free.

March 28/29, 2010 – Final Guitar Craft Course – Day 2 of Eternal Travel

March 28/29, 2010 – Final Guitar Craft Course – Day 2 of Eternal Travel

Travel from Sassoferrato, Italy to Seattle

Sunday March 28, 2010

To begin with, Europe went to Daylight Saving Time at 2am Sunday morning, adding insult to injury.

• 4:15am Europe Daylight Saving Time – Alarm went off. I was asleep, for real. Not sure when I actually fell asleep, but it wasn’t much more than an hour earlier.
• 5:00am – Meet the team downstairs. Ten of us heading to the airport in a cab, a car, and a van for luggage.
• 6:00am – Arrive Ancona Aeroport. Check in relatively easy.
• 7:00am – In the air.
• 7:28am – Land in Rome. A trip to a restaurant for a little food and some good coffee. Amble to the gate. So far, so good.
• 11:00am – The beginning of 9 hours of transatlantic fun.
• 3:00pm Eastern Time – Touch down at JFK. Deplane. No wait for Immigration. Bit of a wait for luggage. No wait for Customs. Say goodbye to Bill. Re-check luggage. Go to American Airlines. Because it is less than 45 minutes from departure time, American refuses to issue boarding passes to Jaxie and me.
  
• 4:00pm – Commence several hours of yelling. The most amusing – convincing Al Italia that Jaxie and I needed two rooms for the night, not one. I mean, we’re close, but not that close. Their argument was that as we were traveling together, by policy we were entitled to one room. Our argument was that, by policy, they could go straight to hell. Our policy trumped theirs.
• 6:00pm – Check into crappy airport Holiday Inn, “courtesy” of Al Italia. Grab a shower. Do some emailing. Make a phone call or two. Hallways smell like cigarettes and marijuana.
• 7:00pm – Meal and much needed drink in hotel restaurant, “courtesy” of Al Italia.
• 9:00pm – To our hotel rooms (plural!) where passing out is on the menu.

March 29, 2010

• 1:00am, 4:00am and 6:00am – wake up.
• 7:30am – Sitting in room 421.
• 8:15am – Breakfast “courtesy” of Al Italia. Brainstorming on mission/vision of Seattle Guitar School, including call to Tony.
• 10:00am – Back to rooms for personal work.
• 12noon – Check out of hotel, shuttle to terminal.
• 4:45pm – Plane pulls away from gate, goes directly to holding area where it shuts engines down and waits for an hour.
• 6:00pm – Plane gets in queue and 20 minutes later takes off. Six hour flight blissfully uneventful.
• 9:10pm Pacific Time – Touch down in Seattle. Meet the Williams clan at baggage claim. Have a word with both American and Delta regarding the absence of luggage, including guitars.
• 10:15pm – arrive home to peeved, but cuddly, cat.

Total travel time = 50 hours for humans. For luggage, still tbd.

Saturday March 27, 2010 – Final Guitar Craft Course - Day 7

Saturday March 27, 2010 – Final Guitar Craft Course - Day 7

The Guitar Circle I
Guitar Craft 25th Anniversary Completion Course
Special Project: The Orchestra Of Crafty Guitarists III
Convento La Pace, Sassoferrato (Ancona), Italy

8:54am

The “course cold” is making the rounds. It doesn’t seem particularly virulent, thankfully, but widespread low-key sniffling, sneezing and hacking is noticeable. So far, I think I have dodged that bullet. Just a few more hours of vigilance needed.

My body was a wreck this morning. I awoke once before daylight, a little confused about where I was and what time of the day it might be, but made it back to sleep pretty readily. Then I re-awoke just before my alarm went off, as usual. My entire body was tingling, literally from head to toe, with that feeling I usually experience late at night when I have been up far too long, and I am in total exhaustion; my yawns go straight to the soles of my feet. It would seem that last night’s performance might have been a little more physically grueling than I had given it credit for. I could tell by my mental and emotional state that it had taken its toll in those respects, but I hadn’t quite allowed for the sheer physical demands. I resisted getting out of bed for as long as possible.

I just checked, and that was the third time I have used the word, “grueling”, in my journal this week.

Sitting, nevertheless, was quite good and clear. At one point a police car was screaming nearby, and seemed to be going around in circles and never getting farther away, until after what seemed like five minutes the sound finally dopplered off into the distance. I found myself wondering what it would be like to have to go through life making that sound where ever I went. But then it occurred to me that, basically, we all do. Some of us are just more literally audible than others.

