Curt Golden

Tuning the Air Complete

2011-12-16T22:34:00.001-08:00

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

Tuning the Air #225 - The Final Performance

2011-12-15T23:31:00.000-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Tuning the Air #225
December 15, 2011
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle WA

The Final Performance of Tuning the Air

Tuning the Space – Joel Palmer

The set:

A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur (Gavin)
Little Red Truck (Germaine)
Prelude in B Minor (JS Bach)
Fugue in B Minor (JS Bach)
Tango Apasionato (Piazzolla)

Tico-Tico no Fubá (Abreu)
Gnossienne (Satie)
Vashon Ferry (Metcalf/Abuladze)
Chanson de Mardi Gras (Trad)
Circulation in A Minor (TTA)
Space Circus Part I (Corea)
five-five-FIVE (Zappa)

I Am The Walrus (Lennon/McCartney)
Slow Burn (Williams/Binder/et al)
Mad World (Orabal, arr Andrews)
Fallout (Gibson/Williams)
Larks’ Tongues In Aspic, Part II (Fripp)

Encore:

Thrak (Fripp)
Spiral (Cmaj/min) (TTA)

Final Encore:

Eye of the Needle (Fripp)

Final Extracurricular group workout (#14)

2011-12-14T16:36:00.001-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Wednesday, December 14, 2011 – Final Extracurricular group workout (#14)

The final (everything this week is “the final”) extracurricular group workout. Curt, Jaxie, Carl, Chris and Greg gathered at Curt’s place to work for a couple of hours on whatever seemed useful and relevant.

Chris and Greg were running a few minutes late, so Jaxie and Carl began by looking at the tempo and count-in for “Tico Tico”. Several runs through this as the rest of the team gathered, as well as later on during the break and just before the rehearsal came to an end.

Chris arrived. For a warmup I suggested cycling the diminished run from “Fallout”, with the metronome beginning at a rather benign tempo and notching it up until we reached performance tempo. Greg arrived and joined in at the tail end of the warmup. We then ran the entire piece, at tempo with the metronome.

Jaxie suggested “Slow Burn” next. A simple runthrough, with metronome, followed by a short discussion of some “feel” matters and how we can bring it together.

“Tango Apasionato” was up. Specifically, the final verse where Chris is improvising a counter-melody. We looped that verse for a while, giving Chris the opportunity to explore the possibilities. A full runthrough with metronome.

“Prelude and Fugue”, without metronome, not to mention without 4/9 of the players. Each piece presents its own set of challenges, and the missing players their own set of holes and gaps. It is a very useful exercise, though not necessarily a very fun one.

With the metronome: “Eye of the Needle”, “Mad World”, “I Am The Walrus” and “Larks’ Tongues”, and "Chanson de Mardi Gras" (with impromptu improvised percussion accompaniment).

We ended with several more runs through the Bach pieces, this time on our feet. A couple of segments were highlighted and worked for clarity.

Tomorrow, Performance Number 225; the final performance of Tuning the Air.

Final Performance Team Rehearsal (with an asterisk)

2011-12-12T23:30:00.000-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday December 12, 2011 – Final Performance Team Rehearsal (with an asterisk)

The asterisk is that this was technically the final “full team” rehearsal. The full performance team, including Igor, Joel, Darlene, and Bill, together in rehearsal for the last time. There remains one more Wednesday afternoon extracurricular workout for those available.

We ran the Prelude and Fugue first, cold. Just to see how we were.

Then, following on from the detail work we did with Bill on Saturday, we simply walked through the set. With every piece we identified the various things that we wanted to pay attention to, and with those in mind played through the piece, in many cases with the metronome. Except to test an idea that Bill had for “Slow Burn”, we really didn’t “work” anything. We simply acknowledged the challenges and aims for each piece, played it, and if necessary made observations afterward.

Everything is very solid. On Wednesday afternoon some of us have the extracurricular rehearsal to hammer out any details we would like to touch on, but essentially, it is personal practice, and on to Thursday.

Happy Birthday Tuning the Air

2011-12-12T09:17:00.001-08:00

December 12, 2011

Happy Birthday Tuning the Air

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

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

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

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

Performance Team Rehearsal

2011-12-10T23:52:00.001-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Saturday December 10, 2011 – Performance Team Rehearsal

Our final Saturday rehearsal at Fremont Abbey. Everything this week is the “final this” or the “final that”.

Bill joined us, and offered notes from last Thursday’s performance. We walked through the set, identifying issues and working out details.

Quote of the day: “Occupy the up beat.”

Tuning the Air #224

2011-12-08T23:50:00.000-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday December 8, 2011 – Tuning the Air #224

Tuning the Air #224
December 8, 2011
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle WA

Tuning the Space – Joel Palmer

The set:

A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur (Gavin)
Little Red Truck (Germaine)
Prelude in B Minor (JS Bach)
Fugue in B Minor (JS Bach)
Tango Apasionato (Piazzolla)

Tico-Tico no Fubá (Abreu)
Gnossienne (Satie)
Vashon Ferry (Metcalf/Abuladze)
Chanson de Mardi Gras (Trad)
Circulation in A Minor (TTA)
Space Circus Part I (Corea)
five-five-FIVE (Zappa)
I Am The Walrus (Lennon/McCartney)

Slow Burn (Williams/Binder/et al)
Mad World (Orabal, arr Andrews)
Fallout (Gibson/Williams)
Larks’ Tongues In Aspic, Part II (Fripp)

Encore:

Eye of the Needle (Fripp)
Spiral (Cmaj/min) (TTA)

Extracurricular group workout 13

2011-12-07T15:42:00.001-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Wednesday, December 6, 2011 – Extracurricular group workout 13

A rolling quartet assembled this afternoon. Curt, Jaxie, Carl and Mary Beth began. For a bit of fun, we ran the Bach Prelude with only 4/5 of the circulated parts. These little excursions are amusing at the very least, but always educational to be sure. From there we went directly on to the Fugue, which will be debuted on Thursday. Jaxie and Carl have the most extensive parts, and we took the opportunity to run their parts as many times as possible. For Mary Beth and me it was largely a matter of counting, in order to make our entrances at the right times. Identifying some problem areas, we focused on these and then expanded the selections until we were back to running the entire piece. We ended the first hour with several passes using Garage Band to fill in the missing parts.

Carl had to depart for a job, and as he was leaving Greg arrived.

Jax, Curt and MB needed a break from Bach, so we looked at a number of other pieces from the setlist, largely working with the metronome, identifying areas of concern and addressing them. “Connecticut Yankee”, “Slow Burn”, “Fallout” and “Tango Apasionato”. We were considering a run through “Walrus”, but realized that time was running short. Greg needed at least a couple of runs through the Fugue, so we moved to that. Some final discussion of fingering options for some particularly dodgy passages, and then we called it a day.

Tomorrow, by hook of crook, it gets performed.

Performance Team Rehearsal

2011-12-05T23:54:00.000-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday December 5, 2011 – Performance Team Rehearsal

All hands on deck for our penultimate Monday night rehearsal.

The Bach Fugue was the order of the evening. We spent the first 30 minutes focused on the piece. It is in the set. We could easily have spent the entire rehearsal on it, but we do have a gig on Thursday. Chris outlined the revamped setlist for this week, and it was decided that we would run whatever piece anyone felt needed attention, and in between each piece we would run the Fugue. This worked pretty well. We worked on “I Am The Walrus”, “Slow Burn”, “Tango Apasionato”, “Mad World”, “Tico Tico”, “Eye of the Needle” and “Thrak”. In between each, we ran the Fugue, for better or worse, occasionally appending the Prelude.

During the break, Jaxie provided, hot from the oven, butterscotch bread pudding, from the recipe that was such a hit at the Raft Island retreat. A winner once again.

Extra Extracurricular group workout

2011-12-05T15:36:00.000-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Wednesday, December 5, 2011 – Extra Extracurricular group workout

Jaxie, Carl, Greg and Curt got together for 90 minutes to drill through the B Minor Fugue. Very useful. Personally, I feel that I have developed a relationship with this piece beyond the (daunting) task of simply playing the right notes at the right time. This makes it all feel possible to me, which is a good thing since I have no doubt that it will be in the setlist this Thursday.

Performance Team Rehearsal

2011-12-03T15:07:00.001-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Saturday December 3, 2011 – Performance Team Rehearsal

Fugue No. 24 in B minor, BWV 869, from the Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1

…for 3 hours.

I suspect there are lot of guitarists taking afternoon naps.

Tuning the Air #223

2011-12-01T23:19:00.000-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday December 1, 2011 – Tuning the Air #223

Tuning the Air #223
December 1, 2011
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle WA

Tuning the Space – Joel Palmer

The set:

Tuning the Air in F Major (TTA)
Slow Burn (Binder/Williams/et al)
Little Red Truck (Germain)
A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur (Gavin)
B Minor Prelude (JS Bach)
Tango Apasionato (Piazzolla)

Tico-Tico no Fubá (Abreu)
Gnossienne (Satie)
Vashon Ferry (Metcalf/Abuladze)
Chanson de Mardi Gras (Trad)
Circulation in A Minor (TTA)
Space Circus Part I (Corea)
five-five-FIVE (Zappa)
I Will (Lennon/McCartney)

I Am The Walrus (Lennon/McCartney)
Mad World (Orabal, arr Andrews)
Fallout (Gibson/Williams)
Larks’ Tongues In Aspic, Part II (Fripp)

Encore:

Eye of the Needle (Fripp)
Spiral (Cmaj/min) (TTA)

Extracurricular group workout 12

2011-11-30T15:49:00.001-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Wednesday, November 30, 2011 – Extracurricular group workout 12

A quintet this afternoon: Chris, Mary Beth, Carl, Jaxie and Curt.

We began with “five-five-FIVE”. For me, this is one that needs regular rehearsal, as I am still working on my command of the part. We ramped up from a modest tempo, eventually getting up to our blazing target 198bpm. Interestingly, we found some of the interim tempos more difficult than the faster target.

As it is the opener on Thursday, Jaxie suggested we run “Slow Burn”. With missing parts, this was particularly challenging, especially the cascade arpeggios in the middle. We returned to that middle part several times to clear up some details.

“Connecticut Yankee” was up next. Tempo has been an issue with this one; we generally play it on the slow side. We ran it a number of times, also ramping up the metronome. After a number of passes, we determined that the target tempo we set some time ago is a bit too frantic, and so notched that back a bit. As I bring this in, it will be up to me to do some personal practice with the metronome, to ensure that I introduce the bass line at the right tempo.

A 5/9 version of the Bach “B Minor Prelude”. Always interesting and entertaining to rehearse circulated pieces with parts missing – in this case, almost half of the parts missing. We have sufficient command of the piece now that even these loping renditions are doable, coherent and even musical. We joked that we should perform it like this some day.

Ended with some detail work on “Larks’ Tongues”, looking at the parts the Tony had added when he was performing with us. These parts fall to Carl. Tony had showed them to him, in a rush at the end of our last rehearsal together, so we needed to do some reconstruction. We even tried to get Tony on skype, but he was unavailable. In the end we worked it out. A number of passes through the affected sections was necessary to get it right.

Chris had to leave. The remaining 4 of us ran a 4/9 version of the B Minor Fugue. Carl and Jaxie carry the heaviest load on this piece, and wanted as many opportunities to play through it as possible. For Mary Beth and myself, it is all about counting, to ensure that we make our entrances at the right place. We are going to meet again on Friday to continue this. Saturday’s rehearsal will be focused on this piece for the entire group.

Performance Team Rehearsal

2011-11-28T23:47:00.000-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday November 28, 2011 – Performance Team Rehearsal

Back from the Thanksgiving break, with all hands on deck. Travis a little under the weather. The rest of us also a little slow getting back up to speed.

The first hour focused on the B Minor Fugue. The closer we get, the farther away it seems. Some very challenging elements to this arrangement, not the least of which is long tacits that require diligent counting if there is any hope for entrances in the right places. No room for even a moment of lapsed attention. On the upside, we are able to hold it together well enough that we can each finally hear our own parts in the context of the whole piece, and that helps us to identify musical cues that are necessary. Moving from playing parts to playing music. It is not in the set for this week, but Saturday’s rehearsal will be entirely dedicated to this piece, so a debut on the 8th is definitely in the realm of possibility; and given that there are only two more opportunities to perform it, perhaps even in the realm of probability.

Short break and then on to this week’s set. Chris has stirred things up a bit. No new repertoire for this week, but changing up the order. He read through the set, and then we ran it. We played as many pieces as time would allow – very necessary since we are a little rusty from the holiday – and tested all of the transitions, even on the pieces we didn’t play. Reviewed the zithers for the spiral circulation; Tony was in the performance team for the last couple of shows, so we needed to revert to the arrangement we used before that. The new opening segment seems to be very strong. One on-the-fly change to the second segment presented itself, and is a clear improvement.

A short discussion of practicalities for the final three shows, focusing on the anticipation of increased audiences. Invitations have gone out to everyone who has ever been part of the Tuning the Air company to be our guests for the final show.

Tuning the Air #222

2011-11-17T23:44:00.000-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday November 17, 2011 – Tuning the Air #222

Tuning the Air #222
November 17, 2011
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle WA

Tuning the Space – Joel Palmer

The set:

A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur
Little Red Truck
Circulation in A Minor
Space Circus Part I
B Minor Prelude
Tango Apasionato

Tico-Tico no Fubá
Vashon Ferry
Chanson de Mardi Gras
I Will
five-five-FIVE
Gnossienne
I Am The Walrus

Slow Burn
Mad World
Fallout
Larks’ Tongues In Aspic, Part II

Encore:

Twinkles (Cmaj)
Spiral Zithers/Criss-Cross Circulation (Cmin)

Second Encore:

Eye of the Needle

Extracurricular group workout 11

2011-11-16T16:08:00.001-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Wednesday, November 16, 2011 – Extracurricular group workout 11

Seven on hand this afternoon: Curt, Greg, Chris, Mary Beth, Carl, Jaxie, and Tony.

“five-five-Five” is on the setlist for tomorrow’s show, so this was our opportunity to get it up to speed, as it were. “Speed”, in this case is still about 85% or our eventual target tempo, but still fast enough to achieve escape velocity. We began by running it at about 80% of that, listening and exploring the relationships between the parts, and identifying points of timing, picking technique and phrasing that need to be clearly articulated as we take the tempo up. We worked up to the target working tempo, with and without the metronome. When an area of concern appeared, we slowed it back down and focused on that until we had cleared it up, and then pushed ahead.

We moved on to several runs through “Tango Apasionato”, looking a details of phrasing and tempo.

Just before the break, Jaxie and I ran through the newly rearranged “I Will” several times. Some discussion among the group about matters of phrasing, and a general consensus that the changes are a definite improvement.

