A Tuning the Air Journal
Sunday January 31, 2010 – Third Meeting of the Vancouver Open Circle
I was up early and on the road for British Columbia by 8am. It was rather rainy, but no traffic to speak of. No one at all at the border. The Olympics begin in a couple of weeks, so I suspect that will change markedly. Had Patti Smith’s Horses on the stereo most of the way, which is how I account for missing a key turnoff on a route I know pretty well.
Arrive at Pablo and Melina’s place at 10:30. Spent a little time with the boys, and had a cup of coffee. Pablo and I went off to grab some breakfast and to take care of an errand, and then headed for the circle. Arrived at about 12:30. The facility was in a sprawling neighborhood center, much of which is currently surrounded by double fences and heavy security for the athletes who are using it as an Olympic training facility. The room we used was a corner kitchen/dining area at the end of an elementary school.
Small group today. Pablo and Sotirios were there, plus two folks who had attended earlier circles. Since it was not going to be a circle for absolute beginners, and due to the small size, I elected to sit down in the circle. At 1pm we began with a bit of freeform circulation. Then, for the first half of the meeting we worked on a 4-octave pentatonic scale circulation, which by the end of the hour was modulating successfully from C to Eb to F# to A and back to C – or, more technically, from C Major to C Minor, which has the same notes as Eb Major, and so from Eb Major to Eb Minor, which has the same notes as F# Major, and so from F# Major to F# Minor, which has the same notes as A Major. The next modulation brought us back to A Minor which has the same notes as C Major. At this point we would reset to our original notes and repeated. Taken to its full potential, we would have actually continued the sequence from there but with everyone playing different notes than the first time around. This was a much more ambitious exercise than I generally introduce at these circles, but there was substantial interest in upping the challenge, and the team rose to the occasion.
A short break, and then we returned to the circle, where I presented all of the parts of One of a Thousand Regrets. The precise arrangement of the piece was not presented, but all of the elements, including some in-depth looks at the counting of the piece and the rhythmic elements. Got much further than I had anticipated in the available hour. A very good afternoon of work. A sense that if the team can manage some work together between my visits, some real forward movement is possible.
Pablo and his son had an afternoon birthday party to go to, so we were prompt to close down the room at 3pm, return the key, and hit the road. I dropped him off and headed home. The rain had abated. I missed no turns this time, and the border crossing, though intrusive as always, was easy with only a short wait.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Full Company Rehearsal at Fremont Abbey
A Tuning the Air Journal
Saturday January 30, 2010 – Full Company Rehearsal at Fremont Abbey
Nearly all-hands this week. Chris had a small emergency at home that necessitated a slightly late arrival, and Bob was home with the children. Pablo was visiting from Vancouver and joined us.
Finally able to get back into Fremont Abbey for a Saturday rehearsal. For scheduling reasons we have had to use the Phinney Neighborhood Center the past two weeks. Phinney is a great facility, in many ways more practical than Fremont for the particular work we have been doing, particularly the Alexander work which involves a certain amount of talking. But playing guitar in the Great Hall is something we need to do as much as possible so that we can begin to adjust to its demands. And the sound really is glorious.
For the first part of the rehearsal, Frank worked with us on the Alexander Technique in a slightly more traditional format. We sat in a semicircle facing him, and he talked about the practice of releasing habits. He asked for volunteers to demonstrate. Greg went first, and presented something he had noticed about tension in the right arm, as it relates to releasing tension in the right wrist. At one point Frank worked directly with his head and neck, of course, his back, as well as his right shoulder and upper arm. Someone (Jaxie, I think) observed that while the upper part of the right arm was being addressed, something happened to the right hand: “he had a new hand”. I was the next volunteer. My question had to do the transition from not playing guitar to playing guitar. My observation had been that when it “comes time to play” I go through a great deal of adjustment in my body, in preparation. My thought/wish was that it is possible to let go of the unnecessary intermediate steps and simply move from being in a state of active rest to applying myself to this particular activity. Frank talked at length about this. It has been, in some ways, the topic of his presentations since we began this season. He offered me a number of opportunities to chose to begin or not to begin, remembering that not to begin is a real option. Eventually we applied this to the first few bars of a piece of music that I know very well. I noticed that in letting go of a number of habitual quirks and ticks I was also letting go of my ability to play the piece with reliability. I rely on my habits for my competence.
Bill was next up. We continued the exercise of bringing some intention to the notes we chose. He began by asking if anyone knew the story of Little Red Riding Hood. Most of us raised our hands. He then asked for someone to briefly recapitulate the story. No one raised their hand. Jaxie, being a parent, was prevailed upon. The exercise, then, was for the group to tell the story, in circulation, one word at a time. Simultaneously we circulated notes from the A Minor Pentatonic scale. Much hilarity ensued. We repeated the exercise, this time with the circulation of notes doing the exercise of “play the note the person to your left played”, moving to one single note played the entire circle. Further hilarity. There was a lot of information in this exercise, but the acoustics of the Great Hall make discussion very difficult, and I observed that during the break there was a great deal of ad hoc discussion in small clusters of people.
For the final 30 minutes we returned to experiments for Taylor’s benefit of various ways or arranging and playing the “Neptune” movement of Holst’s The Planets. More to follow on this.
I am off to Vancouver (BC) in the morning for the Vancouver Guitar Circle.
Saturday January 30, 2010 – Full Company Rehearsal at Fremont Abbey
Nearly all-hands this week. Chris had a small emergency at home that necessitated a slightly late arrival, and Bob was home with the children. Pablo was visiting from Vancouver and joined us.
Finally able to get back into Fremont Abbey for a Saturday rehearsal. For scheduling reasons we have had to use the Phinney Neighborhood Center the past two weeks. Phinney is a great facility, in many ways more practical than Fremont for the particular work we have been doing, particularly the Alexander work which involves a certain amount of talking. But playing guitar in the Great Hall is something we need to do as much as possible so that we can begin to adjust to its demands. And the sound really is glorious.
For the first part of the rehearsal, Frank worked with us on the Alexander Technique in a slightly more traditional format. We sat in a semicircle facing him, and he talked about the practice of releasing habits. He asked for volunteers to demonstrate. Greg went first, and presented something he had noticed about tension in the right arm, as it relates to releasing tension in the right wrist. At one point Frank worked directly with his head and neck, of course, his back, as well as his right shoulder and upper arm. Someone (Jaxie, I think) observed that while the upper part of the right arm was being addressed, something happened to the right hand: “he had a new hand”. I was the next volunteer. My question had to do the transition from not playing guitar to playing guitar. My observation had been that when it “comes time to play” I go through a great deal of adjustment in my body, in preparation. My thought/wish was that it is possible to let go of the unnecessary intermediate steps and simply move from being in a state of active rest to applying myself to this particular activity. Frank talked at length about this. It has been, in some ways, the topic of his presentations since we began this season. He offered me a number of opportunities to chose to begin or not to begin, remembering that not to begin is a real option. Eventually we applied this to the first few bars of a piece of music that I know very well. I noticed that in letting go of a number of habitual quirks and ticks I was also letting go of my ability to play the piece with reliability. I rely on my habits for my competence.
Bill was next up. We continued the exercise of bringing some intention to the notes we chose. He began by asking if anyone knew the story of Little Red Riding Hood. Most of us raised our hands. He then asked for someone to briefly recapitulate the story. No one raised their hand. Jaxie, being a parent, was prevailed upon. The exercise, then, was for the group to tell the story, in circulation, one word at a time. Simultaneously we circulated notes from the A Minor Pentatonic scale. Much hilarity ensued. We repeated the exercise, this time with the circulation of notes doing the exercise of “play the note the person to your left played”, moving to one single note played the entire circle. Further hilarity. There was a lot of information in this exercise, but the acoustics of the Great Hall make discussion very difficult, and I observed that during the break there was a great deal of ad hoc discussion in small clusters of people.
For the final 30 minutes we returned to experiments for Taylor’s benefit of various ways or arranging and playing the “Neptune” movement of Holst’s The Planets. More to follow on this.
I am off to Vancouver (BC) in the morning for the Vancouver Guitar Circle.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Evening Rehearsal at the Wilsons
A Tuning the Air Journal
Monday January 25, 2010 – Evening Rehearsal at the Wilsons
We were 10 in the circle tonight. Chris and Meleah still out of town. Greg and Joel were conducting a Games for Democracy event.
We had no firm agenda. I began the rehearsal by initiating a bit of circulation, clockwise using the note of your choice.
Taylor stepped forward with an arrangement he is working on of the “Neptune” movement from The Planets. This was more or less a “proof of concept” exploration, so we simply learned a few bars from various sections of the piece, so that he could determine if the approach he is taking with the arrangement is going to work, and where other strategies might be employed. Very beautiful stuff, and I suggested that we do this again on Saturday, when we will be rehearsing in the Great Hall at Fremont Abbey.
After a short break, we came back and worked on a variation on Bob’s work with improvised circulations through chord changes. For this we used a little 4-bar standard jazz progression: basically I-VI7-II-V7, in the form of C maj7-C#º7-D min7-Db7. After reviewing the notes in each of these chords, we moved to 1 bar on each chord, in a 7-note/1 rest pattern (“Tyger, tyger…”). This took us to nearly the end of the rehearsal. One more free circulation, this one counterclockwise.
After rehearsal, a short respite with glasses of wine raised to toast Bob and Jaxie’s 14th wedding anniversary.
Monday January 25, 2010 – Evening Rehearsal at the Wilsons
We were 10 in the circle tonight. Chris and Meleah still out of town. Greg and Joel were conducting a Games for Democracy event.
We had no firm agenda. I began the rehearsal by initiating a bit of circulation, clockwise using the note of your choice.