Doing some pre-packing this morning to avoid the crunch. Nothing ever quite fits back the way it came. Plus, during the morning sitting I found myself wondering when Daylight Saving Time begins in Europe, and sure enough on the board this morning appeared a reminder that it is tonight. Cruel irony. Many of us need to be on a 7am flight from Ancona, which is an hour+ drive from here. Almost tempted to just stay up tonight. That rarely works in practice, even though it always sounds good in concept.

3:45pm

More or less a gentle day. A morning meeting for reflections, observations, comments, and points of seeing. I had something cooking, but when I thought about it I found I missed what was being said, and I felt I was primarily there to listen. So I let it go, for the final meeting or not at all. Tai Chi. Lunch. A walk with a friend in the beautiful sunny (though not altogether warm, it turns out) weather. Back to some work in the House, in my case giving my bathroom a good scrubbing. Soon, Tea. I believe I have meetings for the rest of the afternoon.

1:30/2:30am – Europe about to go to Daylight Saving in about 30 minutes.

The day took an interesting turn. Basically, the course was over, but we had details to take care of. Some meetings that were supposed to happen, didn’t. Some surprises. I got most of my packing done. Cleaned my room for the last time. Thought I’d take a shower, knowing that at 4am I would not be in the mood. Just as I was about to go for it, an emergency arose that took my attention almost until supper. It was very good, on a human level, but it wrecked my schedule. Supper was full of too many music performances, getting in at the last minute what had been put off all week. Some of it fun, but for me too much. I wanted to be with the people around me. After supper, finally a shower, and then the final meeting.

After the final meeting, which ended a little after 11:30, there was a merchandise opportunity in the dining hall. I had nothing to sell, but I did have a computer loaded with GC History related photos, so I set up a slide show and hosted, pointing out all the interesting characters, in come cases to the interesting characters themselves. Then, up to my room to finish packing. This thankfully did not take as long as I had feared, since by then it was well after 1am, or 2am, depending on how you look at it, and I had a 5am call for the ride to Ancona.

Views from my room on the final day of the course.

Friday March 26, 2010 – Final Guitar Craft Course - Day 6

Friday March 26, 2010 – Final Guitar Craft Course - Day 6

The Guitar Circle I
Guitar Craft 25th Anniversary Completion Course
Special Project: The Orchestra Of Crafty Guitarists III
Convento La Pace, Sassoferrato (Ancona), Italy

6:49am

Slept deep and hard. Still didn’t need my alarm to wake me, but it was close. Moving rather slow this morning. The dress rehearsal was hard work, to be sure, but not as physically grueling as the marathon the night before. Still, I am more tired than usual. The aim for this performance is for the Orchestra to play for about 20 minutes or so. Strangely, this felt harder than an hour. Perhaps the pacing is different. Or, for a shorter time it is possible to maintain a greater level of attention; like a sprint versus a marathon. In some ways, the hardest part was remaining still and composed in the green room during the encores. Some blocking issues to deal with before tonight. There will not be a great deal of guitar playing today, or at least not group work on the guitar, in order that we might be fresh for the gig. If I had to guess, I would imagine that the encore group will be a minor exception – we need to tighten a thing or two up.

No fog today. Took my daily morning photos out window of my room, and noticed that the snow on the tops of the neighboring mountains has all but disappeared.

9:08am

Amusing associative thinking this morning. All of yesterday’s deep contact AAD extending through time to so many people – today, completely irrelevant. Sat well. AAD contact with those participating in the course was strong. Found myself singling out a handful of people here on the course that seem to me to need a little extra support today. But it was all very light and easy. Kept thinking, “Guitar Craft no longer exists. I have no obligation to do any of this.” Obviously not true. But something gently liberating about the feeling that today I can choose, even when the reality is that I have obligations and responsibilities, and commitments to honor. And one exercise that is for Life, regardless. That is also somewhat liberating, in a different kind of way.

I was thinking at breakfast about how good it is to have Adam and Michael here. Personally, it is great, just because they are people whose company I have always enjoyed. But in addition, they stand as kind of representatives for everyone who has ever moved on from Guitar Craft for any reason. I find myself in life occasionally in conversation with a former Crafty, and the most difficult part of it for me is that we are never talking about the same thing. Always (always!) I find that for them Guitar Craft IS as they perceived it when they were a part of it. But for me it is something entirely different, on every level. I am not just dealing with their perceptions of how it was then, or the effects of time on memory, but even when the facts are correct, they are correct about a time that no longer exists. I’m in 2010, but I’m having a conversation about 1990 as if it were still 1990. I have been able to see a bit through Adam and Michael’s eyes, as they get a snapshot of present day Guitar Craft. Extremely useful to me.