Greg departed, and we reconvened with a runthrough of “I Am The Walrus” with metronome. Tony has been improving through the outro, but Jaxie saw a part that he could take on, which doubles Bob’s part, and we worked a bit on that.

On a lark, we took a shot at the first half of the B Minor Fugue. Jaxie and Carl hold down the largest parts of this section, and had spent part of the morning rehearsing it together, so they were well warmed up. With the staggered entrances, simply keeping track of long tacits may in the end be the biggest challenge of this piece. With a little help from Tony counting bars, this came off remarkably well, even with 3 parts missing.

Tony requested a runthrough of “Fallout”, as he is still working at mastering the melody, and its rather idiosyncratic timing. We went through the entire piece once, and then looped the main section a few additional times so that he could get some time in on that melody in context.

One more “five-five-FIVE” and we called it a day.

Performance Team Rehearsal

2011-11-14T23:29:00.000-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday November 14, 2011 – Performance Team Rehearsal

Full team on board, including Tony and Darlene.

The first hour was entirely dedicated to the B Minor Fugue from Book One of the Well-Tempered Clavier. This is different from anything we have ever played in this project, and since it involves staggered entrances of statements, playing it from anywhere but the beginning is a bit of a chore, with people grabbing for their scores to be sure about what bar we are talking about. The overall feel of this part of the rehearsal was an odd combination of feeling helpless in front of the challenge, and the growing sense that in spite of everything, it is really possible. We never achieved a flawless runthrough, but several were good enough that the potential of the piece was clearly evident. We did once through the Prelude and then into the Fugue in order to get a taste of how that will flow.

A break that included cupcakes (courtesy of Tony) in celebration of Mary Beth and Taylor’s second wedding anniversary. A number of us reminiscing about the endlessly modulating rendition of “Brasil” that we played at the wedding, as the guests moved from the ceremony to the bar and their dinner tables. One of their wedding gifts was a box of 3 bottles of champaign, each tagged to be consumed at 1-year intervals on November 14. We popped open the one marked 2011. Fortunately, with so many of us present, this meant only a sip for everyone, and the rest of the rehearsal was not too adversely affected.

For the balance of rehearsal, we looked at assorted details. Work on the middle section of “Slow Burn”, which continues to be blissful when it works, but a little labored when it doesn’t. Discovered several little changes that make the transitions to and from this section much stronger, and discovered a bit of attitude that enlivens the section itself.

Talked through the middle set, which features small group pieces. Chris had a slight reordering that will keep things moving a bit. A final “in or out” decision made about “I Will” came out “in”. The trio discussed one clear change in the arrangement, and will look for an opportunity to rehearse before Thursday. “five-five-FIVE” is in the set for Thursday. We touched on it briefly, and made plans to make it the focus of Wednesday afternoon’s extracurricular rehearsal.

Performance Team Rehearsal

2011-11-13T16:44:00.000-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Saturday November 12, 2011 – Performance Team Rehearsal

B Minor Fugue day. This is a major undertaking. In some ways, a little silly in light of the fact that there are only 4 more shows. But we are not interested in cruising into home plate, so we are turning up the heat. This was a hard session of piecing together a very complex composition. There is a very clear and followable logic to Bob’s arrangement, but it will take a while for us to be able to discharge the parts accurately enough to really follow the arrangement, so for now it mostly involves a lot of counting. Tony, who does not have a part in this arrangement, became the designated measure counter, which was very useful. It is going to take a while, but “a while” is something we don’t really have, so we need to push. Agreed to have the first half memorized and playable for Monday night’s rehearsal.

Primarily work on matters of detail on several pieces that Bill had observations on. Specifically “Slow Burn”, “Tango Apasionato” and “I Will”. We managed a lot of detail work on the first two, clearing up the areas that were weak; largely matters of tempo and feel, rather than execution of parts. This is a time-consuming process, but in the end a very fruitful one.

We needed to move on to “five-five-FIVE”, so there was not time to properly look into “I Will”. Bill took a few minutes to articulate his observations, which included more than one bitter pill. Without decision, we agreed to come back to this on Monday.

“five-five-FIVE” was next. It is a twisty little beast. Chris is determined to have this up and running for Thursday’s show. A bit of dissention about picking approaches and tempo, but by the end the piece had a shape. More of this on Monday, and setting Wednesday’s afternoon rehearsal aside to dig in as deeply as possible.

Tuning the Air #221

2011-11-10T23:49:00.001-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday November 10, 2011 – Tuning the Air #221

Tuning the Air #221
November 10, 2011
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle WA

Tuning the Space – Joel Palmer

The set:

A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur
Little Red Truck
Circulation in A Minor
Space Circus Part I
B Minor Prelude
Tango Apasionato

Tico Tico
I Will
Vashon Ferry
Chanson de Mardi Gras
Gnossienne
I Am The Walrus

Slow Burn
Mad World
Fallout
Larks’ Tongues In Aspic, Part II

Encore:

Twinkles (Cmaj)
Spiral Zithers/Criss-Cross Circulation (Cmin)

Extracurricular group workout 10

2011-11-09T18:12:00.001-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Wednesday, November 9, 2011 – Extracurricular group workout 10

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Performance Team Rehearsal

2011-11-07T23:32:00.000-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday, November 7, 2011 – Performance Team Rehearsal

First rehearsal on the heels of last week’s retreat with Contemporary Guitar Ensemble. Everyone in attendance.

We began with a review of the pieces we learned from CGE, discussing how much work each piece would require to make them performance-ready. One piece will require some time dedicated to learning parts, and that was postponed to some combination of the Wednesday and Saturday rehearsals. The Piazzolla piece, “Tango Apasionado” seemed to be closest, and so we focused on that. Travis had missed the session with CGE where we learned this one, so he listened at first to determine which part would most benefit from another player. We worked through the piece, clarifying details, and Travis ultimately began learning the melody part. Several runs, and the piece came together. It is on the setlist for Thursday. We touched on the transition from the piece it will follow, to general enthusiasm.

Most of the rest of the rehearsal was centered on getting Tony up to speed on pieces he will be playing while he is here the next 2 weeks.

“Fallout” was first. He has taken on the melody part, which is more than a little tricky (“twisted” would better describe it). He had it substantially in his hands, but needed a bit of detail work on the phrasing and arrangement.

A little detail work on “Mad World”. Tony is bolstering the “off-the-beat” part of the melody, with Taylor. We ran it several times. I was paying particular attention to the melody, as I have been getting the score together to send to CGE, and needed to get a couple of details straight.

We did one runthrough of “Connecticut Yankee”, experimenting with a slightly quicker tempo, which we ultimately decided to adopt.

“Larks’ Tongues” next. This is a piece that Tony has a lot of familiarity with, so plugging him in was not a great effort. Just a little work on the middle section, giving Jaxie and Darlene the opportunity to stretch out a bit on their parts.

Last up was the B Minor Prelude. Several runs, with a small last-minute side trip into a particular passage that seemed to me to be missing a note. Tempo is really the most critical issue for the piece. It is not fast, but the motion of the parts is crisp. Finding and maintaining the right tempo continues to be a challenge, and we looked at a number of ways to address this.

The Wednesday afternoon free-for-all rehearsal is on, so we will look at this further.

Tuning the Air #220

2011-11-03T23:57:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday November 3, 2011 – Tuning the Air #220

Tuning the Air #220
w/Contemporary Guitar Ensemble
Thursday November 3, 2011

Tuning the Space - Joel Palmer

The set

Opening Circulation
Crosstown Traffic (CGE)
Slow Burn (TTA)
B Minor Prelude (TTA)
Tango Apasionado (CGE)
555 (CGE)
"When Ready, Begin"
Circulation in A Minor
Gnossienne (TTA)
Knight Rider (CGE)
Love Maniac (CGE)
Little Red Truck
Mad World (TTA)
Fallout (TTA)
Mulholland Drive (CGE)
I Am The Walrus (TTA)
Dark Secret

Encore #1:

Eye of the Needle

Encore #2:

Thrak

Tuning the Air #219

2011-10-27T23:52:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday October 27, 2011 – Tuning the Air #219

Tuning the Air #219
October 27, 2011
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle WA

Tuning the Space – Joel Palmer

The set:

A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur
Little Red Truck
Circulation in A Minor
Space Circus Part I
B Minor Prelude

Tico Tico
I Will
Vashon Ferry
Odd Socks
Gnossienne
I Am The Walrus

Slow Burn
Mad World
Fallout
Larks’ Tongues In Aspic, Part II

Encore:

Twinkles (Cmaj)
Spiral Zithers/Criss Cross Circulation (Cmin)

Extracurricular group workout 9

2011-10-26T22:51:00.001-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Wednesday, October 26, 2011 – Extracurricular group workout 9

Jaxie in the house for the first time! Thanks to the demolition of the viaduct (or, more accurately, the traffic looking for alternative routes), we got off to a dribbling start. Jaxie, Mary Beth and I were just sitting down when Greg arrived. We began beginning when Carl arrived. We were running “Mad World” with the metronome when Chris arrived.

No particular agenda other than to put in time on anything that seemed it might benefit. A new quintet version of the B Minor Prelude. Very strange, but an indication that we are becoming comfortable with the piece and our parts, and can manage quite well even when 1, 2, 3, or in this case, 4 parts are missing. The beginning of a discussion of blending our articulation and phrasing for more continuity.

A look at “Connecticut Yankee”, reviewing and refining the dynamics, as well as some detailed work on the feel of the bass part.

“Little Red Truck” was next. A couple of simple runthroughs with the metronome, focusing on transitions. Small group work included a couple passes at “Chanson de Mardi Gras”, a duo version of “Tico Tico”, and a bass and vocal rendition of “I Will”.

“I Am The Walrus” in several breakouts, including a vocal and string version, as well as the transition from “Gnossienne”. This led to a full runthrough of “Gnossiene”.

A bit more detail work on “Fallout”, and a runthrough of “Slow Burn”.

On to performance #219 (3x73)

2011-10-24T23:50:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday, October 24, 2011 – Performance Team Rehearsal

Short one player, as Travis was called away on family business.

We began with an extended circulation in C Minor. Work with listening and responding, phrasing, cadences and continuity.

On to continued work with the B Minor Prelude. We did some work with the isolated right hand melodies. Travis sits in a pivotal seat for one of these melodies, and so it was a little difficult to hear. Nevertheless, an illuminating exercise, and I found that when afterward we ran the full arrangement, I was hearing the piece with slightly more discerning ears. The Music Director asked the Arranger if the Fugue was ready to present. Parts will be forthcoming this week. Never a dull moment.

“Connecticut Yankee”, with the metronome, focusing on incorporating the dynamic indications we discussed on Saturday.

Darlene was present, so we ran “Gnossienne”, with the metronome.

We discussed the slightly amended set order. “Odd Socks” will be replaced by “Chanson de Mardi Gras” in the Sgt Bones slot. And “I Am The Walrus” will be placed a little later in the set. Several runs through “Walrus” without and then with the metronome. Our tendency is to speed up a bit through the piece – not extreme, just a couple bpm, and rather organic. We decided not to obsess on this, but to continue practicing and rehearsing with the metronome at the prescribed tempo so that it might settle in for us a bit more. We tightened up some of the parts and arrangement issues, and looked at how the piece will transition in the performance.

A couple of runs through “Fallout”, with the metronome; the final time with the metronome up a couple of notches to the composer’s target tempo. We are not quite able to pull it off at that tempo without the piece sounding frantic, but it seemed not as far away as we might have thought.

“Larks’ Tongues” with the metronome, giving the violinist and oboist an opportunity to work through their parts.

One pass at “Tico Tico” without metronome, and “Mad World” with the metronome, and it was time to call it a night.

Performance team rehearsal

2011-10-22T19:31:00.001-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Saturday, October 22, 2011 – Performance team rehearsal

All present and accounted for today.

The first hour was detail work on the B Minor Prelude. We worked it section by section. We are at the point with this piece where we can really begin to hear the individual lines within the piece, even as we have our attention on our own parts. At the very least, this means that dropping out or missing notes is no longer a cause for panic. At best it means that we can really begin to connect with the flow of the lines, which is where we need to be. The work in rehearsal on this can be grueling, and sometimes involves long side trips into the minutia of such things as the articulation of individual notes, but the results are tangible as the Music emerges.

On to “Connecticut Yankee”, again focusing on detail work and musical matters. For this piece, that primarily boiled down to 2 areas: 1) dynamics, and 2) the techniques employed to get the sounds out of the guitars that the intro demands. The first of these is pretty straightforward. Nigel had been pretty explicit about dynamics, and now that we have a command of the parts we just needed to readdress these and make sure that we are all following the same score.

“Larks’ Tongues” on the table. This was primarily about tempo. We have been performing it a little slowly, even though there is a sense of pushing ahead in some parts. We looked at some of the technicalities surrounding this, including details like clarity in the count off, and sharpness in the articulation of the Stravinsky chords. Several runthroughs with the metronome. Precision, with no sense of urgency, is the quality we aim for in this piece.

“I Am The Walrus”, again largely work with the metronome, aimed at clear articulation and coordination of the parts, and the spirit of the piece. This piece has been a highlight and source of much audience feedback at our first 3 shows, and there is the sense that there is yet another level awaiting us. A bit of discussion of ways to play a cello part on the guitar; picks are not bows, and there is no way to pretend they are, so the question is how to play a guitar part that honors the writing for cello. Details, details.

“Fallout”, again with the metronome, and again digging deeper into matters of dynamics and phrasing.

Ended with a mini-set of “Little Red Truck” – “A Minor Circulation” – “Space Circus”, largely without comment. Our circulations on Thursday were much improved, although we still haven’t quite captured the spooky esp that is characteristic of our circulating when we are really on our game.

Ended a little early in order to have a “practicalities” meeting for the Tuning the Air retreat that takes place beginning next week.

Tuning the Air #218

2011-10-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday October 20, 2011 – Tuning the Air #218

Tuning the Air #218
October 20, 2011
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle WA

Tuning the Space – Joel Palmer

The set:

A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur
Little Red Truck
Circulation in A Minor
Space Circus Part I
B Minor Prelude
I Am The Walrus

Tico Tico
I Will
Vashon Ferry
Odd Socks
Gnossienne

Slow Burn
Mad World
Fallout
Larks’ Tongues In Aspic, Part II

Encore:

Twinkles (Cmaj)
Spiral Zithers/Criss Cross Circulation (Cmin)

Extracurricular group workout 8

2011-10-19T16:06:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Wednesday, October 19, 2011 – Extracurricular group workout 8

Back in the groove after last week’s break. Greg, Chris, Curt, Carl and Mary Beth in attendance. We made sure that Greg was up to date on the arrangement changes that were made at Monday’s rehearsal, and worked with the metronome on everything. Pieces we touched on…

“Mad World” run at the new tempo, with the 4 bars dropped from the middle section.
Several runs through “Fallout”, at tempo with the metronome.
A 5-player rendition of the B Minor prelude, with the metronome, which was remarkably coherent.
Several passes through “Connecticut Yankee”, clarifying a couple of technical bits, and looking in detail at dynamics that might help to kick the piece up to the next level.
“Lark’s Tongues” with the extended middle section. We ran the new section several times, and then the whole piece. With Jaxie on violin, Chris had noticed the absence of her guitar part in a couple of places, and is working on a hybrid part for himself that will fill in the gaps. We also observed that we have been playing it somewhat slower than the target tempo.
“Space Circus” also with the metronome, which indicated that we have been performing it a little on the slow side.
After Greg left, one runthrough of “Gnossienne” with Chris and Mary Beth playing the entire melody in unison (except for the couple of minutes when Chris had to run out to move his car so that Greg could get out).
A sloppy-but-getting-there trio version of “Bicycling to Afghanistan”, and then we called it a day.