Taylor stepped forward with an arrangement he is working on of the “Neptune” movement from The Planets. This was more or less a “proof of concept” exploration, so we simply learned a few bars from various sections of the piece, so that he could determine if the approach he is taking with the arrangement is going to work, and where other strategies might be employed. Very beautiful stuff, and I suggested that we do this again on Saturday, when we will be rehearsing in the Great Hall at Fremont Abbey.
After a short break, we came back and worked on a variation on Bob’s work with improvised circulations through chord changes. For this we used a little 4-bar standard jazz progression: basically I-VI7-II-V7, in the form of C maj7-C#º7-D min7-Db7. After reviewing the notes in each of these chords, we moved to 1 bar on each chord, in a 7-note/1 rest pattern (“Tyger, tyger…”). This took us to nearly the end of the rehearsal. One more free circulation, this one counterclockwise.
After rehearsal, a short respite with glasses of wine raised to toast Bob and Jaxie’s 14th wedding anniversary.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Full Company Rehearsal at Phinney Neighborhood Center
A Tuning the Air Journal
Saturday January 23, 2010 – Full Company Rehearsal at Phinney Neighborhood Center
Fremont Abbey again booked this week, so we worked at our old stomping grounds. Any and everyone with a guitar invited to take part. Jaxie was away for family obligations. Chris and Meleah are out of town this week.
The first hour was over to Frank again. And once again he brought us back to the root basics of the Alexander Technique. This week focused on what it means to leave the head and neck free, to notice the movement in the torso, particularly the ribs and the diaphragm, as we breathe, while engaging in a circulation exercise. For the second week in a row, I had the very strong sense that although the “information” was new to no one, we are, individually and as a group, in a place to receive and assimilate this understanding in a new and much deeper way.
A short break, and Bill took over, continuing his work with circulating and intention. We revisited the challenge of duplicating the note passed, until the entire circle is playing the same note. Just this took most of the allotted time. From there on to working with a minor pentatonic scale, playing notes with the same kind of intention that the previous exercise demanded.
Another short break, and it was over to Bob. He reintroduced the chord progression from last week, but in a slightly different form. It was played in a waltz using a series of written arpeggios, three notes each. The first player had the first two chords, six notes. The next player the next two chords, etc. So 8 players circulated the chord progression, while the remaining three players improvised (we took that to mean circulating, although that was not what Bob had said) using notes from the chords. After a time, all of the parts moved one seat to the right, and we did it again. One more seat to the right, and then another, until the time came for us to vacate the room.
The Monday evening rehearsal will be at the Wilsons, and open to all.
Saturday January 23, 2010 – Full Company Rehearsal at Phinney Neighborhood Center
Fremont Abbey again booked this week, so we worked at our old stomping grounds. Any and everyone with a guitar invited to take part. Jaxie was away for family obligations. Chris and Meleah are out of town this week.
The first hour was over to Frank again. And once again he brought us back to the root basics of the Alexander Technique. This week focused on what it means to leave the head and neck free, to notice the movement in the torso, particularly the ribs and the diaphragm, as we breathe, while engaging in a circulation exercise. For the second week in a row, I had the very strong sense that although the “information” was new to no one, we are, individually and as a group, in a place to receive and assimilate this understanding in a new and much deeper way.
A short break, and Bill took over, continuing his work with circulating and intention. We revisited the challenge of duplicating the note passed, until the entire circle is playing the same note. Just this took most of the allotted time. From there on to working with a minor pentatonic scale, playing notes with the same kind of intention that the previous exercise demanded.
Another short break, and it was over to Bob. He reintroduced the chord progression from last week, but in a slightly different form. It was played in a waltz using a series of written arpeggios, three notes each. The first player had the first two chords, six notes. The next player the next two chords, etc. So 8 players circulated the chord progression, while the remaining three players improvised (we took that to mean circulating, although that was not what Bob had said) using notes from the chords. After a time, all of the parts moved one seat to the right, and we did it again. One more seat to the right, and then another, until the time came for us to vacate the room.
The Monday evening rehearsal will be at the Wilsons, and open to all.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Evening Rehearsal at the Wilsons
A Tuning the Air Journal
Monday January 18, 2010 – Evening Rehearsal at the Wilsons
Our first weekday meeting of the season. There was some confusion early in the day about whether this would be a rehearsal for strictly the performance team or continued work for the guitar-playing members of the company at large. A poll in the form of a flurry of email quickly determined that working with the full group was the consensus.
We were 11 in the circle in Bob and Jaxie’s living room, which is no mean feat. I had imagined that at some point we would break up into smaller groups in separate rooms, but in the end we stuck it out together.
We began with a lovely zither circulation. Then, most of the evening was dedicated to continuing the work with Bill on the exercise we began on Saturday. First, the basic exercise of moving from “any note of your choice” to unison, pausing from time to time to share observations about how we perceive what is happening, and our strategies for tracking what is being played in the circle. From here we moved on to working with a limited number of available notes, beginning with 3, D-E-F on the second string at frets 10-12-13, and eventually expanding this to 7 notes, a full D Minor scale from C at the 8th fret of the second string up to Bb at the 15th on the first string. An exercise in canon was introduced that rather stumped us, and we reverted to the original 3 notes in an attempt to simplify. About the time the meeting had moved into more discussion about the mechanics of the exercise and less actual guitar playing, a cell phone went off and this was taken as a sign that a break was in order.
Miles Davis made an appearance during the break, in the form of an impromptu small group experiment, driven by Ian, with the “groove” from It’s About That Time. After the break, Chris presented a small segment of an arrangement he has been working on as a possibility for performance in the show. Parts were quickly demonstrated and disbursed. The sense in the room was that this is a piece worth pursuing further.
A bit of free circulation.
Before departing, we broke to speak a bit about the schedule. Rehearsals for the next two weeks will be on Saturday and Monday, and will continue to be full-company circles. We spoke at some length about the pivotal moment we seem to be at as a team, and it was noted that after 5 (or 10, or 25, depending on your point of view) years, we are finally at a point where what Frank is presenting is able to sink in, in a very real way. Frank, Bob and Bill with again be leading the work on Saturday morning. Beyond that, we will see. I mentioned the need to put together a practical work day to build 3 more risers. Chris also mentioned that the search for interns needs to begin, and suggested that the team who volunteered to follow up on that get together in a week, after he returns from vacation.
Monday January 18, 2010 – Evening Rehearsal at the Wilsons
Our first weekday meeting of the season. There was some confusion early in the day about whether this would be a rehearsal for strictly the performance team or continued work for the guitar-playing members of the company at large. A poll in the form of a flurry of email quickly determined that working with the full group was the consensus.
We were 11 in the circle in Bob and Jaxie’s living room, which is no mean feat. I had imagined that at some point we would break up into smaller groups in separate rooms, but in the end we stuck it out together.
We began with a lovely zither circulation. Then, most of the evening was dedicated to continuing the work with Bill on the exercise we began on Saturday. First, the basic exercise of moving from “any note of your choice” to unison, pausing from time to time to share observations about how we perceive what is happening, and our strategies for tracking what is being played in the circle. From here we moved on to working with a limited number of available notes, beginning with 3, D-E-F on the second string at frets 10-12-13, and eventually expanding this to 7 notes, a full D Minor scale from C at the 8th fret of the second string up to Bb at the 15th on the first string. An exercise in canon was introduced that rather stumped us, and we reverted to the original 3 notes in an attempt to simplify. About the time the meeting had moved into more discussion about the mechanics of the exercise and less actual guitar playing, a cell phone went off and this was taken as a sign that a break was in order.
Miles Davis made an appearance during the break, in the form of an impromptu small group experiment, driven by Ian, with the “groove” from It’s About That Time. After the break, Chris presented a small segment of an arrangement he has been working on as a possibility for performance in the show. Parts were quickly demonstrated and disbursed. The sense in the room was that this is a piece worth pursuing further.
A bit of free circulation.
Before departing, we broke to speak a bit about the schedule. Rehearsals for the next two weeks will be on Saturday and Monday, and will continue to be full-company circles. We spoke at some length about the pivotal moment we seem to be at as a team, and it was noted that after 5 (or 10, or 25, depending on your point of view) years, we are finally at a point where what Frank is presenting is able to sink in, in a very real way. Frank, Bob and Bill with again be leading the work on Saturday morning. Beyond that, we will see. I mentioned the need to put together a practical work day to build 3 more risers. Chris also mentioned that the search for interns needs to begin, and suggested that the team who volunteered to follow up on that get together in a week, after he returns from vacation.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
First Full Rehearsal of 2010
A Tuning the Air Journal
Saturday January 16, 2010 – First Full Rehearsal of 2010
Fremont Abbey was not available this week (nor will it be next week), so today’s rehearsal was moved to Phinney Neighborhood Center. A powerful sense of déjà vu, as this is where the circle met every Saturday when I first moved to Seattle in 1998, and continued until we formed Seattle Circle NFP and rented the house on 65th Street. For scheduling reasons at the facility, it was a somewhat earlier rehearsal than we generally have, running 9am to noon.
This was an all-company meeting with guitars; that is, every company member with a guitar, regardless of whether or not they are on the “Performance Team”, was invited to sit in the circle, and so we were 13 seated with guitars, plus Frank on his feet. The morning was divided into 3 segments. The first hour was with Frank, focusing on the Alexander Technique. The second hour was led by Bob, and the third by Bill.
Frank worked with us on what Alexander called the “critical moment”; the moment just before we “do something”. The work on exploring this moment was done in the circle, with guitars, in some directed circulations. In an email after the rehearsal, Bill asked if someone might document what we did. Mary Beth responded with the following:
After a break, Bob picked up the baton and ran us through a circulation exercise that involved a series of chord changes played in time, with the instruction to circulate only notes from the particular chord. For the preliminary work, this was limited to 4 chords – G Maj-G7-C Maj-C7 – moving swiftly, with only two beats for each change. Travis and I picked up an accompaniment arpeggio that Bob presented, which helped to hold the pattern. Once the pattern was established, we were invited to drop the accompaniment, so that we could simply hear the chord pattern in the circulation.