A gentle but purposeful day ahead. Some things to do, but avoiding the unnecessary. Jokingly, but only “just” jokingly, thought the schedule ought to read something along the lines of:

9am – Tai Chi
10am – Tai Chi
11am – Tai Chi
noon – Tai Chi
1pm – Lunch
2pm – Siesta
3pm – Tai Chi

Somehow I don’t think that will happen, but perhaps if I adopt the attitude that this is how my day will go, it will go something like that. Meanwhile, my right hand as an appointment with the metronome.

3:33pm

Spring has arrived in Sassoferatto! It is incredibly beautiful out, and there is a warm and steady breeze. I just took a shower (lukewarm at best) but it was not so bad, and afterward I was able to go sit outside in the sun to dry my hair. We have no large group music activities today. Lots of time for personal practice, but keeping our Music-Energy in reserve for this evening’s performance.

A short meeting with Robert, with guitars, for the Schizoid Monks, a little before noon. He gave us mostly encouragement, along with a pointer or two. We ran a couple of sections with him, took a look at tempi, and then did a once-through of the entire piece. One of the things I enjoy about Robert is that he is lots of fun to play guitar with. He may jump in and join us for our performance tonight. Or, he may not.

I had a quick meeting with Bill, to clarify a few bits of the bass part, and we drilled them for a few minutes. Then until lunch I turned on the metronome and reacquainted myself with my right hand. My playing goes to hell on these courses because, strangely, I get very limited time for personal practice. But if I don’t want to tank my part on this piece, the encore in the final performance of the final Guitar Craft course, I need to have a reliable and well conditioned right hand. And that was not going to happen by itself.

Lunch was the main meal today. Roasted vegetables and salad. Very nice. We will have an early “buffet” rather than dinner tonight, at 5pm. Green Room at 8:30, and we are off! Just at the moment, however, this feels like nap weather and I am inclined not to fight the impulse.

10:51pm

Concert completed. I haven’t a clue how it went. Schizoid Man was fun, but I made so many mistakes.

In the Green Room, Orchestra of Crafty Guitarists, Convento La Pace, Sassoferrato, Italy, Friday March 26, 2010

Thursday March 25, 2010 – Final Guitar Craft Course - Day 5

Thursday March 25, 2010 – Final Guitar Craft Course - Day 5

The Guitar Circle I
Guitar Craft 25th Anniversary Completion Course
Special Project: The Orchestra Of Crafty Guitarists III
Convento La Pace, Sassoferrato (Ancona), Italy

The bell from the church across the way rings 1-2-3 1-2-3-4 1-2-3-4-5 1 at 6am. I hear this every morning, 45 minutes before my alarm goes off, and 47 minutes before my backup alarm goes off. I slept through the night, and though I sense that there were dreams, all detail evaporated as soon as I woke up, just before those bells rang. I felt rested, but lazy, and getting up felt like a terrible concept. Only the desperate need for a shower overrode the inertia. It is another foggy morning in Sassoferatto. From the moment I awoke I have had Mel Torme’s voice in my head;

“I was a stranger in the city
Out of town were the people I knew.
I had that feeling of self-pity.
What to do, what to do, what to do?
The outlook was decidedly blue.
But as I walked down those foggy streets alone, it turned out to be the happiest day I’ve known.
A foggy day, in London town, had me low, had me down…”

Between that and the closest thing to a “hot” shower one can expect here, I am now prepared to step into the last day of Guitar Craft.



8:46am

Day 9,131 of Guitar Craft. I don’t have that kind of information rolling readily around my mind, I had to do the math. Basically 25 x 365 + a handful of leap years.

I am being just the tiniest bit facetious when I observe that the biggest difference between my morning sittings now and my morning sittings in 1985 is that now my back doesn’t hurt. I actually solved that one in 1986 with the help of a couple of Alexander teachers. I believe Mead Andrews was one of them. But even dropping the self-deprecation, it is true that I am just as susceptible now to flights of distraction and associative thinking as I was back then, and it is folly for me to imagine it is otherwise. It is not unheard of for me to suddenly notice that 45 minutes have passed and I have barely scratched the surface of my morning’s work. This morning was a pretty good one, happily. Good focus. I moved through the exercises with a level of clarity and relative ease, only rarely having to reign my attention back in very far. When the time came for the exercise of Contact at a Distance, however, things got very interesting. I walked methodically through the names and faces of those who have declared themselves on the course, AAD, as I do every morning at the end of the sitting. From there I moved on to sending good wishes to a number of people who, although they are not participating, or at least not participating officially, feel very important to me in terms of the arc of Guitar Craft history. This actually includes a number of people who have moved on to something else or have simply left the picture, have passed on to indifference, and even a few I know left Guitar Craft in a cloud of negativity and, in at least one or two cases, outright hostility. Most I have long ago lost track of. Given the age my peer group has entered, I can only assume some of them are dead. The parade of names and faces was astonishing. Many I had not thought of in years. In truth I really only wrapped the exercise up when the room had largely cleared and I was beginning to make a spectacle of myself sitting alone while everyone else was off to breakfast.