Performance Team Rehearsal

2011-10-17T23:36:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday, October 17, 2011 – Performance Team Rehearsal

Continued detail work on the more complex material.

We began with a circulation in A minor, which is on the setlist as the set up for “Space Circus”. We had noted on Saturday that we are not circulating enough in rehearsal, and that our live circulations are suffering a little for that. So we are now making time at every rehearsal for this. It is not a skill issue. And A minor is certainly as close to a harmonic no-brainer as they come. But circulation is really about the connections between players. Although most of us have been playing together for many years, this is something that needs to be constantly exercised and renewed.

Carl was back, but Greg out of town, so once again we went to work on a slightly limping session with the B Minor Prelude. Practicing circulated compositions with missing players is actually a very enlightening exercise. The very absence of a particular part serves to highlight their role and function. We, as players, become a bit more discerning about the individual components and how they relate to our own part. Still, there are a couple of things we would like to be able to explore that really require the full team, and Saturday will likely be our first opportunity, if everyone can stay healthy and in town.

Some detail work on “Mad World”, beginning with a discussion of the target tempo. It has been inconsistent, and was pretty fast in the last performance. With a bit of trial and error we settled on a tempo a bit faster than our original target, but slower than I’ve been counting it. This was followed by some refinement work on the melody, and one minor change to the arrangement involving dropping 4 bars in the middle chorus which tightened the piece up considerably.

A couple of runthroughs of “Fallout”, with focus on the transitions.

During the break, Darlene arrived, and so the second half of the rehearsal focused on pieces with the oboe. First we continued work of “Gnossienne”, with the aim of consistency and continuity in the melody as it is passed from player to player.

A short discussion of the two candidates for the Sgt Bones slot in the set, settling on Odd Socks for this week, as it features the oboe.

Then to “Larks’ Tongues”. The plan is to have both violin and oboe in the heavy rock section. After listening to a run or two, the idea was floated and adopted to extend that section by 4 phrases. We ran the new section several times to ensure our sense of the new length, and then ran the whole piece.

Performance team rehearsal

2011-10-15T16:00:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Saturday, October 15, 2011 – Performance team rehearsal

A number of us had worked on the crew for the Elan Sicroff/Katharina Paul concert of de Hartmann music on Friday night, and we concluded that rather than try to fit ourselves into the performance space for today’s rehearsal, it would be better to just move to my apartment. Carl was under the weather and elected not to infect his band mates. Bill was on hand to lend his ear and observations.

Today was the day for digging in deep. We have learned the new material, and have successfully performed the material, so two hurtles crossed. With what we have learned from these performances, we began looking in detail at ways to deepen our connection to the music.

We began with the B Minor Prelude. The plan was to circulate just the left hand, in order to hear the independent lines more clearly. With Carl absent, this was a challenge, in particular because he is holding the downbeat. Running composed circulations with missing players, in our experience, can actually be a very useful exercise. After some time, however, we felt that we were not getting what we needed from this. We went on to working the entire piece, breaking it up into phrases, and this was much more productive – the missing player was not quite such a distraction. We will continue this on Monday.

“I Am The Walrus” next. Bill had some very good observations to share about the character of this piece, and the Beatles approach to it, and we began to craft the piece and how we approach our individual parts. We looked at details of phrasing for the cello and string players, as well as articulation on the various “sound effects” that are used in the arrangement.

On to “Mad World”, again exploring and refining the ensemble play, as well as making and adjustment to the working tempo.

A great deal of attention then put on the melody of “Gnossienne” – how to connect the phrases played by different players, and maintain a musical through-line.

More on all of this, Monday.

Tuning the Air #217

2011-10-13T23:53:00.001-07:00

Tuning the Air #217
October 13, 2011
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle WA

Tuning the Space – the return of the boombox extravaganza

The set:

A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur
Little Red Truck
Circulation in A Minor
Space Circus Part I
B Minor Prelude
I Am The Walrus

Tico Tico
I Will
Vashon Ferry
Cajun Song
Gnossienne

Slow Burn
Mad World
Fallout
Larks’ Tongues In Aspic, Part II

Encore:

Spiral Zithers

Performance Team Rehearsal

2011-10-10T23:42:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday, October 10, 2011 – Performance Team Rehearsal

All guitarists present and accounted for. The oboist is out this week.

The first segment was dedicated to the B Minor prelude. We worked with analyzing the form and identified 5 statements/phrases/sections, ranging from 7-16 bars, so that we can isolate and focus on them as necessary in practice. We looked at each phrase in detail, with the metronome, and connected them back into the whole.

“I Am The Walrus” was next. It had occurred to me after the last rehearsal that we had somehow overlooked the “Ho Ho Ho Hee Hee Hee Ha Ha Ha” in the third verse, so we began with coming up with a way to incorporate that. The string/horn section is back to slide this week (without sufficient prep time, that had been dropped last week), so we worked all of the sections to give them a workout. A lot of focus on the various sound effects, in particular the second interlude (“sitting in an English garden…”) and the final “Egg Man” section through the Outro. Several runthroughs with and without the metronome.

For the rest of the rehearsal, we touched on details. Sgt Bones presented a possible substitute for “Odd Socks”, which needs Darlene’s oboe, for this week’s performance. We did some tightening up on the intro and cascade sections of “Slow Burn” and then ran the piece. We reviewed the zithers for the encore, and tested some variations. I also presented a zither to be used in the opening of “Vashon Ferry”. And, an interesting new twist for “Larks” was explored, and approved.

It is going to be an interesting show.

Performance team rehearsal

2011-10-08T15:29:00.001-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Saturday, October 8, 2011 – Performance team rehearsal

Full performance team at Fremont Abbey Arts Center, except Darlene who has other professional commitments this week and will be sorely missed.

It was out day to dig deep into the more complex arrangements. The first hour entirely given to “I Am The Walrus”, which is moving from the encore into the set next week. We worked section by section, giving the cello/string players the time needed to work out their collective phrasing, and to learn how their parts sit and interact with each other, the rhythm section, and the melodies. The cello part, played by Bob and Jaxie, runs all the way through the piece. Greg, Taylor and Mary Beth are covering the violins, brass, and a plethora of assorted sound effects, many involving the use of the slide.

After a break, we moved on to the B Minor Prelude. At Greg’s suggestion, we played it a number of times. Each performer took a turn directing how it would go for a few minutes. This involved everything from getting on our feet and moving around in the Great Hall, to sitting down and methodically breaking down passages that consistently give us difficulty. All of the exercises were in one way or another designed to get us individually and collectively up and out of our notes, and into the music and the connection with the group.

Another short break, and we took a look at the new encore for next week. This involves a fair amount of blocking, not to mention geometry.

The final half-hour was a planning meeting for the 1-week retreat we will be going out on at the end of the month.

Next rehearsal, Monday.

Opening Night

2011-10-06T23:19:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday October 6, 2011 – Opening Night

Up at 6:30am, which at this point is still night time out, for the morning sitting with the Sgt Bones team. Afterward, Mary Beth and Carl and I installed the Tonight! posters in the a-frames, drove over to Fremont Abbey Arts Center to set them out, as well as to hang the banner on the north wall. Home to largely personal work for the morning and early afternoon. One lesson late in the afternoon, just before I headed out to the gig. Throughout the day I went through all of the repertoire, focusing on the most difficult bits as necessary. Which meant I played the B Minor prelude a dozen times or more – for the most part, I simply played through it cold, noted where I had made mistakes and looked into them to make sure I knew what was supposed to happen, and then moved on to other material, waiting at least 10 minutes to come back and again run the prelude cold. No train wrecks. A couple of mysterious blanks. It remains a terrifying endeavor. Only when I hear the group cooking on it do I remember why I’m putting myself through this.

The Music Director’s schedule for the day:

4:00 Gig day begins. Where ever we are we pause to acknowledge this.
5:00 Set Up Arrival
6:30 Sound Check!
7:45 Doors Open
8:00 Were on!

Notice the early set up for opening night.

At 4:45 I was out the door and on my way to Fremont Abbey. My guitar, the spare guitar, a gig bag with stands, DI’s and cables for both guitars.

Set up was uneventful. A little tweaking to do on the sound system, but only minor glitches that were easily rectified. Since we began a little early this week, as a precaution, there was even time for us to find a quiet corner to warm up, and for small groups of us to run pieces.

At 6:30, a full soundcheck; very quick. And then we went through the set, touching on every piece, and running a number of the ones that are newest and most in need of continued regular attention. A bit of work with blocking and lighting, and before we knew it, it was time for the doors to open.

We were quite shorthanded, so I worked the front of house with Jim and only joined the team when it was time to go on; a necessary choice that I’d prefer not to have to repeat, as it wasn’t until about 1/3 of the way through the show that I actually arrived in the performance team.

On the technical/practical side, a generally good performance, with only one actual train wreck. The B Minor Prelude crashed and burned. So badly that at the end I heard my voice call out, “let’s try that again.” Which we did, and this time it worked. Everything else was good. Plenty of clams, and all kinds of information about what we need to look at in this week’s rehearsals. But the show itself was quite good. We dropped programmed “speaking moments” in the set in favor of more spontaneous speaking as the spirit moved. This works very well for us. The feel and content of the speaking much less formal and formulaic, and more like a conversation with friends than a speech. This, I think, helps to include the audience in the process, and as a consequence there was a lot of support and help coming our way.

Still a long way to go, but a very good first show. Nine more, and then…?

Tuning the Air #216
October 6, 2011
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle WA

Tuning the Space – Joel Palmer

The set:

A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur
Little Red Truck
Circulation in A Minor
Space Circus Part I
B Minor Prelude

Tico Tico
I Will
Vashon Ferry
Odd Socks
Gnossienne

Slow Burn
Mad World
Fallout
Larks’ Tongues In Aspic, Part II

Encore:

I Am the Walrus

Extracurricular group workout 7

2011-10-05T16:42:00.001-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Wednesday, October 5, 2011 – Extracurricular group workout 7

The final Wednesday afternoon extra workout before opening night. Chris, Greg, Mary Beth, Carl and myself, with Travis playing hooky from work long enough to join us for the first hour.

In the first hour we worked through some transitions and details of timing and ensemble work on “Little Red Truck”. On “Fallout” some work through the sections, giving us a chance to look closely at the new melody and how it relates to the rhythm section. Tightening up the timing and feel.

After Travis had to depart, the remaining players worked through “I Am The Walrus”. I taught Chris and Carl the rhythm of the “juba juba” chants at the end of the piece, and Greg the “umpa umpa stick it up the umpa” rhythm. We ran the final Eggman chorus into the Outro a number of times, incorporating these additions. Then, through the piece, giving Greg and Mary Beth some time to work on their new parts, covering some string and brass sections. Lot’s of detail work.

A quick review of the bass part from the B Section of “Slow Burn”, and our time was up. The Wednesday work group had been organized as a way to get a little more work in as we prepared for the season. Chris asked if we would like to continue once the season begins, and the consensus was “yes”.

Final Performance Team Rehearsal

2011-10-04T23:13:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday, October 3, 2011 – Final Performance Team Rehearsal

Our final full team rehearsal before Thursday’s opening night. All performers present and accounted for, including Joel who was hearing the new material for the first time, and Darlene who is performing on (at least) two pieces in the set.

For the first part of the rehearsal we focused on the B Minor Prelude and “I Am The Walrus”; the most complex arrangements we have in the set. This took most of our time. We took a look at a number of passages, sections, and transitions from other pieces; detail work to bring the repertoire together.

After a break we sat down to run the set, basically the same as Saturday, with the addition of the Bach prelude. Other than a couple of false starts, and some quick discussion of practical details, we simply went through it as if it was a performance. For all of us, information gathered in terms of the personal work we need to do before Thursday, as well as some section work we can do at the Wednesday afternoon mini-rehearsal.

Here we go!

Performance team rehearsal

2011-10-01T18:58:00.001-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Saturday, October 1, 2011 – Performance team rehearsal

Full performance team in the house at Fremont Abbey. Our resident ears, on a couple of days break between the Humans’ east coast tour and their upcoming UK tour, came to lend his attention and feedback.

The first hour was entirely dedicated to “I Am The Walrus”. We walked through the form, one section at a time. Travis and I on guitar/piano are pretty solid. Chris and Carl were fine-tuning the phrasing and inflections of the vocal lines. Bob and Jaxie have been working on the cello part for the past week, but this was their first opportunity to run it in context. Mary Beth, Taylor and Greg are taking on the rest of the string and horn parts, as well as some of the ancillary sound effects and bits, and this was the first time they were presented with their parts. Time consuming, but necessary. For some in the group, this is pretty new material. At one point I found myself laughing about how young my bandmates are (a strategy for avoiding the alternative: thinking about how old I am), when the question came up about what album this is on.

Several runthroughs. Not ready for primetime, but the form and arrangement are beginning to gel. Over the break, Bill suggested a few things to fill out the arrangement, including arming a couple of guitarists with slides.

Second segment began with the Bach B Minor Prelude. Still shaky, but better than Thursday’s debacle. To tighten things up, we began working from the final bar backwards, which revealed a number of things, including a few blind spots in people’s parts. By the end of the session, we were making it through the piece – not quite art, but the elements begin to emerge.

We ran “Fallout”, giving the lead players a little more time with the new melody line, in the context of the rhythm section. Also, giving the rhythm section a little more time staying on track while the lead players are whipping this twisted melody line.

For the final segment, Bill took a place in the center of the circle and we ran the set. A few revealing moments in terms of what still needs to be tightened up, but an honorable performance. The middle section of “Slow Burn” went remarkably well, which was a pleasant surprise since we only just got it on its feet on Thursday. When we are "on it", it is a stunningly beautiful sequence of passages.

Chris asked us to do our best and run “Walrus”, but I lobbied heavily for Bach first, and he relented. The team responded with the best performance to date – far from flawless, but remarkable in every way. Bill, along with Darlene who was also sitting in the center of the circle, both observed that this needs to be in the set. This was exactly the thought that was passing through my mind. Protests from players, but after a couple of moments the Music Director made the call: “it’s in the set.” Woo hoo.