From here the pattern was extended, eventually to sequence of 16 chords. At that point, the 4/4-ness of the circulation was dropped, and instead we made the chord change at the beginning of each circulation - Bob was on his feet, so that meant there were 12 circulators. This was a rather advanced version of an exercise I have been doing with the House Circle (in those exercises, we generally stick with I-IV-V7-I patterns, or others similarly familiar sequences), and required the group to hold a very long and somewhat complex harmonic pattern in our collective minds eye. For much of the time, Bob had to call out the changes as they came by, but before we were done we did manage a few cycles without the prompts.
G Maj-G7-C Maj-C7
F Maj-C Maj-G Sus-G Maj
D Min-F Maj-A Min-E Min
D Maj-D Maj-D7-D7
The final segment of the day was led by Bill. This was a preparatory exercise that will move us toward something he has in mind. It involved circulating notes of our choice with eyes closed, and the aim of having everyone eventually playing the same note. The first time around, the strategy emerged of one person sitting on their note and those around the circle moving to match it. This was certainly effective. The person initiating the circulation had misunderstood the instruction and thought that was what they were “supposed” to do. The next time around, Bill amended and clarified the instruction to match whatever note the person to our left passed it to us. This changed the game rather drastically. There were moments when a segment of the circle managed to play the same note – perhaps 4 or 5 players in a row – but if someone played a different note the “letter of the law” stated that we were to follow it, and so we were never in much danger of succeeding. Very interesting stuff, and I am looking forward to where Bill might go with this.
Saturday January 16, 2010 – First Full Rehearsal of 2010
Fremont Abbey was not available this week (nor will it be next week), so today’s rehearsal was moved to Phinney Neighborhood Center. A powerful sense of déjà vu, as this is where the circle met every Saturday when I first moved to Seattle in 1998, and continued until we formed Seattle Circle NFP and rented the house on 65th Street. For scheduling reasons at the facility, it was a somewhat earlier rehearsal than we generally have, running 9am to noon.
This was an all-company meeting with guitars; that is, every company member with a guitar, regardless of whether or not they are on the “Performance Team”, was invited to sit in the circle, and so we were 13 seated with guitars, plus Frank on his feet. The morning was divided into 3 segments. The first hour was with Frank, focusing on the Alexander Technique. The second hour was led by Bob, and the third by Bill.
Frank worked with us on what Alexander called the “critical moment”; the moment just before we “do something”. The work on exploring this moment was done in the circle, with guitars, in some directed circulations. In an email after the rehearsal, Bill asked if someone might document what we did. Mary Beth responded with the following:
Work with Frank, Phinney Community CenterFrank posted his description of the class in his own blog: http://www.frankmsheldon.com
Mary Beth’s quick upload of thoughts, 1/16/10
Frank began by quoting Alexander. It was something along the lines of “you can’t do what you want to do unless you do what you don’t know how to do.”
We did an exercise of playing a note. During this, I played an A, I think. I remember feeling pulled by the group movement to play. And then feeling glad that my note seemed to fit.
Then we played another note. During this, I played another note and recognized that I played the same note as someone else.
Something about these exercises had me think about the information available to me and how I could best use it to make music and contribute to the group.
Then, Frank exhorted us to play. But, we all didn’t play because he had told us not to do so? Everyone was pretty good at not playing. I was good at it because I was a bit confused about what we were doing at that time.
Frank mentioned that Alexander’s efforts in developing the technique involved a “yes” or “no” approach to whether or not an action would take place. The approach was an effort to have habits essentially get “bored” with the fact that often the opportunity to manifest was denied. So, that when the “yes” to action did occur the habit was not prepared to appear so to speak.
We did circulations in which we practiced passing the notes, but when the note came to us it was either played or passed by the previous person depending on how they responded in the moment.
Frank noted that on one of our early times around, we played more notes than he had hoped.
It was noted by a few people that tension appeared long before the note arrived because they were anticipating playing.
During one of our circulations, I used a misinterpretation of what Frank said to approach the circulation differently. I thought Frank had said “bare your soul” in playing your note (or not), but he had said “save your soul.” I had also been thinking about habits, the exercise, and where intention fits in the scheme of things. Anyway, I began to see if people were “baring their soul” as they passed the notes. I hoped to see the person more in their essence rather than, perhaps, their collection of gestures. And I was able to see the note move from person to person. I wondered about what I would need to do or be in this exercise. The thought came to me to play the world’s most beautiful note. That led to a surge of energy inside me, a kind of nervous, excited energy. The note came to me and I pass it, rather than played it.
At one point, Frank juggled well. He described the trajectory of learning something.
We concluded after Bill shared a story about the word “po” being an alternative to saying “yes” or no.”
After a break, Bob picked up the baton and ran us through a circulation exercise that involved a series of chord changes played in time, with the instruction to circulate only notes from the particular chord. For the preliminary work, this was limited to 4 chords – G Maj-G7-C Maj-C7 – moving swiftly, with only two beats for each change. Travis and I picked up an accompaniment arpeggio that Bob presented, which helped to hold the pattern. Once the pattern was established, we were invited to drop the accompaniment, so that we could simply hear the chord pattern in the circulation.
From here the pattern was extended, eventually to sequence of 16 chords. At that point, the 4/4-ness of the circulation was dropped, and instead we made the chord change at the beginning of each circulation - Bob was on his feet, so that meant there were 12 circulators. This was a rather advanced version of an exercise I have been doing with the House Circle (in those exercises, we generally stick with I-IV-V7-I patterns, or others similarly familiar sequences), and required the group to hold a very long and somewhat complex harmonic pattern in our collective minds eye. For much of the time, Bob had to call out the changes as they came by, but before we were done we did manage a few cycles without the prompts.
G Maj-G7-C Maj-C7
F Maj-C Maj-G Sus-G Maj
D Min-F Maj-A Min-E Min
D Maj-D Maj-D7-D7
The final segment of the day was led by Bill. This was a preparatory exercise that will move us toward something he has in mind. It involved circulating notes of our choice with eyes closed, and the aim of having everyone eventually playing the same note. The first time around, the strategy emerged of one person sitting on their note and those around the circle moving to match it. This was certainly effective. The person initiating the circulation had misunderstood the instruction and thought that was what they were “supposed” to do. The next time around, Bill amended and clarified the instruction to match whatever note the person to our left passed it to us. This changed the game rather drastically. There were moments when a segment of the circle managed to play the same note – perhaps 4 or 5 players in a row – but if someone played a different note the “letter of the law” stated that we were to follow it, and so we were never in much danger of succeeding. Very interesting stuff, and I am looking forward to where Bill might go with this.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Next Vancouver Open Circle Planned
A Tuning the Air Journal
Vancouver Open Guitar Circle – Sunday January 31
This just out on the wires…
Open Guitar Circle 3
January 31st, 2010
Vancouver, BC
This in an invitation to participate on the third Open Guitar Circle workshop to be held in Vancouver, under the direction of guitarist and music instructor Curt Golden. This workshop is free and open to anyone who wishes to attend, with or without prior experience on the guitar.
The Guitar Circle presents an opportunity for players of any skill level to experience working with music with an emphasis on playfulness and creativity, exploring the various techniques utilized in Tuning the Air performances and Guitar Craft.
The work will be done on acoustic guitars, using the New Standard Tuning. Players without prior Guitar Craft or Guitar Circle experience are encouraged to contact Pablo (workshop01@circularstudio.com) to learn more about the New Standard Tuning.
We are asking participants for donations to help cover the costs of the workshop, this will be greatly appreciated. Without your contribution, these Guitar Circles wouldn't be possible.
Reservations are required: workshop01@circularstudio.com
LOCATION AND TIME:
January, Sunday 31st, 12:30 to 3:00pm
Vancouver, BC (location TBA)
For more information:
Tuning the Air:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZDi1KOIQOM
http://www.tuningtheair.com/
Guitar Craft:
http://www.guitarcraft.com
Please, confirm attendance as soon as possible, as we need to reserve the space and consider other logistics. More information will be given then.
Vancouver Open Guitar Circle – Sunday January 31
This just out on the wires…
Open Guitar Circle 3
January 31st, 2010
Vancouver, BC
This in an invitation to participate on the third Open Guitar Circle workshop to be held in Vancouver, under the direction of guitarist and music instructor Curt Golden. This workshop is free and open to anyone who wishes to attend, with or without prior experience on the guitar.
The Guitar Circle presents an opportunity for players of any skill level to experience working with music with an emphasis on playfulness and creativity, exploring the various techniques utilized in Tuning the Air performances and Guitar Craft.
The work will be done on acoustic guitars, using the New Standard Tuning. Players without prior Guitar Craft or Guitar Circle experience are encouraged to contact Pablo (workshop01@circularstudio.com) to learn more about the New Standard Tuning.
We are asking participants for donations to help cover the costs of the workshop, this will be greatly appreciated. Without your contribution, these Guitar Circles wouldn't be possible.
Reservations are required: workshop01@circularstudio.com
LOCATION AND TIME:
January, Sunday 31st, 12:30 to 3:00pm
Vancouver, BC (location TBA)
For more information:
Tuning the Air:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZDi1KOIQOM
http://www.tuningtheair.com/
Guitar Craft:
http://www.guitarcraft.com
Please, confirm attendance as soon as possible, as we need to reserve the space and consider other logistics. More information will be given then.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
“Keep the baby, throw out the bath water”*
*Frank’s summarization of the thoughts and wishes expressed in the opening meeting of Tuning the Air 2010 Season.