Holding all of those people in my heart today.

9:28am

Sun!

11:28am

Still sun! And, before long I will go out into it for Tai Chi.

Seattle team met with Robert this morning. A little slow on the ingress, but once things got rolling a really excellent and free-flowing exploration of readdressing the group aim and the ways kick things up to the next level. Everyone involved and a great sense of potential and possibility. Some reflection on the work so far with the Orchestra, which was a very useful tool or strategy for getting us to a place where we might have a fresh way of seeing our own work, as if with innocent eyes. This is a very difficult point of view to attain, much less maintain, but when we can get there only good things come from it.

3:03pm

I tried to avoid it, but they keep coming after me, so unless I totally blow it at the 3:30 rehearsal, it looks like I’m performing Schizoid Man at Tea.
9:06pm

Schizoid Man not only passed the audition, it is now the encore for tomorrow night’s gig. Yikes.

Sent the following email out to the Seattle Guitar Craft team, and a few others:

Just a few moments ago, at 8:31pm here in Italy, on March 25, 2010, Robert placed "The Hat" on his head and declared that we gratefully acknowledge 25 year of honorable work in Guitar Craft completed, and that Guitar Craft no longer exists.

Cheers from Italy. The Orchestra has its dress rehearsal in just a few minutes, and performs Friday night.

Curt

Dress rehearsal in the Convento La Pace, Sassoferrato, Italy

Wednesday March 24, 2010 – Final Guitar Craft Course - Day 4

Wednesday March 24, 2010 – Final Guitar Craft Course - Day 4

The Guitar Circle I
Guitar Craft 25th Anniversary Completion Course
Special Project: The Orchestra Of Crafty Guitarists III
Convento La Pace, Sassoferrato (Ancona), Italy

6:58am

As predicted, almost needed my alarm clock this morning.

9:39am

A brief look into the church, where the performance will take place on Friday. Work is under way to clear it out and set it up. Found myself chuckling a bit, for entirely personal reasons. Now Martin, Victor and I are off to Day 2 of “Guitar Circle I” from 10-noon.

5:56pm

Very good work in the Guitar Circle classes. We all met in the ballroom, and then part of the team went off with Victor, part of the team with Martin, and the rest stayed with me. The suggestion in choosing which group to join was to work with an instructor you haven’t worked with before, or rarely. For my group, we worked with circulating the 5 and 7 rhythms from Thrak, but with rests “played”. That is, we moved around the circle playing 1-rest-rest-4-rest, and when a rest fell on our position, we simply raised our hand. This was not something I had in mind when I entered the room, or even when we began, it simply presented itself. Eventually, we had 2 circles, one playing in 5 with rests indicated by raised hands, and the other doing the same in 7. Once he flow of the patterns became internalized enough that the players no longer needed to say or whisper the count, but could turn their attention more outward, the Music began to appear, at least for moments.

After an hour, we all came back together, acknowledged our work, and took a 10-minute break. When we came back together, we once again split up into 3 groups, but different ones. For this hour, my group worked with bi-directional circulation, much as we have done in Seattle, focusing on what happens and where we tend to disappear to in the critical moment when two melodies approach us from different directions.

Tai Chi with Leonora, out on the football field. She has a somewhat different approach from what I have become accustomed to with Luciano. I enjoy it very much. Just before lunch, Luciano arrived back at the house, with Lillian and Lucas, just arriving from Barcelona. A beautiful little boy, Lucas is. At lunch I’m afraid we gave him a start when we applauded a performance, and kind of freaked him out.

Directly after lunch, a Nafgoose meeting with Hernan, primarily filling one another in on the details of how and where things are at present, comparing notes and looking at the general direction for the near and more distant future. Not nearly enough time for that, but you grab what you can.

From there I ran down to one of the rehearsal rooms to work with the Mexican circle on circulation. They felt that “flow” was the weakness they wished to address, but as l listened, my take was that the flow was just fine. For me, it was the note choice and general content that was lacking. So I worked with them on circulating through diatonic chord changes, beginning to develop a sense of the character of the various scale degrees; what they bring to the circulation, what they imply, and what repercussions might come from choosing one note over another. Very important work for them, I think. In the early stages of circulating, playing no wrong notes is a major triumph, and occasionally magic happens that we haven’t earned and don’t deserve. But eventually, simple competence and a little good luck just isn’t going to get the job done. If spontaneous composition by a group is the aim, then competence needs to become command (and eventually mastery), and luck replaced by attention with intension. Then something of a much higher order than mere luck has the opportunity to make its way into the Music.