We then went ahead and ran a best-shot, as-is “Walrus” and called it a day. The small group performing “Vashon Ferry” hung behind and we cleared up some matters of arrangement, and formalized the part I have thus far been improvising, so that I know what to practice for Monday night’s runthrough.

Performance team rehearsal

2011-09-29T23:47:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday, September 29, 2011 – Performance team rehearsal

Chris, Jaxie, Travis and I met about 30 minutes before rehearsal in order to begin working out logistics for next month’s Tuning the Air Retreat. We’ll be heading out for a week of working together with another circle, comparing what we’ve learned from our experiences with our ongoing performance projects, sharing repertoire, and perhaps coming up something new.

The team arrived, and we switched to rehearsal mode. Our big challenge for the week was to come prepared with the entire B Minor Prelude.

Taylor called to say he was stuck in traffic on the bridge, so we began by taking the next steps on “Fallout”. Travis, Jaxie and Bob moved to the other room for section work on the new melody, while the rest of us ran the form at tempo with the metronome, tightening up parts and cleaning up transitions. Taylor arrived and joined us. The other three rejoined the group, and we went through the piece section by section, for the first time with all of the parts in place. Several times through with the metronome, with bits of detail work in between. The piece is up and running.

On to Bach! We just jumped in (sans metronome) to see what would happen. The opening section which we had worked on at length last week, went remarkably smoothly. The new material faltered, but nevertheless it was encouraging. Several passes, each time managing to go off the rails. Once or twice we managed to limp to the end. Chris suggested we go back to the woodshed, working individually to gain command of the parts, and make sure we play it at each rehearsal until it is ready to be unveiled.

“Slow Burn” was the other major item on the table for the evening. The two parts in need of attention were the intro and the cascades in the middle section. The piece had emerged at the very end of last season, and Bill was sitting in for the injured Travis at that time. He had been instrumental in the Intro, so it was something we needed to re-write/arrange. Chris got his part going, and Travis found the necessary counterpart. Bob and Carl took a few minutes to recreate their “fairy finger” parts, and in rather short order the intro came together. For the cascades, we began with the metronome down about 10bpm from performance tempo, and simply drilled the section. After a few passes, the tempo was notched up. A few more passes and we were up to performance tempo. Several full passes on the piece. The intro began to gain life. The middle section was generally journeyman-like, but functional.

We ran each of the remaining full-group pieces, with the metronome at tempo. Notes made about details to be addressed, but we didn’t stop to work on anything.

Next, Saturday at Fremont Abbey.

Extracurricular group workout 6

2011-09-28T21:49:00.001-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Wednesday, September 28, 2011 – Extracurricular group workout 6

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

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

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

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

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

Tuning the Air History – Foreshadowing

2011-09-27T09:02:00.000-07:00

Tuning the Air History – Foreshadowing

On December 11-12, 2004, a weekend workshop took place at Seattle Circle’s studio, located on the third floor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Ballard. It was not a music-related seminar, but a number of members of the Seattle Guitar Circle were taking part.

The workshop culminated on Sunday night with a feast. Food for 20 people was cooked at my apartment and shuttled over. From time to time during the meal, the seminar director would call for music. That was our cue. Jaxie Binder, Taylor Sherman, Travis Metcalf, Bob Williams and I would rise, leave the room, collect our guitars, briefly discuss and come up with a 2 or 3 piece “setlist”. We entered the room, took our place and played. This happened 3 times during the evening.

The third time we were called upon to play, we chose for our final selection “Eye of the Needle”, which is also known as “Guitar Craft Theme III”, and is within the repertoire of anyone who has been involved with Guitar Craft for a period of time.

We entered, and performed our first selection. When it came time for “Eye of the Needle”, we spread out and surrounded the audience – to the extent that 5 players can “surround” a banquet table set up for 20 diners. The effect was immediate and profound. Of course, the composition has that quality and effect for anyone who can enter in to it, but there was something in this presentation that seemed to bring the music alive in a very particular way. Collecting ourselves outside of the room after the performance, we had the very clear sense that something momentous had just occurred.

It had been a busy weekend, and my computer had been off as part of the seminar. My journal for that weekend, very brief and written in the wee hours of Monday morning, reflects a recognition of the significance of the moment:

I will also never forget looking up as five of us “surrounded” an audience of 15 people and saying to myself, “hey look! A Guitar Craft Circle!” It was just for a moment, but it was as real as real can be.

Writing about it nearly 7 years after the fact, I honestly cannot recall whose idea it was to present EotN in this way; and that seems just as well. I also don’t remember whether we made the decision out in the hall before the performance, or if it was a spontaneous impulse that came up in the moment. It set in motion a line of exploration and inquiry that brought 10 players together in February of 2005 to test the viability of formal performance in this format, and in the following April Tuning the Air was debuted.

Tech rehearsal at Fremont Abbey Arts Center

2011-09-26T23:37:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday, September 26, 2011 – Tech rehearsal at Fremont Abbey Arts Center

Tech rehearsal. We arrived at Fremont Abbey at 8pm. The samba class that preceded us was just wrapping up. A lot of energy in the room. We took a moment to look at what needed to be accomplished – primarily to set up the gear to ensure it was in working order. We decided not to set up chairs for the audience – we are not changing anything about how the room is arranged for this season, and so it was not a critical item. Plus, given the challenges of the material we are preparing, the more time we could spend with guitars strapped on, the better.

Setup was smooth. No technical difficulties, and with everyone pitching in we were up and ready to soundcheck in 30 minutes. Travis did some basic work on setting up each channel for the particular players, and working out the balance. He then turned control of the board over to Joel and joined the circle.

Chris outlined the working setlist. His plan was to simply run the pieces in whatever form or stage they might be, and to get a rough running time. This would give us the opportunity the become reacquainted with the acoustic characteristics and peculiarities of the room and to begin to make the necessary adjustments. As always, some of what we heard was a surprise. A few of the pieces, “Space Circus” in particular, immediately sing in this environment. Other pieces, primarily the more rocking and rhythmically intricate numbers, require a certain care so that they do not become muddy and imprecise.

For Meleah, this was the first time she was hearing most of the material, and she needed to begin to formulate her strategies for each piece, while the players got a taste of what it will be like to perform with the changing lights. We made sure she got whatever time she needed, and feedback on what we need as well – in particular, “Gnossienne” needs to be well enough lit that players can make unambiguous contact with one another, even from across the circle, as the melody is passed from one to another as the spirit moves.

After a break, Darlene arrived and we re-ran the pieces she will be performing on. A new Sgt Bones piece was a nice surprise, and of course the oboe really sings in this room. We also re-ran “Larks” and did a down and dirty as-is run through “Walrus”.

A little after 10, we began our tear-down and by 10:30 the space was restored and we were out the door.

Performance team rehearsal

2011-09-24T18:05:00.001-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Saturday, September 24, 2011 – Performance team rehearsal

We met at my apartment, as Fremont Abbey was booked for a memorial service. Bob is out of town this weekend, so we were not quite a full team.

A good, redemptive rehearsal, after Thursday’s sobering experience.

The Music Director walked us through the entire working full-group repertoire, skipping the circulated pieces – holding off on that until we are all together. We played each piece at least 2 or 3 times, generally with the metronome until the final runthrough. We identified areas in need of detail work or clarification and did what we could as we went, setting sections that need personal work or further investigation aside. In the end, a much better sense of where the pieces are, and some very definite arrangement improvements.

Particular attention paid to several pieces. An in-depth look at phrasing of Satie’s “Gnossienne” was very useful. Darlene’s experience with classical music is extremely enlightening to a bunch of guitarists. But it was one particular and simple musical insight into the nature of grace notes that she shared that brought everything together for us. The furry beast of the house showed a singular interest in the oboe, which added some levity to the day.

Chris brought along the first draft of the cello part for “Walrus” to give to Jaxie. The rhythm section plus Carl on Lennon-voice ran the piece with Chris demonstrating the part (with Jaxie on page turning). The potential of the piece is beginning to reveal itself. So is the amount of work in front of us.

Monday night: tech rehearsal at the Abbey.

Performance team rehearsal

2011-09-22T23:22:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday, September 22, 2011 – Performance team rehearsal

The inevitable night of crushing and inconsolable despair, when the knowledge of just how close we are to opening night crashes head-on into the awareness of just how far from ready we are. There is no avoiding it. In every rehearsal period of every season, this rehearsal is going to happen, and there is no way to stop it. And yet, knowing that is somehow no consolation.

We began with the next 12 bars of the Bach Prelude. It wasn’t pretty – okay, the music isn’t just pretty, it’s gorgeous; our competence at playing it, however, was another story. The absence of one player (Mary Beth is out of town) doesn’t help when working on a composed circulation, but we have done it before – in some ways it can be quite educational, although that is generally more effective when we are already a little competent with the piece. We did what we could, and then looked at what our strategy for the next week will be to get this up to standards. Our work is clearly cut out for us.

Next was work on “Slow Burn”; specifically the cascade section. The hiccup of the missing player again a difficulty, but progress made. We ran the entire piece for the first time. Much work to do.

From there we moved through the entire current repertoire list, not dwelling on any one piece for very long, but simply identifying issues to be addressed.

A rhythm section and melody rendition of “Walrus”. Interpreting vocal inflections for the guitar was discussed; when to be literal vs finding our own phrasing? The big challenge moving forward is the arrangement of the cello and horn parts. Chris will begin presenting this on Saturday – it is a big challenge.

“Larks” runthrough. This is substantially there. Some discussion of the pros and cons of various potential edits looked at, but the current sense is that it goes in its current form. I had transcribed some specific bass passages for the end section, to pump up the build a little, but did not execute them very well, and there was no time for extra rehearsal and so we moved on.

A quick review of some of the small group work. Began with what, for me, was the highlight of the night and the best cause for optimism – the Wilson Trio presentation of “Tico Tico”. Just a splendid little romp, humorous but not frivolous, and very well played. “I Will” with added bass part was not quite so inspiring – still work to do there. “Vashon Ferry” was good; the key players have been working on it for some time. I was improving the bass part for now, but dearly need some actual rehearsal time with this one before it is presentable.

“Space Circus” was quite nice. “Mad World” shaky, but not a train wreck. “Little Red Truck” continues to evolve, but isn’t played with enough confidence to sound complete yet. “Fallout” is still in the R&D phase – the form and all of the parts are written, but there is much work yet to be done before it is playable. “Gnossienne”, with the new arrangement (and finally giving Darlene a chance to get her oboe out) remains a work in progress.

A rough night. Saturday will be better.

Extracurricular group workout 5

2011-09-21T20:36:00.001-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Wednesday, September 21, 2011 – Extracurricular group workout 5

Regulars Mary Beth and Greg were unavailable today. However, Travis was successfully tempted into playing hooky for an extra long lunch and sit in with us for the first half of the session.

Travis and I are, effectively, the rhythm section for “I Am The Walrus”, and Chris and Carl the melody/vocals section. So we worked our way through the piece section by section. Travis and I came up with ways to blend our parts – he is covering the guitar and bass while I do the piano. Chris and Carl began to organize their phrasing. We made it through the piece several times and even came up with a bit of inspiration for how it might fit in the set.

On to a piece borrowed from the Solaris Project repertoire, “Vashon Ferry”. Travis, Carl, Bob and Chris have already put some work in on it (Bob and Travis play an electric arrangement in Third Law). Travis, Chris and Carl worked a bit on the parts. Travis’ thought was that there was a bass part necessary, at least in one particular section, and that will fall to me. We touched on it, but did not take rehearsal time to work out the details. I will spend some time on this before tomorrow night’s performance team rehearsal.

On to “Little Red Truck”. Travis’ part has not been fully established, so we focused our work on fleshing it out. Several good bits arrived that will add a lot to the arrangement.

Travis departed.

The three of us remaining dove into “Bicycling to Afghanistan”. Although it hasn’t appeared on any “official” lists of repertoire for the season, it seems to keep popping up. Carl has been working on Lead I, and I of course have the Bass Part ever at the ready. Chris has played Lead II, but it is the least familiar part for him, so we spent some time breaking it down, looking at the details, and running sections. By the end of the rehearsal we were managing rather raggedy but recognizable full runthroughs, so there is hope.

One or two more passes at “Walrus” before we called it a day.

After the team departed, I began posting the official announcements that this will be the final season of Tuning the Air.

[later that evening]

I was updating the Tuning the Air repertoire history document, and realized that "Bicycling to Afghanistan" has never been performed in a Tuning the Air show. A little surprising.

Performance team rehearsal

2011-09-20T23:24:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday, September 19, 2011 – Performance team rehearsal

Circulation night.

The assignment for tonight, along with everything else we need to stay on top of, was to have bars 1-17 of the B Minor Prelude ready to go. This is a circulated arrangement, so learning and practicing an individual part is a singularly academic exercise. Many of us have been practicing along with a recording by Glenn Gould, which at least gives the work some context. But it was clear from the moment we began to run the piece that none of us had actually heard it before. Our first attempt derailed pretty quickly, but for a moment the power of the arrangement was crystal clear. We took up the practical process of breaking down each statement of the theme and playing it until we could here our own parts within the whole. Then putting phrases together until we were able to reliably execute 17 bars of music. Stunning. My experience was that while the learning of a part like this is draining, physically and mentally, playing it with a group such as this (is there any other group such as this?) is energizing in the extreme.

During the break, Travis, Chris and Bob worked a bit on their arrangement of “Vashon Ferry”. I noticed that a section that could use a bass line, and Travis observed that he had the same thought. More on that in upcoming days.

The missing details for “Slow Burn” were next. The intro is yet to be rearranged, and we elected to skip over it for tonight. I had reconstructed the bass part, so as we ran the piece I was calling out changes to Greg. Then, on to the cascades for the middle section. Bob had come up with a harmonic scheme, which, on Jaxie’s suggestion, he had tweaked to create a rhythmically compelling set of arpeggios. We were each assigned our parts, consisting of 5-6 chord voicing per guitarist, to be played in an expanding “cascade”. We are familiar with the way the part works, but the particular voicings and the number of players is the new element. One interesting and challenging surprise was the way the circulation wraps around at the repeats, so that 3 of us are scrambling a bit. Doable. Not easy, but doable.

We ran the new arrangement of “Gnossienne” a number of times. For several passes I called out the Satie indications at the appropriate sections. The arrangement itself is challenging – no room for anything but full attention. The qualities that Satie ascribes help to move the overall arc of the piece in a much clearer flow.

Just before calling it a night, the Wilson Trio (Bob, Jaxie and Carl) wowed us with a stupendous rendition of “Tico Tico”.

Performance team rehearsal

2011-09-17T18:28:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Saturday, September 17, 2011 – Performance team rehearsal

Full performance team on hand for rehearsal in the performance space in the Great Hall at Fremont Abbey. The Music Director reiterated the list of pieces he would like up and running at opening night. Today was detail work on several pieces.