A Tuning the Air Journal
Saturday January 9, 2010
The sitting schedule at my place kicked back in, 8:30am on Saturdays before the day’s TTA activities, and 7am on weekdays.
On to Fremont Abbey Arts Center for the first Monthly Open Circle of the year. Primarily Tuning the Air company members, plus a couple of regulars, one out of town visitor – Tom (the Hellboy) who is in town on business – and Bill who actually showed up with a guitar! No newcomers today. This is something I would like to look into.
Given the mean experience level, I was able to dispense with some of the preliminary exercises we often begin with, and go straight to the good stuff. These are the moments when I suffer for not being able to sit in the circle myself, but the role is necessary. Good improvs, with moments of sheer beauty. Simple circulation challenges that brought out some wonderfully musical moments.
I did make one mistake that I felt got us a bit off track, and took a while to rectify. After the break we came back to some circulation challenges, and for these I imposed a particular tonality, rather than the “notes of your choice” we had been working with prior to that. I had been wrestling with the impulse to add this element for a while, at this point, but encountering some internal resistance. Sometimes that resistance is a signal that the impulse is a bright idea and should be abandoned. Other times, it is the result of an internal conservatism and a momentary loss of trust in my better instincts. The truth is, often I can’t really know which of those it is until I make the call and deal with the repercussions.
In this case, it fell into the “bright idea” category, and pretty immediately I could sense that the concern for the notes was detracting from the listening and connection that had been evidenced earlier. Sometimes, this is a hump that we get past through perseverance. Today didn’t seem to be one of those times. I let it go on a little too long, and began to feel that we needed to move on in order to get back on track. A little rock and roll rhythm work did the trick, and culminated with everyone on their feet.
Back to improvs and circulation, and the circle closed.
After the Open Circle, we migrated to the Wilsons for the 2010 opening company meeting. In addition to the TTA team, we had Frank along as well as Tom. For this meeting we worked primarily with articulating hopes and wishes for the direction the production will take, ranging from the practical and concrete to the far-fetched and (occasionally) metaphorical. The goal of this was to develop and begin to articulate a shared aim for the work this season. Very useful to have Frank’s observations on what we were expressing. He has a unique and valuable capacity to sum up what might appear to be disparate thoughts and views. Of course, having Bill as both our resident audience member and our on-call professional musician provided excellent and necessary insights. And Tom… a little like having an audience for our meeting. A supportive and engaged audience.
Next Saturday we will rehearse with the full company, and Bob will be in charge.
As best I can determine, I met Bob 24 years ago this weekend at Claymont Court.
A Tuning the Air Journal
Saturday January 9, 2010
The sitting schedule at my place kicked back in, 8:30am on Saturdays before the day’s TTA activities, and 7am on weekdays.
On to Fremont Abbey Arts Center for the first Monthly Open Circle of the year. Primarily Tuning the Air company members, plus a couple of regulars, one out of town visitor – Tom (the Hellboy) who is in town on business – and Bill who actually showed up with a guitar! No newcomers today. This is something I would like to look into.
Given the mean experience level, I was able to dispense with some of the preliminary exercises we often begin with, and go straight to the good stuff. These are the moments when I suffer for not being able to sit in the circle myself, but the role is necessary. Good improvs, with moments of sheer beauty. Simple circulation challenges that brought out some wonderfully musical moments.
I did make one mistake that I felt got us a bit off track, and took a while to rectify. After the break we came back to some circulation challenges, and for these I imposed a particular tonality, rather than the “notes of your choice” we had been working with prior to that. I had been wrestling with the impulse to add this element for a while, at this point, but encountering some internal resistance. Sometimes that resistance is a signal that the impulse is a bright idea and should be abandoned. Other times, it is the result of an internal conservatism and a momentary loss of trust in my better instincts. The truth is, often I can’t really know which of those it is until I make the call and deal with the repercussions.
In this case, it fell into the “bright idea” category, and pretty immediately I could sense that the concern for the notes was detracting from the listening and connection that had been evidenced earlier. Sometimes, this is a hump that we get past through perseverance. Today didn’t seem to be one of those times. I let it go on a little too long, and began to feel that we needed to move on in order to get back on track. A little rock and roll rhythm work did the trick, and culminated with everyone on their feet.
Back to improvs and circulation, and the circle closed.
After the Open Circle, we migrated to the Wilsons for the 2010 opening company meeting. In addition to the TTA team, we had Frank along as well as Tom. For this meeting we worked primarily with articulating hopes and wishes for the direction the production will take, ranging from the practical and concrete to the far-fetched and (occasionally) metaphorical. The goal of this was to develop and begin to articulate a shared aim for the work this season. Very useful to have Frank’s observations on what we were expressing. He has a unique and valuable capacity to sum up what might appear to be disparate thoughts and views. Of course, having Bill as both our resident audience member and our on-call professional musician provided excellent and necessary insights. And Tom… a little like having an audience for our meeting. A supportive and engaged audience.
Next Saturday we will rehearse with the full company, and Bob will be in charge.
As best I can determine, I met Bob 24 years ago this weekend at Claymont Court.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Breaking Up The Tuning the Air Company
A Tuning the Air Journal
Monday January 4, 2010 – Breaking Up The Tuning the Air Company
A practice we followed quite rigorously in the first couple of seasons of Tuning the Air was to “break up the company” at the end of the season. What this means is that as of the close of the season, everyone is released from their obligations and commitments. Then, at the opening meeting of the next season, a new company is created. If you show up, you are making a commitment to the next season. If not, well there you go.
In practice, this is a nightmare. All of the practical matters – committing to the rental for the performance space, promotion, etc – need more lead time than that. But in terms of the commitment of the team, and everything that a fully committed team makes possible, it is irreplaceable. Over the past few seasons, this practice has fallen prey to practicalities and reasonableness.
With the production, the team, the challenges and the potential of this endeavor going through a critical transition right now, Jaxie and I decide to send out the following email this morning:
I honestly am comfortable that there will be a next season. But this practice needs to be taken on in earnest, which means allowing for the possibility that no one, or not enough people, will turn up next Saturday, and allowing that to be an acceptable outcome.
Monday January 4, 2010 – Breaking Up The Tuning the Air Company
A practice we followed quite rigorously in the first couple of seasons of Tuning the Air was to “break up the company” at the end of the season. What this means is that as of the close of the season, everyone is released from their obligations and commitments. Then, at the opening meeting of the next season, a new company is created. If you show up, you are making a commitment to the next season. If not, well there you go.
In practice, this is a nightmare. All of the practical matters – committing to the rental for the performance space, promotion, etc – need more lead time than that. But in terms of the commitment of the team, and everything that a fully committed team makes possible, it is irreplaceable. Over the past few seasons, this practice has fallen prey to practicalities and reasonableness.
With the production, the team, the challenges and the potential of this endeavor going through a critical transition right now, Jaxie and I decide to send out the following email this morning:
Dear Team,On Saturday, there will be a group sitting in the morning, followed by the Monthly Open Circle. For myself, sitting together and playing together are the most important things that we do. After that, we will meet together and see who is onboard for the next season, and take it from there. Bill and Frank will be at the meeting, with Sandra AAD. It will be something.
Before we gather next week to look at what’s next for TTA, something has presented itself that feels necessary; a return to an early practice that was important and useful, but has fallen out of our process in recent seasons. As part of our completion of Season 8, we would like to officially break up the band. This is an opportunity to completely release all obligation and commitment to the group. Free dispersal from the circle! For now and until the outcome of next week’s opening meeting, TTA doesn’t exist.
warm wishes to all,
jaxie and curt
I honestly am comfortable that there will be a next season. But this practice needs to be taken on in earnest, which means allowing for the possibility that no one, or not enough people, will turn up next Saturday, and allowing that to be an acceptable outcome.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Work with House Circle I and II
A Tuning the Air Journal
Saturday January 2, 2010 – Work with House Circle I and II
Hello 2010!
The Tuning the Air company remains on break until next Saturday, when we kick things off with the first Open Circle of the year and then come together to begin the work for the next season.
The House Circle, however, soldiers on. Mary Beth will be joining the Performance Team this season, but has indicated (my paraphrase, with apologies in advance) that she feels that it is important that she continue to be a part of this group. They have organized/evolved into two overlapping project-oriented teams working along slightly different, but complimentary, lines. My approach in working with this group has been to remain available, and supportive, but to resist the temptation to “direct” – 25 years of Guitar Craft experience, much of that engaged in “leading” groups, has established some habits that are a bit of work for me to resist. But it is also very clear to me that while jumping in might, at times, provide a level of short-term efficiency, in the longer view it subverts the larger aims of work in the Guitar Circle.
The first team to meet today, consisted of Igor K, Greg and Mary Beth. This is the performance-oriented group. They work on learning repertoire, and in recent months have put together several “podcasts” recorded late at night in the Great Hall at Fremont Abbey. Today’s work was with 49 Notes. All of the parts are in place. Mary Beth is playing the melody, Greg the bass, and Igor the 49 Notes, so this was primarily about the subtleties of mechanics and phrasing, and how the parts fit together. Good work, and much accomplished in only a little more than an hour. The team is working toward performing at a monthly open mic that takes place at the Triple Door. With a little work, they will get there.
After a short break, Christina and Charles joined us for 90 minutes of group work. We began with a free circulation in C Major, and then moved to C Harmonic Minor. My observation of circulation in a particular key with this group is that there is a randomness about note choices. This often leads to wonderful but entirely accidental combinations, but I am not certain that relying upon accident is really the aim of a group playing together. It is a gift when something unexpected happens, and so a level of trust and openness in necessary, lest we devolve into mere safety. Nevertheless, knowing the function of the notes within the scale is an important skill. It is not necessary to be able to explain or understand this in terms of traditional music theory, although that does certainly make the discussion go a lot faster. It is only necessary that we have an internal understanding of the import of the note we are choosing.