Tea time, and then a long walk and talk on life matters. I’m afraid this caused me to miss a TTA+ rehearsal, but it was important. Got to the rehearsal just in time to learn that we are performing tonight after dinner and before desert; Lament with Cathy on viola. Tony came up to my room to review the arrangement we will be using, so I think I am good to go.

I am very sleepy right now.

9:37pm

For some reason we didn’t perform at dinner. I’m told it is because the decision was that there had been enough music, but that doesn’t ring true for me. I saw the moment that opened wide for us, but when I looked down the table I just got shaking heads. Something out of kilter.

SSG meeting directly after dinner. Two new members, and the discussion was lively and useful. I am pretty sure I have no future in reading chapters and typing up reports. I will fulfill the commitment, of course, but until we are in the same room, chatting (not quite accurate. Nothing trite about the discussion, but the word does convey a bit of the amiable conviviality and absence of formality in the occasion) it all seems contrived and head-heavy, and deciphering in this fashion is absolutely not my strength.

Orchestra rehearsal in a few minutes. I am working to reconcile the dread I feel every night before the rehearsal with the value of the experience. Even as we are working, I cannot say I enjoy it. I very definitely delight in moments, and feel happy and energized by the experience, though. And I very clearly recognize that I will likely only have a very small handful of these opportunities in my lifetime, so taking a “night off” is not an option. Still, when I saw “22:00 – Orchestra” on the schedule, I felt a moment of disappointment. Strange.

11:47pm

Okay, that was work. I have not the slightest idea if anything that happened tonight was worth a damn. Carolina said it was amazing. I trust here in these matters, and so I will take her word for it. Mostly, it was about choreography – kind of like a tech rehearsal where you deal with blocking, except this is dynamic and improvisational, so you practice making it up as you go. The idea being: the audience is going to be fixed in their seats, so all they will really hear or see is what is in front of them; ergo, what is in front of them needs to move. So it was all about moving… all the time, without pause. I really thought we were going to lose a few players. It was hot, and there was no air I the room. No more grueling than playing your average rock and roll gig, to be honest, but I am not sure how many people here have ever done that. No serious collisions. I saw a couple of broken strings, but I don’t think there were any guitar-related calamities. Given the level of movement, that in itself is a minor miracle. From my perspective, we play too much. We fill every available space; there is not much in the way of dynamics on the quiet end, and no silence whatsoever. And tonight there was not a moment of stillness, either. But, we are learning. Every night we explore a slightly different facet of how this might work. My job is basically to do what I’m asked to do, so that Robert can get the fairest possible representation of the idea he wants to get across, and so gather information for the next incarnation of the experiment. So, I can only guess by that standard at least tonight was a success.

I smell bad, but will have to wait until morning for a shower.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

For our final performance of the first Guitar Craft course, Saturday evening March 30 1985, we sat in a circle to perform. In order to keep the small groups seated together, in between pieces we did very carefully rehearsed seating arrangement shifts. Those about to play got up and moved to whichever seats they needed to occupy, and the people occupying those seats got up and moved to the players old seats. All of the “rules” about moving in the circle – move clockwise, don’t stop, never overtake, take the first available seat – came from working out these staging necessities.

When we entered the performance space – the ballroom at the Claymont Mansion – there were a couple of dozen Claymont residents in the audience sitting on cushions in the center of the circle. A few I recognized from the work weekend I did there a some months earlier. Others I had seen working the kitchen during the course. One person I didn’t recognize stood out for me. He was on the tall side and sat very still with a remarkable and natural presence and alertness. It was nearly a year before I met Frank Sheldon, but the minute he walked in the room I recognized him as the one I had seen in the audience that night. To this day, he says that the first thing that attracted him to Guitar Craft was not the music, but the way we moved in the Circle.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I arrived at Claymont Court on the afternoon of Monday March 25, 1985. Supper was at 7pm, or so, and then our opening meeting. So, by my calculation, and taking into account time zone shifts, I have been in Guitar Craft now for 24 years and 364 days. Tomorrow at this time, it will be gone.

Tuesday March 23, 2010 – Final Guitar Craft Course - Day 3

Tuesday March 23, 2010 – Final Guitar Craft Course - Day 3

The Guitar Circle I
Guitar Craft 25th Anniversary Completion Course
Special Project: The Orchestra Of Crafty Guitarists III
Convento La Pace, Sassoferrato (Ancona), Italy

6:53am

I have yet to need my alarm clock to wake me up in the morning. Not going to get cocky, but it is something I just noticed. It would also seem, if today is typical, that the right time to use the shower is first thing in the morning. Not a lot of water pressure, but what water there was, was actually hot. After last night’s House of Guitars, I really wanted/needed a shower before bed, but the water was dead cold, and I wasn’t feeling virtuous enough for that.