Most notably, “Gnossienne” turned a big corner. It began with some discussion about what the music was asking of us and how better to respond. A range of ideas. Travis made a suggestion that seemed to resonate; at least as a worthwhile experiment. A risky idea, but one that ensures that players are on their toes. Several passes through the arrangement, with minor modifications, and it was clear to all present that a new vibrancy had come into the piece. This may not be the final arrangement, if it isn’t, it is clearly a major step along the way.

Chris presented “Fallout” to the entire team. Those of us from the Wednesday group already had the skeleton and a number of parts. For part of the rehearsal, Chris and Bob worked out some of the lead parts that haven’t yet been written, filling in a number of gaps and sending Bob home with some material to work with in order to complete the rest. The form and general arrangement of the piece are in place, and we are on our way to taking it to the next stage.

Preliminary work on bringing “Slow Burn” back to readiness. It was debuted last season, but only performed in the last two shows, and so, along with “Hanging Gardens, Hanging Man”, has a special dispensation with respect to the “all new material” plan for the upcoming season. Most of the piece came back quickly. I will need to reconstruct my bass part for the “B” section, as it was not immediately in my hands. The biggest task is the reconstruction of the cascades in the middle. With the changes in personnel this part needs to be completely re-written. We took a stab at creating it within the circle, but it became apparent that this was going to be cumbersome and slow, so yet more homework for Bob, who volunteered to arrange it.

For the final half hour we ran a mini-set of the pieces currently up and running. It was smooth enough to be encouraging, and rough enough to remind us that we have our work cut out for us.

Next rehearsal, Monday evening. We are charged with being off-book on the first 17 bars of the Bach B Minor Prelude.

Performance team rehearsal

2011-09-15T23:48:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday, September 15, 2011 – Performance team rehearsal

Turning up the heat. Thursday rehearsals added between now and opening night. And tonight the full performance team was available, for the first time since our inaugural meeting on August 22, which seems like a very long time ago, somehow.

We walked through the entire working repertoire, to make sure everyone was up to speed. “Space Circus”, “Connecticut Yankee”, “Larks’ II”, “Mad World”. We ran each piece a number of times, generally with the metronome, focusing on details: what is the target tempo?, who is counting it in?, who are we looking to for cues?, as well as final bits of arrangement, part assignment and such.

We took a little time to present the works in progress: “Fallout”, “I Am The Walrus”. Some discussion on what the pieces need and how to move forward with them. “Tico Tico” was mentioned, but not presented tonight. “Little Red Truck” was presented. It is in its working form, with only a few part and arrangement details to be finalized.

We ended the evening with “Gnossienne”, finally putting a very patient oboist to work. We ran the piece and talked a bit about arrangement possibilities. We ran it a second time, with Mary Beth in the role of “narrator”; that is, calling out Satie’s musical indications. Mindfulness, alone, of these directions changed the quality of the ensemble work considerably. The idea of a voice calling out instructions, or someone holding up placards, or even projections within the performance itself was discussed, and not entirely unseriously. From there we moved on to a scheme in which groups of guitarists and the oboist exchanged the various phrases in a kind of call and response. The particular arrangement we tries was a little arbitrary, but the general sense emerged that this was the right direction to go. A couple of very powerful combinations were discovered and identified. More work is needed to find the rest, but a very significant step forward.

On Saturday we are once again (hooray) all back together, at Fremont Abbey. And for Monday’s rehearsal the Music Director asked us to all have the first 17 bars of Bob’s arrangement of the Bach B Minor Prelude ready to go.

Extracurricular group workout 4

2011-09-14T15:53:00.001-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Wednesday, September 14, 2011 – Extracurricular group workout 4

Once again, Greg, Chris, Mary Beth, Carl and Curt in the house for a couple hours of work on current and new repertoire.

We began with “Connecticut Yankee”, as Chris had not been able to be at Monday night’s rehearsal. Continuing to clarify and embody the parts. Some discussion of the various arrangement choices on the available recordings, and which ones we might adopt. We ran the piece several times, with and without the metronome.

We moved on “Little Red Truck”, which has not yet appeared in the full performance team rehearsals. Continued establishment of parts, as well as further refinements. This will probably be presented on Thursday.

“Larks’ Tongues” was next, at Greg’s request, just keeping it fresh. We took a little time to look at the cross-faded section, and a way come out of it with clarity and definition. Also, a decision about who to look to for the various cued entrances.

Curt suggested Chris’ new psycho-surf composition, “Fallout”, next. We had done some test runs on various sections last Wednesday, and with that information Chris had gone back to the drawing board. This week, although still in skeletal form, the shape and basic elements of the piece were in place. Chris reminded us of the parts that had survived the edits, and taught us the new parts. Through this process, a number of ideas flew by, and by the time we were done a working arrangement was beginning to emerge. Several big holes yet to be filled, and details to be decided, but the piece has clearly moved from sketch-of-an-idea to work-in-progress.

We touched, once again, on the intro to “I Am The Walrus” and ran it several times. Chris and I then did a rough-and-ready runthrough of the piece, as far as we could on the fly; Chris on the vocal line and myself on the guitar part.

With only a few minutes before Chris and Greg needed to leave, we ran “Gnossienne”, with a little discussion of the performance we did of it for Nigel on Saturday, and the next steps necessary to arrive at the right arrangement.

As Greg packed up his guitar, Carl, Chris and I to a stab at “Bicycling to Afghanistan” at a brisk but manageable tempo. Crashed and burned at F#. Personal work to do on this one.

Carl, Mary Beth and I spent another 20 minutes firming up the parts we had learned for “Fallout”, and running the coda to “Little Red Truck”, and then called it a day.

Full group rehearsal Thursday even

Performance team rehearsal

2011-09-12T23:45:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday, September 12, 2011 – Performance team rehearsal

Eight of us in the house. Chris had to work, and asked me to drive the rehearsal for this evening.

Travis is finally back from 2 weeks abroad on family business, so tonight’s rehearsal was largely dedicated to getting him up to speed on the material we have been working on in his absence.

We began with “Connecticut Yankee”. We learned this in a (relative) hurry on Saturday, and wanted to make sure that all of the parts, bits and pieces were solidly in hand. We began with some section work. I took the team playing the bass part off to another room, and we reviewed the parts, while the others cranked through the twisty chromaticism of the melodies. We regathered and ran the various sections for clarity, and then the entire piece. Tempo was a question. We worked at an intentionally slow tempo for this work, but the target tempo was in question. I settled on a fairly relaxed tempo to adopt for the time being. Later review of the various recorded versions indicate that it is traditionally performed at a much brisker pace. The trick to pulling it off has to do with playing relaxed – there is a certain frantic quality to the composition, but frantic-ness as a quality of the playing is guaranteed to kill the fun of the piece. Nigel is nothing if not completely at ease in his delivery of even the most complex passages, and this is the quality to aspire to as we move forward on this.

We moved on to “Mad World”. Travis’ part in this is not difficult, and he had it well in hand. A new part for Bob and Jaxie took a little time to work out. This was developed over a few runthroughs, largely with the metronome.

After a short break, we moved on to “Space Circus”. This was largely review for Travis, as we had worked on it with him before his departure. Several times through with the metronome.

To “Larks’ Tongues”. Travis had put in the work on his part for this over the summer, but had not yet played it together with the group. After a couple of times through, it all came back to him. We focused on several sections, moving toward clarity of parts, consensus on dynamics and feel, and simply working out the difficult bits.

As time ran out, we took one last shot at “Connecticut Yankee”… not quite there yet, but all of the elements intact.

Another extracurricular group workout on Wednesday afternoon. Thursday rehearsals begin this week. This will be the first time this season, since our opening meeting, that the entire performance team has been in the room at the same time.

Project practicalities lie ahead… house team, we still need a sound person, and there is a significant public announcement coming shortly.

Performance team work with Nigel Gavin

2011-09-10T16:00:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Saturday, September 10, 2011 – Performance team work with Nigel Gavin

The performance team met this morning at Fremont Abbey. It was our first time back in the performance space since the end of last season, and it felt good to get back home. Nigel Gavin, in town for a number of gigs, worked with us for then entire rehearsal.

When it was learned that Nigel would be in town and available, the first words out of the Music Director’s mouth were “Connecticut Yankee!”, and that was the focus of our work for the day.

We opened with a bit of circulation in C Major. Refreshing.

Nigel then began by performing a solo arrangement of the piece on his 7-string OST guitar. Very entertaining, and for those of us who are familiar with the ensemble arrangement as it was performed by the League in the early 90’s, there were a number of wonderful little turns and jokes in this arrangement that were delightful.

Nigel switched to the NST guitar, and we got down to the business of working through the piece section by section. A transcription of the piece – incomplete, but a useful beginning point – has been floating around, so many of the team were already familiar with the basic form at least, as well as some of the bits and pieces. I played the piece with the League, and with a little homework this week my part had reassembled itself, and I was able to lay down a reliable bass part as we learned the twisty chromatic melody bits. Many points of clarification in terms of fingerings, harmonies, and details of dynamics. Particularly fun was to watch and hear as Darlene, whose background is NOT in the “oral tradition” of learning music, managed to pick up these melodies on the oboe.

Once we had the first section up and running we took a short break. When we reconvened, Nigel asked us to play something for him. “Space Circus” and “Larks’ Tongues”. Nice to have a little verification that these pieces are now reliably performable.

On to the next part of “Yankee” – the marching arpeggios. This was pretty fast work. The final section – comprised of a kind of cascading polyrhythms – was the part we had the least understanding of going in. As is often the case, it is really quite simple; just not obvious. With that, the sense was that all of the bits and parts were residing somewhere in the collective knowledge of the group, and that we would be able to reconstruct everything in upcoming rehearsals. We ran the piece several times.

Another short break. Nigel performed one more piece for us. Chris asked him if he had any other material to present, and he brought out a harmonic sketch that he thought we might be able to take and develop into something. Referred to as “Spiral Up”, it is a set of modulating triads that, after 4 sequences, comes back to the beginning; a kind of harmonic ouroboros. We looked at a number of possibilities for variations, improvisations and development. At the end, he handed the handwritten sketch to the Music Director, who will scan and distribute it.

We closed the day’s work with a bit of circulation in F Minor.

A number of us are performing at a House Concert with Nigel this evening. Travis returns this weekend and will be onboard for Monday’s rehearsal. I’ll be sitting in directing the work that night, as the Music Director has to work, and I suspect that in addition to reviewing “Connecticut Yankee” to make sure that everything is in place, we will largely work with getting Travis up to speed on the work we’ve been doing in his absence.

Extracurricular group workout 3

2011-09-07T22:21:00.001-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Wednesday, September 6, 2011 – Extracurricular group workout 3

“Guinea Pig” day at the extracurricular group workout. Curt, Chris, Mary Beth, Carl, and Greg (just arrived back from Colorado this morning) in place for an afternoon largely of experimentation with new material.

Chris and I had been discussing the possibilities of “I Am The Walrus”. He had an arrangement in place for the intro, ready to hear in the circle. I spent some time yesterday and this morning looking at the voicings of the piano chords and adapting them for the guitar (in NST, that is no mean task). We were able to cobble together a working quintet arrangement of the intro and the first verse. Overall, although this is clearly not the final arrangement, we came away from the work with the clear sense that this is doable. Chris will begin to score the string sections and I am going to dive into the piano, guitar and bass parts. Since we have a special project set for Saturday’s rehearsal, and Chris is out for Monday’s rehearsal, it will probably be next Thursday before we get down to business in earnest, although we will have the next Wednesday extracurricular workout to test arrangements further.

After a short break, we came back together and took a look at a new section of Chris’ work in progress, “Fallout”; a twisted little bit of polyrhythm in a psycho-surf setting.

We ran Carl’s “Little Red Truck”, with Carl demonstrating the new “Bob and Jaxie” part for Greg and Chris to hear. Carl noticed a clash in one place between the new part and the melody, and took a moment to devise a solution. Chris and Carl looked at some improv options for the coda section, and I experimented with some coloration. Definite forward movement.

We ran “Larks’ Tongues” with the metronome several times, just because we really need to play this every time we get together. It is gelling very nicely.

Greg needed to depart. Before he left, we ran “Gnossienne”, once without the metronome and again with it. Some refinement among the melody players regarding phrasing.

We completed the session as a quartet. On to “Mad World”. Carl covered the “Bob and Jaxie part”, and I the chord accompaniment. On Monday I was left with a sense that something was missing in the arrangement, particularly during the verse. This morning I had the idea of Bob and Jaxie improvising a circulation using only chord tomes through the changes, during both the verses and the interludes. Chris and Carl took on the challenge of this circulation, while Mary Beth held down the melody and I the chords. For my ear, it sounded as though we had found the missing link. On Monday the piece felt like a lovely but slightly bright idea to me; today, a viable piece of repertoire.

We ended the day with several passes on “Space Circus”, with the metronome (this piece needs to be played with the metronome every time, for quite some time to come.)

As folks were packing their gear to go, we listened to “Space Circus Part II”, and a lively discussion ensued of the relative qualities of Bill Connors vs Al DiMeola.

Tomorrow, Nigel Gavin’s performance at Good Shepherd. Saturday, we work with Nigel on “Connecticut Yankee”.

Performance team rehearsal

2011-09-05T23:13:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday, September 5, 2011 – Performance team rehearsal

Seven onboard for a Labor Day rehearsal tonight. Travis and Greg out of town.

First up was “Little Red Truck”. Jaxie and Bob had not played it yet, so Carl outlined the form and details. The chord accompaniment is a kind of chugging, pulsing part, and there was concern that it would be muddy with too many people on it. We tried several strategies for addressing this. A new part for Bob and Jaxie emerged from this; a twisty little arpeggiated figure in the middle register that adds some depth harmonically and opens the piece up rhythmically. A few other minor additions; a bass line for me on the bridge, some higher register rhythmic improvised bits for Chris, all pointing to the potential for a bit of fun.

After a short break, we touched on the rest of the pieces currently in process. I brought Bob up to date on some refinements to the bass part in “Larks Tongues”. We looked at some dynamics possibilities, as well as the closing fanfare. Ran the piece several times with and without the metronome. “Space Circus” reviewed, refinements added, and work with the metronome. Both of these pieces are very close to ready.

On to “Mad World”. With Greg and Travis out, I covered the chord accompaniment, leaving Chris alone on the cello part. Bob and Jaxie had worked out a lovely set of fingerings for the hocketed arpeggio, allowing for the maximum amount of notes to ring. Very effective. With all parts present, we ran the piece several times. Some discussion of the fingering and articulation on the melody, with the aim of consistency amongst the players in order to tighten up the ensemble playing, as well as maximizing the lyricism of the melody. My sense was that we are up and ready on the arrangement as it was presented, but that there might be some tweaks yet to be discovered that will bring the piece together. Carl noted a wonderful symbiosis between the bass notes of the chord part and the cello. I also noticed a lovely rhythmic conversation between the arpeggio and the melody.