We moved into an exercise of circulating in 7-note phrases, with a pause (“Tyger, tyger burning bright, in the forest of the night.”) using notes of our choice from the C minor triad (C, E♭ and G). From there to notes of our choice from the F minor triad (F, A♭ and C), and then onto notes from the G7 chord (G, B, D and F). We then put it all together in a 4-bar repeating sequence of I-IV-V-I, one phrase on C minor, the next on F minor, the third on G7, and the last one back to C minor, and then repeat. Instant musical structure. A recognizable construction in C Harmonic Minor. Perhaps not the most inventive harmonic sequence ever conceived, but a sensible one that could easily be grasped by anyone listening.
From here we moved onto a circulated study of the sequence of diatonic seventh chords in C Harmonic Minor. This was a variation on an exercise that we worked on several weeks ago, and it was picked up rather quickly. I pushed it, increasing the complexity, as we say, and the team responded. After a short break, some musical adjustments were added to allow the exercise to flow in a musical way. This involved the addition of a coda that spelled out a clear end to the exercise. It also involved putting Mary Beth in the hot seat, breaking out of the established pattern in order to have the arpeggios move from one to the other more musically. After only a few tries, success.
With only a few minutes left in the available time, we returned to the I-IV-V-I circulation, this time with one additional challenge. Rules were added that required the tritone in the G7 chord to be resolved. This one was a little more of a monkey wrench in the works than we could handle in the allotted time, but some progress was made, as was the point.
A final free circulation in C Harmonic Minor, with evidence of new ears, and we called it a day.
Saturday January 2, 2010 – Work with House Circle I and II
Hello 2010!
The Tuning the Air company remains on break until next Saturday, when we kick things off with the first Open Circle of the year and then come together to begin the work for the next season.
The House Circle, however, soldiers on. Mary Beth will be joining the Performance Team this season, but has indicated (my paraphrase, with apologies in advance) that she feels that it is important that she continue to be a part of this group. They have organized/evolved into two overlapping project-oriented teams working along slightly different, but complimentary, lines. My approach in working with this group has been to remain available, and supportive, but to resist the temptation to “direct” – 25 years of Guitar Craft experience, much of that engaged in “leading” groups, has established some habits that are a bit of work for me to resist. But it is also very clear to me that while jumping in might, at times, provide a level of short-term efficiency, in the longer view it subverts the larger aims of work in the Guitar Circle.
The first team to meet today, consisted of Igor K, Greg and Mary Beth. This is the performance-oriented group. They work on learning repertoire, and in recent months have put together several “podcasts” recorded late at night in the Great Hall at Fremont Abbey. Today’s work was with 49 Notes. All of the parts are in place. Mary Beth is playing the melody, Greg the bass, and Igor the 49 Notes, so this was primarily about the subtleties of mechanics and phrasing, and how the parts fit together. Good work, and much accomplished in only a little more than an hour. The team is working toward performing at a monthly open mic that takes place at the Triple Door. With a little work, they will get there.
After a short break, Christina and Charles joined us for 90 minutes of group work. We began with a free circulation in C Major, and then moved to C Harmonic Minor. My observation of circulation in a particular key with this group is that there is a randomness about note choices. This often leads to wonderful but entirely accidental combinations, but I am not certain that relying upon accident is really the aim of a group playing together. It is a gift when something unexpected happens, and so a level of trust and openness in necessary, lest we devolve into mere safety. Nevertheless, knowing the function of the notes within the scale is an important skill. It is not necessary to be able to explain or understand this in terms of traditional music theory, although that does certainly make the discussion go a lot faster. It is only necessary that we have an internal understanding of the import of the note we are choosing.
We moved into an exercise of circulating in 7-note phrases, with a pause (“Tyger, tyger burning bright, in the forest of the night.”) using notes of our choice from the C minor triad (C, E♭ and G). From there to notes of our choice from the F minor triad (F, A♭ and C), and then onto notes from the G7 chord (G, B, D and F). We then put it all together in a 4-bar repeating sequence of I-IV-V-I, one phrase on C minor, the next on F minor, the third on G7, and the last one back to C minor, and then repeat. Instant musical structure. A recognizable construction in C Harmonic Minor. Perhaps not the most inventive harmonic sequence ever conceived, but a sensible one that could easily be grasped by anyone listening.
From here we moved onto a circulated study of the sequence of diatonic seventh chords in C Harmonic Minor. This was a variation on an exercise that we worked on several weeks ago, and it was picked up rather quickly. I pushed it, increasing the complexity, as we say, and the team responded. After a short break, some musical adjustments were added to allow the exercise to flow in a musical way. This involved the addition of a coda that spelled out a clear end to the exercise. It also involved putting Mary Beth in the hot seat, breaking out of the established pattern in order to have the arpeggios move from one to the other more musically. After only a few tries, success.
With only a few minutes left in the available time, we returned to the I-IV-V-I circulation, this time with one additional challenge. Rules were added that required the tritone in the G7 chord to be resolved. This one was a little more of a monkey wrench in the works than we could handle in the allotted time, but some progress was made, as was the point.
A final free circulation in C Harmonic Minor, with evidence of new ears, and we called it a day.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Season Completion, House Circle
A Tuning the Air Journal
Saturday December 19, 2009 – Season Completion, House Circle
Full company gathered at Bob and Jaxie’s place for thoughts, recapitulations and observations regarding the season just completed. As always, these meetings begin slowly and a little awkwardly, but once there is a little momentum great stuff appears. Very good and useful observations from all around the room. We took care to stay with the current season, and avoided having the meeting morph into an opening planning meeting for the next season, but much of what came up will have strong bearing on how we go about working in the rehearsal period for Season Nine.
We acknowledged the contributions Igor has made to the production, and welcomed Mary Beth to the performance team. Shortly after noon, we declared the season complete and the break begun. It will be a short break (I keep thinking of it as a “power nap”), and then we will have 9 weeks of work before many of us head to Italy for the GC completion course and OCG special project. Opening night will be shortly after our return.
I dashed home to meet my afternoon student at 1pm. At 2pm the House Circle (or triangle, as the Greg/Christina/Mary Beth trio has been dubbed) arrived. Staying with the theme from recent weeks, we worked on developing an ear for the significance of notes and note combinations through the exploration of diatonic arpeggios. Today it was seventh chords in C Major. Interestingly, this week the trio grasped and managed a certain command of this one rather quickly, and so we made it much further than I had anticipated. And again, the free circulation at the end of 90-minutes of this kind of focused work had a very marked presence of intention and musicality that was not in the opening circulation of the day.
Sounds like the House Circle will be continuing to meet through the holiday break.
My commitment to maintaining a Tuning the Air journal is completed with this post. Over the break I will make decide whether or not to recommit for the next season.
Saturday December 19, 2009 – Season Completion, House Circle
Full company gathered at Bob and Jaxie’s place for thoughts, recapitulations and observations regarding the season just completed. As always, these meetings begin slowly and a little awkwardly, but once there is a little momentum great stuff appears. Very good and useful observations from all around the room. We took care to stay with the current season, and avoided having the meeting morph into an opening planning meeting for the next season, but much of what came up will have strong bearing on how we go about working in the rehearsal period for Season Nine.
We acknowledged the contributions Igor has made to the production, and welcomed Mary Beth to the performance team. Shortly after noon, we declared the season complete and the break begun. It will be a short break (I keep thinking of it as a “power nap”), and then we will have 9 weeks of work before many of us head to Italy for the GC completion course and OCG special project. Opening night will be shortly after our return.
I dashed home to meet my afternoon student at 1pm. At 2pm the House Circle (or triangle, as the Greg/Christina/Mary Beth trio has been dubbed) arrived. Staying with the theme from recent weeks, we worked on developing an ear for the significance of notes and note combinations through the exploration of diatonic arpeggios. Today it was seventh chords in C Major. Interestingly, this week the trio grasped and managed a certain command of this one rather quickly, and so we made it much further than I had anticipated. And again, the free circulation at the end of 90-minutes of this kind of focused work had a very marked presence of intention and musicality that was not in the opening circulation of the day.
Sounds like the House Circle will be continuing to meet through the holiday break.
My commitment to maintaining a Tuning the Air journal is completed with this post. Over the break I will make decide whether or not to recommit for the next season.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Tuning the Air 173; Closing Night 2009, part 2
A Tuning the Air Journal
Thursday December 17, 2009 – Tuning the Air 173; Closing Night 2009, part 2
The setlist, as recalled by the House Manager, with corrections and verifications from the team:
Tuning the Air 173
Thursday December 17, 2009
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle, WA
Fall Season Show #11
Preshow:
Thursday December 17, 2009 – Tuning the Air 173; Closing Night 2009, part 2
The setlist, as recalled by the House Manager, with corrections and verifications from the team:
Tuning the Air 173
Thursday December 17, 2009
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle, WA
Fall Season Show #11
Preshow:
Joel Palmer ImprovisationsSet:
Cultivating the Beat – preplanned
Twilight – from the Hat, called by Jaxie
Touchdown Tornado, improv – from the Hat, called by Jaxie
Brazil – called by Howard
Shostakovich Prelude XXII – from the Hat, called by Taylor
Poker Night, improv – from the Hat, called by Bob
Bus Artist – from the Hat, called by Bob
Circulation in C Harmonic Minor – requested by Bob (after Voices was pulled from the Hat)
Voices of Ancient Children – from the Hat, called by Curt
Jaxie talked
Horn Up Your Ass for Jaxie's Birthday, played standing (all except Jaxie), called by Curt
Kashmir – preplanned
Batrachomyomachy – from the Hat, called by Curt
F major – from the Hat, called by Chris (Joel's choice of Hat--mystery or repertoire)
In My Room – from the Hat (Joel's choice of Hat--mystery or repertoire)
Little Gangsters – called by Jaxie
Wig Maker with swirl circulation – Curt called "one more" from the Hat; performance team extra connection/communication was needed to make sure this began with the swirl rather than right into the Wig Maker, which in Curt's words was "really good"
La Rueda – called by Igor (just as Curt was about to say "Igor's choice")
Thrak – preplanned
Eye of the Needle – preplanned
About forty percent of the audience gave a standing ovation, then folks began to slip out, get coats . . .Encore:
None this evening
Tuning the Air 173; Closing Night 2009
A Tuning the Air Journal
Thursday December 17, 2009 – Tuning the Air 173; Closing Night 2009
For the record...