It is only Day 3. Or, it is already Day 3. Both feel true. A critical point coming up, I think. It is a very short time for 100 people to learn to improvise coherently together, and become a real group. The character of our rehearsals has been to encourage dropping inhibitions and to allow ourselves free reign. At some point, refinement, hopefully without censorship, will be necessary, and it feels like that point is very soon; today perhaps.

Rehearsed with the Tuning the Air team yesterday. It was a most welcome respite.

2:49pm

Morning House and Kitchen meeting. No one enjoys meetings. Few people enjoy meetings less than me. Nevertheless, an important meeting for the course, so entered into with joy. Next, a meeting for those with experience leading circles, and Robert, to look at what it means to work in a circle and how we might manage “section leadership” within the Orchestra, introducing discipline without imposing behavioral dictates and/or attenuating creativity.

The “Guitar Circle I” course began in earnest, with Martin and myself splitting the group and working with Guitar Circle essentials. This primarily, in my group, meant circulating – or, more specifically, listening while circulating. After a couple days of Orchestral Brouhaha, this brought things back to earth a bit, in a good way.

Tai Chi out on the football field. Always a life saver.

At lunch, a parade of performances. There have been not a lot of mealtime performances so far, and I was beginning to wonder. Now, the floodgates seem to have been opened.

After lunch the Tuning the Air producers had a meeting with Chris. It went something like this:

Jax: “Well, Chris, we wanted to talk to you because you have emerged as the new Music Director for Tuning the Air.”

Chris: “I know.”

After that, it’s all just details.

Managed to divert all responsibilities for the afternoon. Victor will take my group in the second meeting of the “Guitar Circle I” course. After tea, potential for a TTA rehearsal, which is something worth looking forward to.

Maybe I’ll shave. Such are the big decisions of my life right now.

8:47pm

Did shave.

Practiced until tea. After tea, a TTA rehearsal, with honorary guest TTAers Bill, Tony, and for The Wig Maker, Cathy Stevens on viola. Practiced a bit more. Learned the “canon” part to Batrachomyomachy. Tai Chi with Luciano.

For dinner, TTA+ opened. Now, off to an NAFGC meeting with Robert, followed by The Orchestra.

11:46pm

Nafgoose meeting somewhat different than what I had expected. Began with an incoming phone call from the absent, but never apart, Tom. Discussion then moved to Jaxie’s seeing regarding a school in Seattle. This more or less dominated the hour, which was good, and something would seem to be ignited. Other business touched on as well, but this was key.

On to the Orchestra, which I was frankly dreading. I have no doubt that last night’s blast of exuberance (more than one person has used a “Lord of the Flies” reference when speaking to me about it) but I was not eager for a repeat, and less eager for a lame attempt at a repeat. We entered the room in a snake which formed a spiral in the room. In addition to the guitars, there was one viola and a harp. Following on from some discussion in the earlier meeting with circle leaders and buddies, Robert took the opportunity to talk about some of the basic tenets of work in the Circle, including a number of essential elements that it is possible some people here have never encountered, or at least heard articulated clearly. For me, I felt things change right away, in the sense that I had the feeling that this changed the overall realization of personal responsibility for what happens in these events. Then Robert introduced the concept of the “section leaders”. Without identifying us specifically, he gave the nine of us the instruction to begin when ready, and in that way we would identify ourselves. The rest of the players were instructed to gravitate to one of the section leaders. So, when ready, we began. I opened with a clear but gentle high “G”, and the others responded. Finally, something clear, intentional and unambiguous to set the thing rolling. A handful of folks found their way to me, and we were off and running. Good fun, and some real Music. My favorite moments were actually when my group was contributing Silence, and we could just listen to the sound in the room. Inevitably, what needed to be added would make itself very clearly known. Sometimes that meant joining in on something that had a head of steam from another group. Other times, I would just wait until there was an opening and take things in a different direction. Sometimes we would move to another part of the room, or combine with another group. Everything was permissible, and everything worked. Great interaction between the groups. A bit of theatre, but never the sense that anything was going off the rails. Always in service to something real. The end was so clear, that no one could have possibly missed it. Was it 10 minutes or an hour? I actually do not know.

Robert invited us out into the corridor where we formed two lines, one on either side. Notes assigned, and the Whiz formally introduced. Again, a sense that this is something many had only experienced informally, so it has never quite taken wing when it appears in the Orchestra improvs. It took a while for the 4 initiators to fully grow into the necessary viciousness, but eventually there it was – The Whiz. Never quite transcendent, but very definite moments in which we achieved at least a little bit of levitation.