One runthrough of “Gnossienne” followed by a little conversation about next steps, and we called in a night.

On Thursday evening we have Nigel Gavin in town, performing at Good Shepherd. On Saturday Nigel with join us for our rehearsal. “A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur” is in the plan for that, along with anything else Nigel might care to share.

Saturday Rehearsal

2011-09-03T16:06:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Saturday, September 3, 2011 – Saturday Rehearsal

Performance team rehearsal once again at Curt’s place, from 9:30 to 12:30. Chris, Curt, Carl, Mary Beth, Taylor, and Greg; Travis, Bob and Jaxie out of town this weekend.

As we sat down, Carl’s “Little Red Truck” was clearly in the air, having been worked on at a recent Sgt Bones rehearsal, so that is where we began. We reviewed the form. This time Chris picked up the melody, and I moved to the chords. Once the skeleton of the form was in place and reliable, we began playing with additional bits; possible bass lines, places for improvisation, etc. This piece is now substantially in the group’s collective hands and ready for real rehearsal and refinement.

A little time dedicated to staying on top of “Larks II”. This is very solid, but needs to be played as often as possible. Carl and Taylor both observed that one particular transition seemed very weak – we play it well, so it was not an execution issue, but somehow it was harmonically unsatisfying and seemed to lose some steam at that moment. Looking closer, we realized that there was one wrong note being played in one of the guitar parts at that spot. Once that was corrected, things fell quickly into place.

We also ran “Space Circus I” several times. It is also substantially in our command. Keeping the tempo up and the overall feel light and dancing is the primary challenge. We continue to work with the metronome, in order to internalize the tempo.

From Chick Corea on to “Mad World”. Carl, Mary Beth and Taylor are on the melody, and they had done some work this week on both humanizing and standardizing the phrasing. Much improved from last week. Without Bob and Jaxie, I was again covering the arpeggio, so we have not heard the full effect yet. We excised a couple of bars from the first verse, to move the piece along a bit; repeated melodies are always an issue when arranging instrumental versions of vocal pieces – where the lyrics move the piece forward, but there is nothing changing in the melody.

Reviewed “Gnossienne”. This piece is also substantially in our pocket. A bit of discussion on how to articulate the grace notes; looking for the middle way between simple slurs and becoming “sing songy”. Work yet to do on Satie’s indications. We took note of these today, and discovered one or two things, but did not press the matter, electing to wait until we are a full group for that. Mary Beth identified one error in the way one of the melody lines was being played, and that was corrected.

Chris gave us a quick taste of a psycho-surf piece he is working on, entitled “Fallout”. He gave us some bits to play in order to hear it for himself, primarily.

Finally, a first stab at the “Cantina Band Song”. Very funny and silly. Fun to play. Needs to be cranked up a notch or two, tempo-wise, to really work. I began to work on some comping chords to fill out the Sgt Bones arrangement a bit.

In preparation for work we’ll be doing with Nigel next week, those of us who know parts did a very rough runthrough of “Connecticut Yankee”. Taylor has an old score that he will share.

Next rehearsal, Monday evening.

Extracurricular group workout 2

2011-08-31T17:07:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Wednesday, August 24, 2011 – Extracurricular group workout 2

Mary Beth, Greg, Chris, Carl and Curt met for 2 hours at Curt’s apartment again this afternoon to get a bit of extra work in.

Carl, Chris and I were first, and so we began by running a trio version of “LTiA”. Parts are solid, and it is primarily the ensemble-ness of the feel and phrasing that is in need of work at this point – that and some woodshedding on a couple of dodgy transitions. Greg and Mary Beth arrived and joined in. We looked a couple of timing questions and ran the piece several more times. I demonstrated a pull-off/hammer-on approach to a very quick bit in the bass part, but in practice it was not quite ready to be employed. Personal work for me on that.

We moved on to “Mad World”. Earlier in the week I had emailed part assignments to everyone, so we all arrived more or less knowing the parts, which are not difficult or complex in any case: 2 on the chord accompaniment, 3 on the melody, 2 on the hocketed arpeggio, and 2 on the cello. So everyone arrived knowing their part, and only needing clarity on the arrangement. I walked through it, and we played it several times. Bob and Jaxie are on the arpeggio, but were not at the rehearsal, and I covered that one for today so that we could hear the full arrangement. The most important work that presented itself as we got it up and running was the need for the melody players to establish their feel and phrasing as a group – it needs to be humanized (it is a vocal part, after all) and breathe, rather than and being mechanically in time.

We revisited “Gnossienne”, shoring up the arrangement and reviewing the melody. This is also not a technically difficult piece, but the feel and phrasing are make-or-break. For the next rehearsal, we will begin to incorporate Satie’s qualitative musical indications.

We did 2 or 3 runthroughs of “Space Circus”, tightening up the hocketed left hand. I also caught Chris up on a couple of refinements to the melody that Bob and I discovered at Monday’s rehearsal.

Before calling it a day, Carl began to present his composition, “Little Red Truck”. Without working to memorize parts, or even assign them at this stage, we simply walked through the bits, with everyone trying everything, in order to get a sense of where the piece might go. There is a lot of room for input and tasteful improvisation in the piece, and we will come back to it on Saturday.

Performance team rehearsal

2011-08-29T23:42:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday, August 29, 2011 – Performance team rehearsal

The performance team met at Bob and Jaxie’s home this evening. Travis and Chris were away with other commitments, so I was asked to drive the rehearsal. Bob and Jaxie were not at either Wednesday’s extracurricular group practice or Saturday’s rehearsal, so we focused on getting them up to speed on the pieces we addressed last week.

We began by showing them their parts for “Space Circus Part I”. Jaxie is in the pole position of the hocketed left hand part, while Bob will be joining Chris and me on the right hand melody. The piece is fairly simple, and in 30 minutes is was up and running.

The bulk of the rehearsal was then dedicated to “Larks’ Tongues Part II”. We walked through it section by section. Bob is joining me on the bass part, and Jaxie on one of the guitar parts. Details of timing and fingering addressed. One feature of this piece has been reconciling the ways we individually understand and experience the pulse and timing, and that was again a topic of some discussion. The piece rather quickly came functionally together, and by the break (which was somewhat later than usual) we were managing “hell or high water” renditions with only minor disasters.

With everyone now at the same place on these to pieces, they move out of nuts and bolts and into rehearsal mode.

After the break we addressed Satie’s “Gnossienne”. Greg walked Bob and Jaxie through the melody – simple to learn, but requiring a lot attention to feel and phrasing; especially as six players (and an oboist, when available?) will need to phrase as a unit. For those of us who first learned this on Saturday, an opportunity to practice and get a better understanding of the whole. For the next phase, we will begin to look at Satie’s musical indications, which include directions for individual passages such as “Très luisant (Shining)”, “Questionnez (Questioning)”, “Du bout de la pensée (From the tip of the thought)”, and “Postulez en vous-même (wonder about yourself)”.

We had time to run each of the three pieces once more before we called it a night.

Another opportunity for extracurricular group work at my place on Wednesday, and then full group rehearsal on Saturday.

Saturday Rehearsal

2011-08-27T15:17:00.001-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Saturday, August 27, 2011 – Saturday Rehearsal

Performance team rehearsal at Curt’s place from 9:30 to 12:30 this morning. Chris, Curt, Carl, Mary Beth, Taylor, Greg and Travis on board; Bob and Jaxie out of town this weekend.

Following up on the Wednesday extracurricular rehearsal, we began with “Space Circle Part I”. We got Travis and Taylor, who were not available on Wednesday, up to speed on parts, and got the arrangement up on its feet. Thirty minutes or so and it was sounding presentable. It needs to be played at a reliable 110 bpm, with the hocketed “left hand” parts both flowing and blending. Chris and Curt, on melody, began to hone the phrasing. Bob will join us on this part, and Jax will join the left hand, and so we should have everyone up to speed by Monday’s rehearsal.

Next to “Larks’ Tongues”. This was a bit more work. Much improved from Wednesday, but there is more to do. A number of the players are still relying on the sheet music for this one, and the Music Director made it unambiguously clear that in order to get an entire set of new material up, running and presentable by opening night, we need to arrive at every rehearsal with a command of our individual parts, so that we can focus our limited time together on group work rather than personal practice. By the end of the rehearsal, the piece was playable in its entirety – not great art, but with practical competence.

After a break, we began with a quick discussion about “Chant from a Holy Book”, with Curt observing that on a practical level it is probably something for a duo (a trio with Darlene on oboe when she is available) rather than a full group piece. We then moved on to three smaller pieces. A Curt presented the basics of “Mad World”; primarily so that the group could hear it, get a picture of how it might be arranged, and make a decision about whether to pursue it or drop it. The Music Director said “pursue it.” Next, we jumped in on “Slow Burn”, just to see what we had retained. Although it is technically a piece we have performed before, it appeared late last season and was only performed twice, so (along with “Hanging Gardens…”) it has been deemed “new material”. Some discussion of how to approach the cascades in the middle section. The Sgt Bones team (Greg, Mary Beth and Carl) then presented “Gnossienne” by Eric Satie. We all learned the melody, with some discussion about phrasing and articulation. Curt, Carl and Travis gravitated to the chord accompaniment, and after a few runthroughs, a working arrangement emerged.

We closed with one more runthrough of both “Space Circus” and “Larks’ Tongues”, both of which held together remarkably well.

The Music Director will not be at rehearsal on Monday, so Curt will sub for that role. We will spend as much time as necessary getting Bob and Jaxie up to speed on the material we have been working on this week, and if time permits we will then begin to look at what the next batch of material to be addressed might be.

Extracurricular group workout

2011-08-24T15:24:00.001-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Wednesday, August 24, 2011 – Extracurricular group workout

Mary Beth, Greg, Chris, Carl and Curt met for 2 hours at Curt’s apartment this afternoon to get a bit of extra work in. We will continue this, weekly and open to anyone who can get away from work in the afternoon, until the show opens on October 6.

First, Curt presented his arrangement of Chick Corea’s “Space Circus Part I”. All of the parts were represented in this quintet, so we were able to work through and learn the entire arrangement, and get it up to the working target tempo of 110bpm.

After a short break, we began to address Martin DeAguirre’s arrangement of “Lark’s Tongues In Aspic Part II”. We are going to get the piece up and running in its entirety and then, from what we hear, make some decisions about editing. It will be a while before it is up and running.

Next rehearsal is Saturday morning.

Working Repertoire List

2011-08-23T12:37:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Tuesday, August 23, 2011 – Working Repertoire list

Following up from the opening meeting, the Music Director compiled this list of potential repertoire to be explored for Season Twelve:

Ahhh Water (Bob and Jax)
Balancing Act III (Greg)
Bicycling to Afghanistan
Blinded Me With Science
Breathless
Cantina Song
Chant from a Holy Book
Constellations (MB)
Driving Force
Fallout (Chris)
Gnossienne (Satie)
Hanging Gardens, Hanging Man
I Am the Walrus
I Will
Larks’ Tongues In Aspic Part II
The Little Red Rruck (Carl)
Mad World
Prelude from Well-Tempered Clavier
Slow Burn
Space Circus Part I
Tico Tico
Vashon Ferry (Travis)

Opening meeting and first rehearsal for Season Twelve

2011-08-22T23:45:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday, August 22, 2011 – Opening meeting and first rehearsal for Season Twelve

The performance team met to rehearse at Bob and Jaxie’s this evening. In addition to the 9 guitarists who will be performing in the circle weekly, oboist Darlene Franz who will sit in on as many performances as her schedule will allow was there. Also our resident Ears, Bill R, was present.

Bill opened the meeting with a surprise, a recipe he has been working with for a traditional “Salad”. That, and the necessary accompanying libation, made it an unusual rehearsal to be sure.

Chris opened with the rehearsal schedule for the preseason, and some discussion about who will be out when, and some of the variables for Tech rehearsals depending on when the Abbey is available. His plan is to do all new material this season, and he had asked us to come prepared with compositions, arrangements, and suggestions for new pieces to be considered. We went around the room and shared what we had brought with us. About 20 pieces were put on the table.

After a short break, we reconvened with guitars and oboes, and looked at the state of the pieces under consideration. Several are existing “small group” pieces that are substantially up and running, and the only question is whether or not they will be expanded to include more players. Others are still very much on the drawing board, and only some examples of parts or sections could be demonstrated. Still others are more or less ready to go, but would have involved a fair amount of learning to get up in the group, and will be allowed to emerge within the rehearsal process. All pieces are in the audition stage, and it will be several weeks before we begin to make decisions about them. Bob has a circulated arrangement of a Bach Fugue that we learned and ran several bars of, as a kind of “proof of concept”; very energizing.

The first rehearsal is always a bit daunting, as the work ahead of us looms large and seems insurmountable. This first rehearsal was no exception. Nearly seven years of experience assures us that we will get it done and we WILL be ready. But at this stage it is always a bit difficult to imagine how.

Email from the music director

2011-08-10T09:20:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Wednesday, August 10, 2011 – Email from the music director

I have had a very strong feeling that we need to begin together. Curt will be out of town on Sat Aug 20th. I propose we begin with a rehearsal on Monday Aug 22. Curt will be back for this.

Now for the fun part. I am asking that everyone come prepared with one piece of new music - original or not - completed or not. The first step we take this season will set the tone for the whole.

Tuning the Air Autumn 2011 Season

2011-08-05T23:13:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Friday August 5, 2011 – Tuning the Air Autumn 2011 Season

The next season of Tuning the Air is on the calendar:

We will open on October 6 and run through December 15, 2011 at the Fremont Abbey Arts Center, 4272 Fremont Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103. Shows every Thursday at 8pm, doors open at 7:45. There will no performance Thanksgiving Day, Thursday November 24.

For a number of reasons, I have the sense that this is a season that needs to be documented, so I am going to revibrate the blog. Rehearsal begins at the end of August. For now, this will have to do... Roberto Duse's design for the season.

Stay tuned.

Tuning the Air History - Performance Number Zero

2011-06-26T09:04:00.000-07:00

Looking back on "Performance Number Zero"; on February 21, 2005, we did a "one time only" test of the feasibility of performance in the circle. The room we occupied at Trinity Church in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle was set up to feel like a living room, with floor lamps for lighting, and a mountain of pillows and cushions on the floor for our audience. The audience was largely made up of friends and family. We simply billed it as An Evening of Music for Large Guitar Ensemble.

Performing that evening were:

Jaxie Binder
Andrew Boscardin
Chris Gibson
Curt Golden
Dean Jensen
Greg Meredith
Travis Metcalf
Taylor Sherman
Howard Snyder
Bob Williams

Of the 10 guitarists who performed in show #0, 7 are still with the company and will be performing in show #215 [in the interest of full disclosure, only 7 of the guitarists will be performing on Thursday. The eighth recently suffered an injury that has temporarily sidelined him as a guitarist, and so he will be running the sound for the the June 30 show - ed.].