Tuning the Air 173
Thursday December 17, 2009
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle, WA
Fall Season Show #11
This is the completion of 5 years of work. Some notable notes and dates:
Thursday December 17, 2009 – Tuning the Air 173; Closing Night 2009
For the record...
Tuning the Air 173
Thursday December 17, 2009
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle, WA
Fall Season Show #11
This is the completion of 5 years of work. Some notable notes and dates:
- The first appearance of "something" was on Dec 12, 2004, at the closing feast of a work weekend with the Pear Tree Group and out of town guests, at Trinity.
- The first performance of what would become Tuning the Air was on Feb 21, 2005, at Trinity.
- The first performance under the name, Tuning the Air, was on Apr 11, 2005 at Trinity.
- 2005: 38 shows from Apr 11 - Dec 26, every Monday "without fail". Yes, we performed the day after Christmas.
- 2006: 42 shows from May 6 - Dec 18
- 2007: 35 shows, in 2 "seasons". The spring season was 20 shows at Trinity. Fall was 15 shows split between Trinity and CHAC
- 2008: 26 shows, Thursdays at FAAC, in 2 seasons, in the Cafe.
- 2009: 32 shows in 2 seasons. Winter/spring in the Cafe, autumn in the Great Hall.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Rehearsal at the Wilsons
A Tuning the Air Journal
Monday December 14, 2009 – Rehearsal at the Wilsons
Final rehearsal of the season, and a transitional moment. Except for La Rueda, which we had set aside for tonight when we were all present, we made no particular effort to practice or drill anything. Lots of circulating and improvising, and then pieces called as the spirit moved. In My Room and the Shostakovich Prelude came up, and as circulated pieces that was certainly a good and useful call, but no sense of pressure to “fix” anything. We play these pieces and we know how to play these pieces, so simply recalling them to the hands is sufficient. Some discussion about Cultivating the Beat, and how it works in the lead-off slot of the set.
Onward to closing night, a very short break, and then the future.
Monday December 14, 2009 – Rehearsal at the Wilsons
Final rehearsal of the season, and a transitional moment. Except for La Rueda, which we had set aside for tonight when we were all present, we made no particular effort to practice or drill anything. Lots of circulating and improvising, and then pieces called as the spirit moved. In My Room and the Shostakovich Prelude came up, and as circulated pieces that was certainly a good and useful call, but no sense of pressure to “fix” anything. We play these pieces and we know how to play these pieces, so simply recalling them to the hands is sufficient. Some discussion about Cultivating the Beat, and how it works in the lead-off slot of the set.
Onward to closing night, a very short break, and then the future.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Sitting, Meeting, Rehearsal, House Circle
A Tuning the Air Journal
Saturday December 12, 2009 – Sitting, Meeting, Rehearsal, House Circle
Saturday morning is effectively my morning to “sleep in”. Even though there is a group sitting at my place, it is 90 minutes later than the weekday sittings, so I get to indulge myself. The cat, however, does not recognize the difference between weekdays and weekends, so sleeping in is really more of a pipe dream than a reality.
After a coffee break, we took the first 30 minutes of what would normally be rehearsal time to meet with the full company and work out the logistics of next Thursday; what will we load out of the Abbey after the show, where will it go, how will it get there? Those decisions made, we moved on to more important questions, like how many and what kind of pizza to order for the after show, end of season, bash at my place. Finally, a quick decision about the schedule for the completion meeting for the season, and that was that.
Rehearsal was without Travis, who is in Oregon this weekend on family business, and Bob who was home on family business. We circulated a bit and then continued the practice of running everything that is in the Hat of Repertoire (as well as a few things that are not) in order to ensure that anything called during performance is indeed performance ready. We stopped to iron out one or two rough spots, and skipped over a couple of pieces that really need the full group, putting them off until Monday night. We are not diving into anything new at this stage. The work for next season will involve a great deal of that, as well as reevaluation of current repertoire. For this season, now only one gig to go, playing what we play as well as it can be played is the plan. We wrapped things up a little early, which gave me the opportunity to grab a little lunch before the House Circle met.
Three for the HC meeting; Mary Beth, Christina and Greg. The key of the day was C Harmonic Minor, and I had them begin with a free circulation in that key, “the notes of your choice, the direction of your choice.”
For the balance of the 90-minute meeting we worked through a sequence of arpeggios in this key, moving through diatonic triads in all inversions. It was a 4-note figure played by 3 people, played in 6/8, which meant there was a discontinuity between the musical form and the “feel” which ended up being the primary grist for today’s mill. Somehow, we never take these things quite as far as I originally imagine will be possible in and hour and a half, but there is a substantial track record for hitting the mark on exactly what needs to be worked on.
Before calling it a day, I again called C Harmonic Minor to be circulated with “the notes of your choice, the direction of your choice.” The difference in the quality of this circulation in contrast to the opening one was striking. Living in a key for 90 minutes, the notes begin to take on significance, even if we don’t have the vocabulary to articulate how it works. It never fails to move me.
At the House Circle, I sit outside of the circle, generally without my guitar unless there is something that needs to be demonstrated. I direct the action, unfolding the complete exercise I have in mind as logically as I can without resorting to more than a few words. It is a very valuable exercise for me, although energetically taxing. I suspect the team sometimes thinks I am just tormenting them; as soon as they begin to get it, I tend to up the ante, and the pattern is so well established that at this point they can generally anticipate what the next iteration is going to involve – although they often leap a few steps ahead to something we may or may not actually get to.
What is so challenging for me, and the reason I am generally exhausted when it is over, is that the “deal” I have made with myself is that I will play every note myself, in visualization. I don’t ask anyone to play something I can’t play myself, and so I play everything in my head. I fail with regularity, but for the most part I can tell them what note they are playing and where it can be found on the guitar and on what beat or part of the beat it should fall, at any time. This takes a pretty major effort, which is sustained for the entire 90 minutes.
This is a practice/technique/strategy I found/fell into on Saturday September 9, 2000. It was in Lebanon, NJ. The Level One course was completed and the beginners were on their way home, but the Level Two+ course was extended out another day and a half. It was late morning in the gymnasium we used as a ballroom. The L2’s had been given the challenge of circulating a 4-octave C Major scale up and down without making a mistake – in this exercise when anyone hits a wrong note, the group begins again, with the person who made the mistake initiating the new beginning. The instruction is not to leave the room until the task has been successfully completed, and has been known to take many hours. With this group it took about 2 hours – as I recall they were a little late for lunch, but did not miss it entirely. I was sitting outside of the circle, without a guitar, observing and lending my attention and support. I think Tony and Bill were doing the same, although I cannot be certain of my memory in this. Sitting still, maintaining a part of my attention in my body, and following the progress of the exercise, I began to “play” every note in my head in the form of a very focused visualization. I also said the name of the note, internally, the scale degree and the solfege syllable. I did this with every note. If the next note was to be middle C, I would see my finger on the note on the fretboard, see it on the staff, hear the word “C”, hear the word “1”, and hear the word “Do”, all simultaneously. And since it took so long and so many attempts, I was able to “see” the note played in every conceivable location: there are 3 places that middle C can be played.
When I walked into the room that day, I had a journeyman’s command of C Major. That is, I knew it exactly as well as the demands on me required me to know it. I could get around gaps in my knowledge by sticking to my comfort zones. It was a completely workable and functional “knowledge”. When I walked out of the room, I was profoundly exhausted, but I could say “I know C Major on the guitar in New Standard Tuning.” It was a remarkable leap, accomplished without every laying my hands on an instrument.
Since then, it has been one of my primary learning tools.
Saturday December 12, 2009 – Sitting, Meeting, Rehearsal, House Circle
Saturday morning is effectively my morning to “sleep in”. Even though there is a group sitting at my place, it is 90 minutes later than the weekday sittings, so I get to indulge myself. The cat, however, does not recognize the difference between weekdays and weekends, so sleeping in is really more of a pipe dream than a reality.
After a coffee break, we took the first 30 minutes of what would normally be rehearsal time to meet with the full company and work out the logistics of next Thursday; what will we load out of the Abbey after the show, where will it go, how will it get there? Those decisions made, we moved on to more important questions, like how many and what kind of pizza to order for the after show, end of season, bash at my place. Finally, a quick decision about the schedule for the completion meeting for the season, and that was that.
Rehearsal was without Travis, who is in Oregon this weekend on family business, and Bob who was home on family business. We circulated a bit and then continued the practice of running everything that is in the Hat of Repertoire (as well as a few things that are not) in order to ensure that anything called during performance is indeed performance ready. We stopped to iron out one or two rough spots, and skipped over a couple of pieces that really need the full group, putting them off until Monday night. We are not diving into anything new at this stage. The work for next season will involve a great deal of that, as well as reevaluation of current repertoire. For this season, now only one gig to go, playing what we play as well as it can be played is the plan. We wrapped things up a little early, which gave me the opportunity to grab a little lunch before the House Circle met.