Currently less desperate about Friday’s performance.

Now excruciatingly tired, and going to bed.

Monday March 22, 2010 – Final Guitar Craft Course - Day 2

Monday March 22, 2010 – Final Guitar Craft Course - Day 2

The Guitar Circle I
Guitar Craft 25th Anniversary Completion Course
Special Project: The Orchestra Of Crafty Guitarists III
Convento La Pace, Sassoferrato (Ancona), Italy

6:51am

Bill and Patrick found a scorpion in their room yesterday. Suddenly, putting on my shoes is an adventure.

9:11am

Working through an “emotional outburst hangover” this morning. I was actually angry last night with what I perceived as a systemic absence of listening. Giving in to this kind of inner emotional turmoil has far-reaching effects on me, and a heavy price to pay, and so my morning sitting was deeply distracted.

In fairness, I suspect the difficulties in last night’s rehearsal were partly the result of the seating arrangements we were experimenting with, which made the connection with the rest of the group very difficult; maybe impossible. In the first section/arrangement we were seated in 6 discrete circles of about 14 players each. Pretty much, whichever circle made the loudest noise dominated the music, and there was no room for subtlety. At one point I actually “shushed” several members of my team. The look of astonishment on their faces was priceless. But there was for the first time in the evening something happening in the room. A lovely C Lydian theme was developing that was shared by the group as a whole, and the atonal, arrhythmic wanking I was hearing around me made it pretty clear that Bill was the only other person in my circle with a direct awareness of what was transpiring. In the second session, there were three discrete circles on the center, with one large circle surrounding them. I sat in the larger circle. This was no better for me. The only time I was actually able to make direct contact with anyone from the inner circles was with Mariana who was in the circle the furthest from me. It was futile, since I couldn’t discern what her group was up to, but it was nice to see at least one awake face. Similarly I managed to connect with Adam, who was across the circle from me, but except for syncing up some rhythmic stuff, it felt more like silent commiseration over the situation. I had someone sitting on my left whose strategy seemed to be to play something/anything all the time, until by some miracle or chance it would fit in with something someone else in the room was doing. I spent a lot of that improv doing nothing, because the barrage coming from my left, left room for nothing.

Very strange dream in the night. Whether or not it had anything to do with going to bed angry is not clear, but I have my suspicions. It involved the discovery of a rare 2-disk (vinyl) Beatles EP. I have no idea if it is something that actually exists, or if I made it up just for this occasion. Black and white cover, and I felt it had been some kind of promotional item. I found it either in a library or a used book store of some kind. It was in very bad shape, and I had the sense it had been tossed aside, and that no one was really aware of it or its value. In real life I actually came upon a copy of the “butcher block” album in very much the same way and condition. I decided to take it. Only after making that decision did it occur to me that it really wasn’t mine to take, and that I would need to discreetly slip out with it; okay, steal it, to be perfectly honest. Nearby, on a bulletin board that was behind glass, there were several notices that were relevant to this record in some way, though I don’t remember how. The only way I could figure out how to get them out was to levitate them up and over the glass, which I did by pointing at them and concentrating until they moved. I woke up before I effected my escape.

11:47am

Enter the Marching Band of Crafty Guitarists. Now that was fun.

11:13pm

A lot of fun. A bit of mob rule. A few people who have a difficult time recognizing the distinction.

Sunday March 21, 2010 – Final Guitar Craft Course - Day 1

Sunday March 21, 2010 – Final Guitar Craft Course - Day 1

The Guitar Circle I
Guitar Craft 25th Anniversary Completion Course
Special Project: The Orchestra Of Crafty Guitarists III
Convento La Pace, Sassoferrato (Ancona), Italy

6:48am

Slept through the night. I hope this in a good sign. I do feel well rested. I have the sense of an active dream life. I awoke with the feeling that it has been a busy night, but nothing more than one or two images makes it through the transition to my waking life.

9:15am

Very good and focused sitting. Breakfast not entirely organized, but there was sufficient food. House Craft followed. I took responsibility for my own room, so my bathroom is now clean and my room tidied. House of Guitars at 10am; life in the house will change once there is Music.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On March 26, 2010, the first morning of the first Guitar Craft course, we gathered in the ballroom of the Mansion at Claymont Court, and I sat in a guitar circle for the very first time. Sometime later I recorded the experience as follows:

Early one morning nineteen guitarists sit in a circle in a large room with a high ceiling. They have only met for the first time at dinner the night before. One of the guitarists rises.

“The instruction is - choose a note in the key of C Major ......”

Got it.

“..... and establish a relationship with your note ......”

What ?!?

“When you have established a relationship with your note you may begin to play it in whatever manner, speed or rhythm feels correct to you.”