It was some time after this show, when the commitment was made to pursue this project for an extended run, that we arrived at the name, "Tuning the Air". During the naming process, founding producer Frank Sheldon presented us with one of several ultimatums: this one to find and agree upon the right name for the production, or else it would default to "Guitar-O-Sphere".

Here is the setlist for Tuning the Air #0. Where it indicates "shift", certain players would get up and move to different seats in a highly choreographed maneuver, in order to be in a better position to play particular pieces of music. This harkened back to the very first guitar circle performance which took place in the ballroom of the mansion at Claymont Court near Charles Town, WV, on March 30, 1985. TTA Producer Frank Sheldon had been in the audience for that performance, and was much impressed with this simple and elegant gesture, which he felt demonstrated a level of intentionality and attention to detail in every aspect of the show.

Music for Large Guitar Ensemble
February 21, 2005
Seattle, WA, USA

Circulation in C Major
Voices of Ancient Children (Curt, Travis, Chris)
Batrachomyomachy
Not My Sharona
~~shift~~
Where Is The Nurse
Growing Circle
Butterfly
~~shift~~
Lylli in Africa (Greg Meredith)
How Many Times? (The Extended Wilsons)
Corelli Giga
~~shift~~
Where It Goes
One of a Thousand Regrets
Prelude XXII in G Minor
Eye of the Needle
Asturias
49 Notes

A bit of consolidated Tuning the Air History Part III

2011-05-23T11:47:00.000-07:00

Here is how we got there:

2005: Apr 11-Dec 26, TTA 1-38, 38 Mondays (without fail) at Trinity Church
2006: Mar 06-Dec 18, TTA 39-80, 42 Mondays at Trinity Church
2007: Feb 19-Jul 2, TTA 81-100, 20 Mondays at Trinity Church
2007: Sep 10-Oct 8, TTA 101-105, 5 Mondays at Trinity Church
2007: Oct 15-Dec 15, TTA 106-115, 10 Mondays at Capitol Hill Arts Center
2008: Apr 4-Jul 21, TTA 116-130, 15 Mondays at Fremont Abbey Arts Center (Café)
2008: Sep 18-Dec 11, TTA 131-141, 11 Thursdays at Fremont Abbey (Café)
2009: Feb 5-Jun 25, TTA 142-162, 21 Thursdays at Fremont Abbey (Café)
2009: Sep 24-Dec 17, TTA 163-173, 11 Thursdays at Fremont Abbey (Great Hall)
2010: Apr 15-Jul 1, TTA 174-185, 12 Thursdays at Fremont Abbey (Great Hall)
2010: Oct 7-Dec 16, TTA 186-195, 10 Thursdays at Fremont Abbey (Great Hall)
2011: Feb 10-Jun 30, TTA 196-215, 4 Thursdays at Fremont Abbey (Great Hall)
2011: Oct 6-Dec 15, TTA 216-225, 10 Thursdays at Fremont Abbey (Great Hall)

Notes:

Performing “every week, without fail” was and is part of our mission. There have been one or two exceptions:

Our one and only ever canceled show was Dec 18, 2008, due to snow (in Seattle!)
When we moved the show to Thursdays, we made the obvious decision not to schedule performances on Thanksgiving.
On Oct 29, 2009, Tuning the Air gave up its scheduled performance in order to host and perform with Robert Fripp and the Orchestra of Crafty Guitarists, in the Great Hall at Fremont Abbey Arts Center.

A bit of consolidated Tuning the Air History Part II

2011-05-23T11:39:00.000-07:00

Since our first show on April 11, 2005, quite a number of people have contributed. Some have been here from the beginning. Others were with us for a period of time, and then moved on. Some are involved full-time. Others are on call, for when we need them the most. Players. Dancers. Lighting. Sound. Staging. House. Every one is essential.

Mary Beth Abel
Igor Abuladze
Micah Arvey
Sandra Bain Cushman
Igor Bekker
Ian Bessler
Jaxie Binder
Andrew Boscardin
Andy Boyd
Jim Breslin
Robin Brezinski
Tobin Buttram
Charles Corley
Sruti Desai
Trey Donovan
Christina Florkowski
Darlene Franz
Tony Geballe
Carl Germain
Chris Gibson
Meleah Gibson
Hank Hadeed
Dean Jensen
David Lavallee
Gene Lee
Andrew McNutt
Greg Meredith
Stani Meredith
Travis Metcalf
JT Milhoan
Aimee Page
Joel Palmer
Ingrid Pape-Sheldon
Elisabeth Perrin
Bill Rieflin
Frank Sheldon
Taylor Sherman
Howard Snyder
Diana Snyder-Garcia
Rob Taylor-Manning
Steve Turnidge
Miles Weishampel
Zachariah Weissman
Ryan Wik
Bob Williams

A bit of consolidated Tuning the Air History Part I

2011-05-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

Updated 5/23/2011: As we move into the final weeks of the Winter/Spring season, at the midpoint of our 7th year, 209 performances in total, these are the pieces that have been performed:

49 Notes
A Day In The Life
Aquarela do Brasil
Asturias
Bach Two-Part Invention #4
Bach Two-Part Invention #8
Batrachomyomachy
Blockhead
Bloed Spoed
The Bus Artist
Butterfly
Candor
Chacarera
Chiara
The Children's Hour
Children's Song I
Corelli Giga
Cultivating the Beat
Deserted
Driving Force
Eleanor Rigby
Eve
Eye of the Needle (Guitar Craft Theme III)
Fragments of Skylab
Geographical Fugue
Growing Circle
Hanging Gardens, Hanging Man
How Many Times?
Ikada-Jima
Ikada-Jima Improv - Circulation w/Koto
Ikada-Jima Improv - Circulation w/Koto and dance
In My Room
Invocation
Invocation (Guitar Craft Theme I)
Kashmir
King for a Day
La Rueda
Labrynth
Lament
Little Gangsters
Long Ago Today
Lost Pedro III - Return to Paradise
Lullaby (Solaris Project)
Lylli in Africa
Mars Effect
Melrose Avenue
Mevlevi Greeting
Music for a Found Harmonium
My Precious Dream
Neptune
Ninth Guitar E
Not My Sharona
One of a Thousand Regrets
Onyx
Oroborus
Peace Piece
Pipeline
Prayer of Gratitude 22
Prelude XXII in G Minor
San Justino
San Justino w/dance
Scorched Air
Sigh and a Kiss
Sleep Dirt
Slow Burn
Space Zombies! From Outer Space! w/Joel
Thrak
Trapiche (including the Cloud of Unknowing)
Trapiche w/dance
Twilight
Violin Partita Number 3 in E Major
Voices of Ancient Children
Voices of Ancient Children w/dance
Vrooom
Wedgewood Blue
Where Is The Nurse?
Where It Goes (We Go)
The Wig Maker

Thursday February 10, 2011 – Season 11 Opening Night!

2011-02-10T23:50:00.000-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday February 10, 2011 – Season 11 Opening Night!

Tuning the Air #196
February 10, 2011
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle WA

The set:

Neptune
Eye of the Needle
The Children’s Hour
Vrooom

Spontaneous Composition in G Phrygian w/Joel
Prayer of Gratitude 22

Mary Beth Address Audience

Spiral Circulation Ab Major
Twilight

Improvised Composition with 3 Rotating Sections
A Day in the Life
Voices of Ancient Children

Spontaneous Composition in G Lydian w/Darlene
Invocation
Space Zombies! From Outer Space! w/Joel

Encore:

Chacarera

Full Team Circle with Frank and Performance Team Rehearsal with Bill and Frank

2011-01-29T19:33:00.000-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Saturday January 28, 2011 – Full Team Circle with Frank and Performance Team Rehearsal with Bill and Frank

Carl and Bob out today. For the full team circle, the remaining 8 from the performance team were joined by Joel and Bill. Frank continued with the exercise he presented last week, but this time instead of passing objects around the circle – “This is a ball.” A what?” “A ball.” “A what?” “A ball.” “oh, a ball.” – we passed around notes - “This is a (plunk).” A what?” “A (plunk).” “A what?” “A (plunk).” “oh, a (plunk).” In some ways this was more difficult since the “identity” of the object was not as self-evident. On the other side of the ledger, we are musicians and we are accustomed to solving musical problems, and when approached that way we managed to discover the groove of the exercise. Remaining awake, of course, was as elusive as ever, but Frank gave us good opportunity to find ways to continue to come back.

The second hour was a series of grueling ear training exercises inflicted by Bill. These are the sorts of things I put the Music Lab through on a regular basis, but rarely do I find myself in the circle dealing with them. It was a welcome change. Tough stuff, and humbling.

For the final segment of the day we addressed Invocation – not the Guitar Craft Theme of the same name, but the Bill Rieflin composition once performed by the Seattle Guitar Circle. Along with the Shostakovich Prelude, an piece of shelved repertoire that has called to Chris for resuscitation. Not an easy piece. Chris proposed that we take on the challenge of having it ready for opening night, even if it is only a trio rendition. Dmitri will take a bit longer.

Monday is “dress rehearsal” night at the Abbey, which really means we will do a full setup, and then run the likely pieces for opening night, although not necessarily in the final set order.

First Tech Rehearsal

2011-01-27T23:04:00.000-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday January 27, 2011 – First Tech Rehearsal

A little early, perhaps, to jump into tech, but Fremont Abbey is a busy working space and we need to take whatever nights that are available. So our opportunities to get into the performance space and work out the details are coming early this season; tonight and next Monday. As it turned out, this was fortuitous. With two new players who have not performed in a circle this large, in this space, lightly amplified, with lights that shift with the music, this was a great opportunity to address the challenges.

All of our gear was in storage at the Abbey, so there was no need to load anything in. We simply arrived at 6pm, more or less like any gig night. We gathered, looked at the tasks, and then went into action. Lights, sound and house materials brought downstairs. We had a basic plan. We would set up the room as if it was a gig night, except that the audience would be represented by just a few strategically placed chairs. A couple of on-the-fly re-thinks. We needed to take a look at the arrangement of the players in the circle. There will be 10 instead of 9, but for the first 2 shows there will be 11. Moving guest artist Tony to a slightly different spot made more sense, and that involved shifting everyone one notch to the right. The other change involved a notion I have had off and on for some time, to move the tech table (lights and sound) as well as Joel from their previous position in the SW corner just inside the entrance to the SE corner adjacent to the green room door. Travis and I tossed the pros and cons around, and decided to go for it, just to see how it would work.

Set-up was a breeze. By 7pm we were ready to soundcheck. That went well, too, although it took a bit more tweaking than usual since none of us are in the channels we occupied last year.

We began the rehearsal by working with Joel on Space Zombies! From Outer Space! With the new setup, Joel felt to me must less set apart from the performance team. We worked on a bit of improv, with the idea of Joel taking part in some of those as well. About 8pm we took a break. Joel packed his gear and headed out to the C3 gig. Charles had completed the inventory of house items and necessities, and so he departed as well.

The performance team worked on Neptune, which has come together quite nicely – not quite ready for primetime, but certainly by opening night! On to Children’s Hour. For the new guys, operating in a circle of this diameter is a challenge, and delivering circulated parts in reliable time is the most challenging of all. It was good to begin addressing this early. Good progress. We played with some of the potential of a reformulated spiral circulation. No final decisions, but some interesting possibilities. That led pretty naturally to a runthrough of Twilight. Nothing particularly revelatory there. Right now neither Carl nor Greg are playing on it, so it is really just a matter of the established performance team adjusting to the new seating (well, standing) arrangement. On a personal level, I’m very happy to be on Bob’s right for this one. We did some nuts and bolts work on A Day In The Life, working in Carl who is taking on Ian’s part. Then we ran the piece. It sounded very good, and the two orchestral sections were positively ferocious. We quickly had a look at the voicing of the final E Major chord. Time was about up, so we ran Neptune one more time, and called it a night. With no audience seating to strike, and the lobby already packed up, we had the Abbey restored to neutral in only about 15 minutes. A quick gathering in the circle for completion, a little feedback, and review of the plan for the next couple of rehearsals.

Performance Team rehearsal

2011-01-24T23:15:00.000-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday January 24, 2011 – Performance Team rehearsal

A solid nuts and bolts rehearsal. All about igniting repertoire, adapting arrangements for one performer who has moved on and two who have come onboard for this season.

We worked largely on Neptune, putting Carl in the unenviable position of picking up a part almost entirely comprised of zithers and cascades. He more than rose to the challenge. In addition to Carl jumping in on a new part, the new performance team seating arrangement means that we all have to adapt to highly orchestrated zithers and circulations where we are not necessarily sitting in the order the parts are played. This is going to be a very interesting treat for the audience. For the players, a major challenge.

Also addressed were A Day In The Life and Children’s Hour. The part in ADITL that needs to be covered is an accompaniment, kind of in the viola territory, and technically pretty easy, although one section still requires a bit of research to recreate correctly. The primary challenge is for the section to play together with unanimity in the attack and feel. That comes in part from being as clear as possible with the intention of the part, but largely from hours of playing together, and that takes time. Likewise, the part that needed covering in Children’s Hour is a simple circulation, not terribly challenging from a technical standpoint, but it is a part that defines the feel of the piece, and as such it needs to be just exactly right every time.

Plans for Thursday’s tech rehearsal were discussed, as well as a retreat we are organizing for ourselves next autumn.

Two weeks to opening. Hitting that point in the process where the task feels impossible, while all of our experience tells us it will be done.

Full Team Circle with Frank and Performance Team Rehearsal with Bill and Frank

2011-01-22T17:38:00.000-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Saturday January 22, 2011 – Full Team Circle with Frank and Performance Team Rehearsal with Bill and Frank

Another good turnout for the sitting. For me, not quite the solid experience I had last week, but there you go.

The full company Circle amounted to the performance team plus Bill today, with no one from the house team joining in.

For the first hour, we worked with Frank, without guitars. He put us through a couple of exercises designed to activate the attention. Some of it was silly, most of it was fun, and all of it struck the nail on the head in a very essential way. Observations from the team spoke to the real work of the Circle, and the repercussions permeated the work for the rest of the day.

Next, to work with Bill, who is directing us in exercises to sharpen our improvisations. For this hour we worked largely on variations on a basic ear training exercise involving circulating using specific intervals. I think this was not easy for anyone. The final circulation, which was free except when Bill called for a specific intervallic parameter, had a quality that was very much what we always aspire to. It had the quality of intention, and yet flowed and breathed freely. Very promising.

For the last hour we moved on to repertoire, we ran a number of pieces, making sure all parts were covered and doing a bit of detail work. A certain hint of the sharpness we demand in performance began to appear in the playing. A Day In The Life, Prayer of Gratitude, Twilight and Space Zombies! From Outer Space were all addressed in some detail. Chris put Invocation (Bill’s piece from the Seattle Guitar Circle CD, not the GC theme) on the table as something to get into the set this season.