Three for the HC meeting; Mary Beth, Christina and Greg. The key of the day was C Harmonic Minor, and I had them begin with a free circulation in that key, “the notes of your choice, the direction of your choice.”
For the balance of the 90-minute meeting we worked through a sequence of arpeggios in this key, moving through diatonic triads in all inversions. It was a 4-note figure played by 3 people, played in 6/8, which meant there was a discontinuity between the musical form and the “feel” which ended up being the primary grist for today’s mill. Somehow, we never take these things quite as far as I originally imagine will be possible in and hour and a half, but there is a substantial track record for hitting the mark on exactly what needs to be worked on.
Before calling it a day, I again called C Harmonic Minor to be circulated with “the notes of your choice, the direction of your choice.” The difference in the quality of this circulation in contrast to the opening one was striking. Living in a key for 90 minutes, the notes begin to take on significance, even if we don’t have the vocabulary to articulate how it works. It never fails to move me.
At the House Circle, I sit outside of the circle, generally without my guitar unless there is something that needs to be demonstrated. I direct the action, unfolding the complete exercise I have in mind as logically as I can without resorting to more than a few words. It is a very valuable exercise for me, although energetically taxing. I suspect the team sometimes thinks I am just tormenting them; as soon as they begin to get it, I tend to up the ante, and the pattern is so well established that at this point they can generally anticipate what the next iteration is going to involve – although they often leap a few steps ahead to something we may or may not actually get to.
What is so challenging for me, and the reason I am generally exhausted when it is over, is that the “deal” I have made with myself is that I will play every note myself, in visualization. I don’t ask anyone to play something I can’t play myself, and so I play everything in my head. I fail with regularity, but for the most part I can tell them what note they are playing and where it can be found on the guitar and on what beat or part of the beat it should fall, at any time. This takes a pretty major effort, which is sustained for the entire 90 minutes.
This is a practice/technique/strategy I found/fell into on Saturday September 9, 2000. It was in Lebanon, NJ. The Level One course was completed and the beginners were on their way home, but the Level Two+ course was extended out another day and a half. It was late morning in the gymnasium we used as a ballroom. The L2’s had been given the challenge of circulating a 4-octave C Major scale up and down without making a mistake – in this exercise when anyone hits a wrong note, the group begins again, with the person who made the mistake initiating the new beginning. The instruction is not to leave the room until the task has been successfully completed, and has been known to take many hours. With this group it took about 2 hours – as I recall they were a little late for lunch, but did not miss it entirely. I was sitting outside of the circle, without a guitar, observing and lending my attention and support. I think Tony and Bill were doing the same, although I cannot be certain of my memory in this. Sitting still, maintaining a part of my attention in my body, and following the progress of the exercise, I began to “play” every note in my head in the form of a very focused visualization. I also said the name of the note, internally, the scale degree and the solfege syllable. I did this with every note. If the next note was to be middle C, I would see my finger on the note on the fretboard, see it on the staff, hear the word “C”, hear the word “1”, and hear the word “Do”, all simultaneously. And since it took so long and so many attempts, I was able to “see” the note played in every conceivable location: there are 3 places that middle C can be played.
When I walked into the room that day, I had a journeyman’s command of C Major. That is, I knew it exactly as well as the demands on me required me to know it. I could get around gaps in my knowledge by sticking to my comfort zones. It was a completely workable and functional “knowledge”. When I walked out of the room, I was profoundly exhausted, but I could say “I know C Major on the guitar in New Standard Tuning.” It was a remarkable leap, accomplished without every laying my hands on an instrument.
Since then, it has been one of my primary learning tools.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Tuning the Air 172
A Tuning the Air Journal
Thursday December 10, 2009 – Tuning the Air 172
Arrival and setup again went swimmingly fast and without incident. I got a lot of personal practice in, as a result, and as more players joined in we did a fair amount of group warmup as well.
Good house, once more. Very receptive audience. The Hat was remarkable, with a couple of fascinating “coincidences”. The setlist, as recorded by the House Manager and amended slightly in emails from Greg and Joel, was as follows:
Tuning the Air 172
Thursday December 10, 2009
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle, WA
Fall Season Show #10
Preshow:
*After Batrachomyomachy was called by Igor, we returned to the Hat, and out came, naturally, Batrachomyomachy. An audience member’s cell phone went off, and it was taking some time to find it. I quickly determined the ring tone was in C Major, and called for a C Major Improv. The audience member slipped out to deal with finding and silencing the phone. After C Major, In My Room was just screaming to be played, so I called it. Moving on from there we again consulted the Hat, and sure enough, In My Room was the next to come out. At least that’s how I remember the unfolding of events.
Thursday December 10, 2009 – Tuning the Air 172
Arrival and setup again went swimmingly fast and without incident. I got a lot of personal practice in, as a result, and as more players joined in we did a fair amount of group warmup as well.
Good house, once more. Very receptive audience. The Hat was remarkable, with a couple of fascinating “coincidences”. The setlist, as recorded by the House Manager and amended slightly in emails from Greg and Joel, was as follows:
Tuning the Air 172
Thursday December 10, 2009
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle, WA
Fall Season Show #10
Preshow:
Joel Palmer ImprovisationsSet:
Cultivating the Beat – preplannedEncore:
Little Gangsters – from the Hat
Whatever you were going to play, play something else - from the Hat of Mystery
Shostakovich Prelude XXII - from the Hat
Basketball for Nine Guitarists - from the Hat of Mystery
Brasil – from the Hat
Lament – from the Hat
My Precious Dream – from the Hat
Jaxie talked to the audience
Kashmir – preplanned
Tuning the Air - from the Hat of Mystery (scale picked by Taylor, F minor)
Batrachomyomachy – called by Igor*
C major improv called by a cell phone ring in the audience and then by Curt
In My Room - called by Curt*
Long Ago Today - from the Hat (Jaxie chose to trust the Hat)
Bus Artist – called by Jaxie
La Rueda – from the Hat
Thrak – preplanned
Eye of the Needle – preplanned
Twilight – called in the Green Room
*After Batrachomyomachy was called by Igor, we returned to the Hat, and out came, naturally, Batrachomyomachy. An audience member’s cell phone went off, and it was taking some time to find it. I quickly determined the ring tone was in C Major, and called for a C Major Improv. The audience member slipped out to deal with finding and silencing the phone. After C Major, In My Room was just screaming to be played, so I called it. Moving on from there we again consulted the Hat, and sure enough, In My Room was the next to come out. At least that’s how I remember the unfolding of events.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Rehearsal at the Wilsons
A Tuning the Air Journal
Monday December 7, 2009 – Rehearsal at the Wilsons
Bitter cold day. Cold guitars = funky and evolving tuning.
Howard was ambushed by a client, and so had to miss the rehearsal.
Began with a circulation in F Harmonic Minor, which served to center the group and the room, or so it seemed to me. Continuing with the strategy of keeping all of the current repertoire (and even a little bit of non-current repertoire) fresh, well-rehearsed, and ready to be played at a moment’s notice should it come out of the hat. Began with Eye of the Needle, including a bit of review of the work we did in October at Raft Island. From there, it was all about calling tunes and running them. Only where there was some specific issue to be addressed did we repeat anything. Even though they are not in the set, I called the missing 2/3 of the "Turkish Trilogy", Not My Sharona and Where Is the Nurse?, as well as Onyx. Gave La Rueda a couple of runs, which was particularly interesting since Howard sits in the pole position of the circulation and counts it off in performance. When we have to work on a circulated piece while missing a player or two, it is inevitably revealing and very useful: a strategy worth adopting intentionally, I would say. Howard sits in Position 5 (Beat 3) of the 6-part Shostakovich circulation, and this was the first time in my memory that we rehearsed the piece with a gap in that particular slot, and I found it strangely disconcerting. Counting that more or less takes care of itself as a rule for me was getting turned around in surprising ways. Live and learn.
Onward to the final shows of the season.
Monday December 7, 2009 – Rehearsal at the Wilsons
Bitter cold day. Cold guitars = funky and evolving tuning.
Howard was ambushed by a client, and so had to miss the rehearsal.
Began with a circulation in F Harmonic Minor, which served to center the group and the room, or so it seemed to me. Continuing with the strategy of keeping all of the current repertoire (and even a little bit of non-current repertoire) fresh, well-rehearsed, and ready to be played at a moment’s notice should it come out of the hat. Began with Eye of the Needle, including a bit of review of the work we did in October at Raft Island. From there, it was all about calling tunes and running them. Only where there was some specific issue to be addressed did we repeat anything. Even though they are not in the set, I called the missing 2/3 of the "Turkish Trilogy", Not My Sharona and Where Is the Nurse?, as well as Onyx. Gave La Rueda a couple of runs, which was particularly interesting since Howard sits in the pole position of the circulation and counts it off in performance. When we have to work on a circulated piece while missing a player or two, it is inevitably revealing and very useful: a strategy worth adopting intentionally, I would say. Howard sits in Position 5 (Beat 3) of the 6-part Shostakovich circulation, and this was the first time in my memory that we rehearsed the piece with a gap in that particular slot, and I found it strangely disconcerting. Counting that more or less takes care of itself as a rule for me was getting turned around in surprising ways. Live and learn.
Onward to the final shows of the season.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Monthly Open Circle and Performance Team Rehearsal
A Tuning the Air Journal
Saturday December 5, 2009 – Monthly Open Circle and Performance Team Rehearsal
Ice on some of the roads this morning.