Tentatively nineteen separate notes begin to sound around the room. Now a bit more assertively a sound builds until the room is filled with a swirling cacophony. The sound, though unstructured, is developing character hard to describe. It swells and falls, ebbs and flows, builds and retreats with what almost seems to be an intelligence of its own. It is as if there is a twentieth player in the room.

I recognize an old friend.

At this point, 25 years later, I cannot say with certainty that these were the precise words spoken. The language for this instruction has evolved considerably. In March of 2010, it comes down to, “When ready, please begin.” The “old friend” I refer to is something that at one time I referred to as “the ghosts”, and it had to do with something that happens when all of the music aligns, and there is something present that cannot be accounted for by any of the instruments, or any combination of instruments. In this case, out of what amounted to cacophonous and badly tuned wanking, suddenly emerged an organization, followed by the sound of a chorus of violins, or possibly voices. A gift, undeserved, but gratefully accepted.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I go into this morning’s meeting, to the best of my ability, without expectation. I do have that memory, however, and it is a true experience of what is possible, though too rarely realized.

1:47pm

Three hours of Orchestra work, and I was actually winded.

5:39pm

When we arrived at the ballroom for the first “House of Guitars” this morning, it was set up in 3 concentric circles. I moved to a seat in the inner circle (18 chairs – aka, the number of people on the first Guitar Craft course), but avoided the concertmaster’s seat. I think it is not clear just how many actual guitar players there are here yet. Perhaps some people were on other duties, but there were a number of empty chairs in each of the three circles.

The instruction, “when ready, please begin”. And we did, a little tentatively at first, but soon gaining confidence, or at least asserting. It was a longer improv than usual, but there was definitely a there, there. The outer, middle, and inner circles were given instructions in turn to begin when ready. The inner circle’s solo improv was, in all modesty, pretty astounding. After an hour+, a 10-minute break declared.

When we returned, the chairs had been rearranged somewhat. The extra chairs had been removed, and the outer circle was separated into 2 horseshoes, one at either end of the room, making the entire arrangement fit a little more comfortably in a rectangular room. This time I took an anonymous seat in the middle circle. A couple more improvs. Nothing that stood out for me, although that is not necessarily meaningful, since as a player I’m not in the best situation for listening.

Robert asked us to stand and to move the chairs out of the way. He then called 6 group leaders – Curt, Tony, Mariana, Jaxie, Victor and Martin – and told everyone else to gravitate to one of those people. So we had 6 standing circles. Some discussion about how to arrange ourselves. The question, how to maintain the integrity of the small groups, while maintaining the integrity of the whole group. A few suggestions about how we might arrange ourselves. In the end, Tony’s group organized themselves into a horseshoe, but the rest of us stuck with circles. I jockeyed myself around into a position where I could make eye contact with the other 5 group leaders. Victor, Martin and Mariana were clearly within my field of vision. For Jaxie I needed to turn to the right, but I have been playing and performing with her for so long that I don’t really need to be able to see her to know where she is. Tony was the furthest from me and the most difficult to connect with. I found the horseshoe arrangement of his group tricky to take in as a whole.

“When ready, begin.” We did. Really quite something. It was very much like a 6-person improve in that a large part of my focus was on the other groups, and particularly the other group leaders, and my team had the task of following my indications as best they could.

The best moments for me were when several of the groups interacted to create a part. At one point, my group and Jaxie’s combined into a single circle for a bit of whizzing, and then returned to our separate groups.

There was a moment when my group was playing a simple rhythmic part on magic chords of our choice. It was familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Then it hit me: it was the Bo Diddley beat. That was absolutely a Guitar Craft first for me.

Whizzes were present in moments and hints, but never quite achieved orbit. Circulations were generally pretty lame. Angelic choruses never appeared. Still, there was something real in this work today.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Latish one evening during the first week of the first Level Two in December 1985, Robert set us up in several small circles consisting of 4 or 5 players each, and worked us on some basic circulation exercises. We could not get it. I can only imagine his frustration as the chasm between the clear potential of circulation and what was possible for this group revealed itself to be much wider than perhaps he had anticipated; certainly wider than he had hoped. I was in a group of five players, and he had us skipping a chair, in effect tracing out a star pattern, and we simply could not maintain a flow. Finally, he just looked at us, shook his head, muttered “this is really pretty basic stuff, guys,” and walked away.

The best we could ever do with that group were the carefully arranged and composed circulations that can be heard on the first album. Today, we do more complex circulations in the average beginner’s circle than we managed in that entire course. There is something in this that bears a closer look.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

11:17pm

1. Bullying disguised as music.
2. Never ending nattering in my left ear.