The final Open Circle of 2009. Due to a scheduling conflict we had to move it to a different location. A very pleasant and attractive room in a neighboring community center. Functionally adequate, but something less than inspiring; after attending one of these events in the Great Hall, pretty much anything else is a letdown. The heating system tended to drown out the playing when it kicked in. Nevertheless, a very good circle, well attended with a couple of new faces as well as one returnee who seems to be catching the bug. Looking for just the right material that would work for the absolute beginners, but still challenge the experienced players, was a little trickier than usual for some reason. The standards were not clicking as well as they generally do, so I had to try and then move on from a number of strategies before we hit our stride with a musical fragment that I haven’t pulled out in many years. In the end, kind of fun. These events are never the same twice.
The performance team went back to my place for rehearsal. The House Circle is working on one of Andrew’s compositions in preparation for recording it, and headed over to Greg’s place for that. Following on from last week, the sense continues to be that if everything is in the hat, our best strategy is to make sure that everything is always well practiced and ready to go. We began with a little circulating. Of course this is good for grounding a group, but honestly my primary motivation was to help me transition from the personal state I need to adopt for the Open Circle to being a player in an ensemble. Once again we simply called pieces and ran them, with the metronome, pausing if necessary to look at any issues that we might have noticed either in performance or in rehearsal, and then moving on. A little more structured rehearsal work on La Rueda when it came up, since it is our newest piece and we still haven’t quite achieved that level of command that makes it possible for us to execute it with reliability. We don’t have train wrecks with it, but the qualitative difference between being in the groove with it and merely playing it “right” is pretty significant.
Working on a big screen/good sound system viewing of the Jimi at Monterey dvd tomorrow night.
Saturday December 5, 2009 – Monthly Open Circle and Performance Team Rehearsal
Ice on some of the roads this morning.
The final Open Circle of 2009. Due to a scheduling conflict we had to move it to a different location. A very pleasant and attractive room in a neighboring community center. Functionally adequate, but something less than inspiring; after attending one of these events in the Great Hall, pretty much anything else is a letdown. The heating system tended to drown out the playing when it kicked in. Nevertheless, a very good circle, well attended with a couple of new faces as well as one returnee who seems to be catching the bug. Looking for just the right material that would work for the absolute beginners, but still challenge the experienced players, was a little trickier than usual for some reason. The standards were not clicking as well as they generally do, so I had to try and then move on from a number of strategies before we hit our stride with a musical fragment that I haven’t pulled out in many years. In the end, kind of fun. These events are never the same twice.
The performance team went back to my place for rehearsal. The House Circle is working on one of Andrew’s compositions in preparation for recording it, and headed over to Greg’s place for that. Following on from last week, the sense continues to be that if everything is in the hat, our best strategy is to make sure that everything is always well practiced and ready to go. We began with a little circulating. Of course this is good for grounding a group, but honestly my primary motivation was to help me transition from the personal state I need to adopt for the Open Circle to being a player in an ensemble. Once again we simply called pieces and ran them, with the metronome, pausing if necessary to look at any issues that we might have noticed either in performance or in rehearsal, and then moving on. A little more structured rehearsal work on La Rueda when it came up, since it is our newest piece and we still haven’t quite achieved that level of command that makes it possible for us to execute it with reliability. We don’t have train wrecks with it, but the qualitative difference between being in the groove with it and merely playing it “right” is pretty significant.
Working on a big screen/good sound system viewing of the Jimi at Monterey dvd tomorrow night.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Tuning the Air 171
A Tuning the Air Journal
Thursday December 3, 2009 – Tuning the Air 171
The fastest setup ever; under 20 minutes. Gave us a lot of time to warm up. This is a blessing and a curse. The acoustics of the Great Hall make individual practice and warmup difficult, because it turns into a din and that is very hard for me to bear. On the other hand, group warmups have a habit of turning into rehearsals, and so we risk over-preparing and blowing our freshness. As a compromise, a number of us formed a standing circle, much closer together than we actually sit in the performance circle, and ran a bunch of material that is not in the current repertoire. Where Is The Nurse?, Not My Sharona, Onyx, Bloed Spoed. All challenging pieces that work well as callisthenic warmups. Except for Bloed Spoed, which hasn’t been performed or rehearsed for more than a season, they sounded quite good, and Bloed Spoed was at least fun, and in any case this gave us the requisite adjustment to the sound of the room. Returned to a bit more personal practice before giving Joel a few minutes of silence in which to soundcheck, after which we gathered in the performance circle to formally warm up as a group. Circulated in F and G majors; not wonderful, but they served to shake off some of the rust. Then on to necessary bits of repertoire: the Shostakovich prelude, In My Room, Cultivating, the double reverse swirling zither and the Kashmir circulation.
Full circle with the entire company, talking through the set, and then we were “on”, which meant the Green Room for the performers. Even from backstage it was clear that Joel was on fire. A good omen.
As we entered, we found a good sized audience; the center chairs occupied and a few overflow as well. Also a good omen.
The hat was on as usual. Only two pieces were called by name from the circle. One of them, La Rueda, actually came out of the hat right after it had been called and performed. Trust the hat. On several occasions the call was for more than one piece to be pulled – “two from the Hat of Repertoire”, or “one from each hat” – and this helped to facilitate the flow considerably. We’re beginning to get the hang of it.
Exceptional audience. Attentive and supportive, generally silent, rather than “quiet” in that repressed sort of way that occasionally happens. As we stood after the final piece we received what felt like a genuine and spontaneous standing ovation. This was repeated after the encore.
The setlist, as notated by the House Manager was:
Tuning the Air 171
Thursday December 3, 2009
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle, WA
Fall Season Show #9
Preshow:
Thursday December 3, 2009 – Tuning the Air 171
The fastest setup ever; under 20 minutes. Gave us a lot of time to warm up. This is a blessing and a curse. The acoustics of the Great Hall make individual practice and warmup difficult, because it turns into a din and that is very hard for me to bear. On the other hand, group warmups have a habit of turning into rehearsals, and so we risk over-preparing and blowing our freshness. As a compromise, a number of us formed a standing circle, much closer together than we actually sit in the performance circle, and ran a bunch of material that is not in the current repertoire. Where Is The Nurse?, Not My Sharona, Onyx, Bloed Spoed. All challenging pieces that work well as callisthenic warmups. Except for Bloed Spoed, which hasn’t been performed or rehearsed for more than a season, they sounded quite good, and Bloed Spoed was at least fun, and in any case this gave us the requisite adjustment to the sound of the room. Returned to a bit more personal practice before giving Joel a few minutes of silence in which to soundcheck, after which we gathered in the performance circle to formally warm up as a group. Circulated in F and G majors; not wonderful, but they served to shake off some of the rust. Then on to necessary bits of repertoire: the Shostakovich prelude, In My Room, Cultivating, the double reverse swirling zither and the Kashmir circulation.
Full circle with the entire company, talking through the set, and then we were “on”, which meant the Green Room for the performers. Even from backstage it was clear that Joel was on fire. A good omen.
As we entered, we found a good sized audience; the center chairs occupied and a few overflow as well. Also a good omen.
The hat was on as usual. Only two pieces were called by name from the circle. One of them, La Rueda, actually came out of the hat right after it had been called and performed. Trust the hat. On several occasions the call was for more than one piece to be pulled – “two from the Hat of Repertoire”, or “one from each hat” – and this helped to facilitate the flow considerably. We’re beginning to get the hang of it.
Exceptional audience. Attentive and supportive, generally silent, rather than “quiet” in that repressed sort of way that occasionally happens. As we stood after the final piece we received what felt like a genuine and spontaneous standing ovation. This was repeated after the encore.
The setlist, as notated by the House Manager was:
Tuning the Air 171
Thursday December 3, 2009
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle, WA
Fall Season Show #9
Preshow:
Joel Palmer ImprovisationsSet:
Cultivating the Beat – preplannedEncore:
In My Room – from the Hat, w/Circulation in C major called by Curt
Tell Me Your Deepest Secret (Improv) – from the Hat
Batrachomyomachy – from the Hat
Brasil – called by Howard
Lament – from the Hat
Bus Artist – from the Hat
Zithers (Improv) – from the Hat
Jaxie talked to the audience
Kashmir – preplanned
D major circulation – called by Howard
La Rueda – called by Howard
Little Gangsters – from the Hat
Sigh and a Kiss – from the Hat
My Precious Dream (for Debbie) – from the Hat
King for a Day – from the Hat
Thrak – preplanned
Eye of the Needle – preplanned
Long Ago Today
Twilight
(both called in the Green Room)
Monday, November 30, 2009
Rehearsal at the Wilsons
A Tuning the Air Journal
Monday November 30, 2009 – Rehearsal at the Wilsons
We were Chris-less tonight due to a touch of flu-ishness.
Very straightforward plan for tonight. Since the OCG course in October, our setlist has been much more open and un-pre-planned. One interesting aspect of this is that there are a number of pieces that always seem to come out of the hat. Borderline spooky. The flip side is that there are a number of pieces we haven’t performed or even touched upon for a month or more. So for tonight the plan was to play everything. We pulled titles from the hat, and in this way also managed to “rehearse” playing pieces on the fly, whether or not we are (for instance) sufficiently warmed up. The metronome was on for every piece. We did pause from time to time to look at details of particular pieces, especially those we have not performed recently. One short break, but this process filled the entire rehearsal.
Monday November 30, 2009 – Rehearsal at the Wilsons
We were Chris-less tonight due to a touch of flu-ishness.
Very straightforward plan for tonight. Since the OCG course in October, our setlist has been much more open and un-pre-planned. One interesting aspect of this is that there are a number of pieces that always seem to come out of the hat. Borderline spooky. The flip side is that there are a number of pieces we haven’t performed or even touched upon for a month or more. So for tonight the plan was to play everything. We pulled titles from the hat, and in this way also managed to “rehearse” playing pieces on the fly, whether or not we are (for instance) sufficiently warmed up. The metronome was on for every piece. We did pause from time to time to look at details of particular pieces, especially those we have not performed recently. One short break, but this process filled the entire rehearsal.
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