Performance Team Rehearsal

2011-01-17T23:40:00.000-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday January 17, 2011 – Performance Team Rehearsal

The plan for this season (subject to the necessary) is to use our Saturdays for full company circles and improv work, and Mondays for repertoire-focused rehearsal. This was the first opportunity for the newly expanded performance team to sit down and work together. Unfortunately Jaxie was down with a fever, but with Bob running upstairs from time to time to check on her and to deliver bowls of soup, her presence was in the circle. Chris came with a new seating arrangement in mind, not only incorporating the new players, but shaking up things for the others as well. Purely coincidentally (or so Chris claims), the 2 married couples in the group are now sitting together. Some humorous musings about whether or not this is wise. As we worked through the current repertoire, we made notes about what might require reorchestration for this seating arrangement. We also looked at the parts will need to be reassigned in light of Ian’s absence. We played everything we could. As is typical for the first rehearsal, some pretty stupendous train wrecks; all taken with good humor, at least this week; next week it won’t be quite so funny. Carl and Greg largely sat out, observing and listening, and making note of places where they might be able to contribute. They are not asked to jump in and learn a lot of repertoire at this stage, but rather to focus on circulation and the improvs, and to take on repertoire only as and when it calls to them.

Some discussion of our observations from the improv work we did on Saturday. Chris asked me to re-present one of the Chick Corea pieces. I presented the basics of Children’s Song. It is a very simple (not to be confused with “easy”) piano piece, consisting of an ostinato left hand and a lovely melody in the right hand. As I envision it for guitars, each hand is actually arranged for 2 players. But for tonight I simply taught everyone both hands as single parts so that we could quickly get a grasp on the sound, feel and form.

Chris also proposed the return of the Shostakovich prelude to the performance repertoire. This certainly got me enthusiastic, and we took a look at how best to arrange it for the current team and the new arrangement of players in the circle. Carl and Greg will join Travis and myself on the left hand part. The other six will take on the circulated right hand. In the earlier arrangement, we circulated the melody around a 6-pointed star formation. Inside the circle, this was a stunning auditory experience. But the new seating arrangement does not support this geometry. Chris asked me to consider an arrangement for this group, and one immediately presented itself. We just took on the first bar and repeated it in order to test the feasibility of the scheme. I took Jaxie’s seat for this, and it seemed a practical solution that still takes advantage of the 3-dimensionality of the performance; more of an arrow than a star. I got Carl to take Jaxie’s seat so that I could sit in the middle of the circle and hear the movement, which I found very satisfying. Taking Chris’ seat, he sat in the middle and listened as well, approving the plan. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for this to come together. Except for Mary Beth, everyone circulating the melody has done it before. Unfortunately, or maybe not, only Lucky Howard is going to be playing a part he has performed before. We shall see.

Scores will be flying around the team as we get back up to speed on our known parts and dive into the new parts. Opening night is only 3 weeks away!

Tuning the Air Season 11 Opening Meeting and Guitar Circle

2011-01-15T23:46:00.000-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Saturday January 15, 2011 – Tuning the Air Season 11 Opening Meeting and Guitar Circle

Good morning turnout. Ten in for the morning sitting at my place. Sitting in a group is qualitatively different than sitting alone. Sitting as part of an established personal practice is essential for us, and if that is alone, it is never really alone; we are connected by the commitment to the practice. For me, it is always apparent when we are at a point of Hazard in a process, because I find I am experiencing heavy resistance to maintaining the practice. I obviously can’t speak for anyone else, but it inevitably happens that at these points there is also a drastic drop off in attendance for the group sittings.

About the middle of the half hour a profound Silence descended. The flavor is always unmistakable. Much more than simply quiet, although the baseboard heater and the refrigerator were blissfully dormant at the time, and traffic in the neighborhood seemed to have ceased. Silence doesn’t actually require quiet, but when they coincide it is a little easier to notice, and a lot easier to enjoy. This kind of Silence, in my experience, tends to appear when sitting in a group more than when I am alone. I don’t actually know what the mechanics are, but for me it as if we collectively summon it. Or, perhaps, a group is more capable of generating the energy required to open up a space for it. Something like that, at least subjectively.

A bit of excitement as we moved to Fremont Abbey for rehearsal. First, the parking lot we usually use is no longer available, so parking was a little extra challenging, even on a Saturday morning. We need to take this into account on show nights. Then, just to keep things interesting, when I arrived and had found an ideal parking place, I realized that over the holiday I had removed the Abbey key from my overburdened key chain, so I had to abandon my ideal parking place in order to rush back home for the key.

Nevertheless, we were all there and gathered for the opening meeting. The first hour was without guitars. We welcomed 2 new players to the performance team, and acknowledged that we also have one departure. So, we are up one in the aggregate. It will be 10 performers for the first time since our first season. Still not the 12 that has always been my wish, but on the way. For the first couple of shows Tony will be in town, so we will be eleven. So close! For this season we have 10 shows and then a week off (the church needs the space for Easter week activities) and then 10 more weeks. A good run. Not the 40 weeks we did the first two years, but a substantial commitment. Very likely, the week before the Easter break we will have as many as 20 3rd and 4th graders joining us!

The biggest challenge for us is going to be practicalities. We have effectively raided the house team in the expansion of the performance team, so we are shorthanded. Some discussion of how this is going to be addressed. We are also without a publicist this season (she took on a real job with real pay), and so there are a lot of tasks to be filled. As Mary Beth expressed it, this needs to be an “all hands on deck” season, with everyone taking on additional responsibilities. Everyone involved is overcommitted to begin with, and this is not going to be easy. Necessary, but not easy.

A short break, and we moved to the circle with guitars; the full newly reconstituted performance team plus Joel, Bill and Rob. Without instruction, we opened with a circulation that, if such a thing can be considered a portent, spoke very well for a musical and creative season. Music was present from the very first note, the every evolution and variation organic and inevitable.

Bill will be working with the full company and the performance team this season on ways of practicing/rehearsing improvised pieces. This is something we have not addressed a lot in rehearsal. The collective experience and coherence of the group (the core of which has been playing together for about 12 years now) can be relied upon to make musical choices when the time comes. So rehearsal time has focused on the composed material. But the general observation at the end of last season was that if we aspire to taking the improvised part of the set up an octave, we need to find ways to practice improvising.

With that in mind we bounced around a number of exercises, games and strategies for generating improvs. It is apparent that when we set ourselves some simple parameters, we are a lot clearer in our statements and responses, and more musical in general. The specific nature of the parameter is almost irrelevant. It seems that if we can manage to cultivate a repertoire of improv strategies, it will serve to give us a somewhat higher platform to take off from. A couple of surprisingly simple possibilities suggested themselves as we worked this morning.

A good beginning.

Tuning the Air winter hiatus

2011-01-04T11:35:00.001-08:00

Beginning a daily regimen of reviewing and practicing parts and repertoire, including pieces that we have not performed in some time, in preparation for a new Tuning The Air season that will feature the most radical realignment of the performance team ever.

Tuning the Air #195

2010-12-16T23:55:00.000-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday December 16, 2010 – Tuning the Air #195

Tuning the Air #195
December 16, 2010
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle WA

Final performance of 2010.

The set:

Joel Palmer: Tuning the Space

Neptune
Vrooom
The Children's Hour
Cultivating the Beat

Selection from the Hat: Step away from the strings

A Day in the Life

Travis Address Audience

Spiral Circulation Ab Major
Twilight

Eve

Selection from the Hat: Press 9 for access to the roof
Ninth Guitar E
Prayer of Gratitude #22
Spontaneous Composition in F# Lydian
Space Zombies! From Outer Space! w/Joel

Encore:

Chacarera
Eye of the Needle

Tuning the Air #194

2010-12-09T23:32:00.000-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday December 9, 2010 – Tuning the Air #194

Tuning the Air #194
December 9, 2010
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle WA

The set:

Neptune
Vrooom
The Children's Hour
Cultivating the Beat
Selection from the Hat: A Beautiful Noise
A Day in the Life

Travis Address Audience

Spiral Circulation Ab Major
Twilight
Eve
Selection from the Hat: A Walk Across a Frozen Pond
Ninth Guitar E
Prayer of Gratitude #22
Spontaneous Composition in A Minor
Space Zombies! From Outer Space! w/Joel

Encore:

Chacarera

Tuning the Air #193

2010-12-02T23:44:00.000-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday December 2, 2010 – Tuning the Air #193

Tuning the Air #193
December 2, 2010
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle WA

Gustav Holst makes his Tuning the Air debut!

The set:

Neptune
Vrooom
The Children's Hour
Cultivating the Beat

Selection from the Hat: Opening Pandoras Box

A Day in the Life

Travis Address Audience

Spiral Circulation Ab Major
Twilight

Eve

Selection from the Hat: The Pharaoh’s Cat at the Carnival
Ninth Guitar E
Selection from the Hat: Sneaking up on Sunrise
Spontaneous Composition in A Minor w/Oboe
Space Zombies! From Outer Space! w/Joel

Encore:

Chacarera

What Actually Was On Tap

2010-11-20T23:59:00.000-08:00

What Actually Was On Tap
for the blues band house concert/recording session
Saturday November 20, 2010

The set was entirely called on the fly, with input from the (very supportive) audience. Some pieces were repeated for the recording.

Set 1:

Opening Blues
Dust My Broom
Little Red Rooster
Deep Elem Blues
Born Under A Bad Sign
Built For Comfort
First Train Home
Two Trains Running
Sound The Bell
Wang Dang Doodle
How Blue Can You Get?

Set 2:

Deep Elem Blues
Boom Boom
It Hurts Me Too
Wang Dang Doodle
Messin' With The Kid
How Blue Can You Get?
Mean Town Blues
Little Red Rooster
Dust My Broom

What Might Be On Tap

2010-11-20T00:23:00.000-08:00

What Might Be On Tap
for the blues band house concert/recording session
Saturday November 20, 2010

In alphabetical order...

Boom Boom (John Lee Hooker)
Born Under A Bad Sign (Booker T Jones/William Bell)
Built For Comfort (Willie Dixon)
Deep Elem Blues (Traditional)
Dust My Broom (Robert Johnson)
First Train Home (Peter Green)
Going Down Slow (James Burke Oden)
How Blue Can You Get? (Leonard Feather)
It Hurts Me Too (Elmore James)
Little Red Rooster (Willie Dixon)
Mean Town Blues (Johnny Winter)
Messin’ With The Kid (Junior Wells)
Sittin’ On Top Of The World (Walter Vinson/Lonnie Chatmon)
Sound The Bell (Johnny Winter)
Two Trains Runnin’ (Muddy Waters)
Wang Dang Doodle (Willie Dixon)
Yonder Wall (Elmore James)
You Don’t Love Me (Willie Cobbs)

And some others in the pocket.

Tuning the Air #192

2010-11-18T23:39:00.000-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday November 18, 2010 – Tuning the Air #192

Tuning the Air #192
November 18, 2010
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle WA

The set:

Tuning the Air into Chimes – F Harmonic Minor w/Joel
Vrooom
The Children's Hour
Cultivating the Beat

Selection from the Hat: Diving Off A Cliff

Chacarera
A Day in the Life

Travis Address Audience

Spiral Circulation Ab Major
Twilight

Selection from the Hat: Vortex Of Whispers
Ninth Guitar E
Selection from the Hat: A First Meeting

Free Circulation in A Minor
Eve
Space Zombies! From Outer Space! w/Joel

Encore:

Eye of the Needle

D-Day #3 for Gustav, followed by a Music Lab

2010-11-13T23:14:00.000-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

November 14, 2010 – D-Day #3 for Gustav, followed by a Music Lab

With the Abbey otherwise occupied this morning, we once again used the opportunity for the performance team to focus on Neptune. Bill sat in and leant his observations from the periphery; with a piece of music like this, requiring every bit of attention every player can muster simply to execute, having an independent set of ears in the room makes a huge difference. We were able to dive in today, with only minimal review of the mechanics of various sections. About half the team was entirely off-book, and from what I observed the scores that were out seemed largely security blankets. This meant that we were able to address the entirety of the composition, and the flow from one section to the next; the actual musical considerations rather than the mechanical ones. By the end of the day, when almost all of the scores were on the floor rather than in the lap, there was a definite sense that this is a piece that is realistically possible. The plan is to run it at soundcheck on Thursday and rehearse it in the Great Hall on Saturday, and see how close we can get.

In the afternoon, Mary Beth, Greg, Carl and I gathered for the Music Lab. For this entire season I have been working with this group on gaining an understanding of the subtle effect and repercussions of note choices when improvising and circulating within a particular key or mode. Guitar Craft spent nearly its entire existence with beginners and beginner-intermediate players as its center of gravity. For beginners, playing no wrong notes is a major accomplishment when faced with this challenge. As long as the note I choose is within the scale/mode called, we’re okay. Things sound generally sonorous and, as anyone with any Guitar Craft experience can attest, occasionally miracles happen. Whether these musical miracles are the result of dumb luck or the hand of the Muse reaching down and taking control may be debatable, but there is no question that people with very little experience or knowledge or chops are often the hands through which extraordinary music arrives.

If relying on luck and/or divine intervention is the strategy, we remain beginners. The cost of actually learning about what we are doing is almost always a (temporary) loss of access to magic. Players who begin to understand what their musical choices mean, and can hear what flavor their note choice adds to the meal, often become conservative. It is difficult to improvise freely, while concerning ourselves with these matters. If our frame of reference is “music theory”, or we simply have a more refined set of ears to listen with, we begin to see that, for instance, pounding out a B or an F in the lower register of a C Major circulation is at best a bold harmonic choice, and at worst a clueless hijacking of the tonality. But sometimes it is exactly the right thing to do; and if that is so, a beginner is more likely to do it. They are truly innocent, whereas a slightly more experienced player would have known better and for very “good reasons” chosen to avoid it.

So basically, moving from the cluelessness of a beginner to the evolving competency of an intermediate player very often means getting worse for a while.

Since it was a small group today, I sat in the circle. We worked for most of the first hour on evolving a particular scale/mode. We began with, and always returned to, circulating the notes of the C Major triad – C-E-G – in order to clearly establish the “C Majorness” of the scale to be explored. One at a time, and eventually together, we added to the available notes for circulation the Major 7th, the Major 9th, and the Major 13th, pausing occasionally to talk about the qualities that these notes add to the overall sound, color and feel of the music. Then we added the #11th. Here we moved very clearly from Major to Lydian, and we noted what the flavor of that was. We briefly worked with the perfect 11th in order to experience the contrast. Returning to Lydian, we circulated for some time, always beginning with the C Major triad and then adding the other available notes as the spirit moved, always making the effort to notice what happened when a new note was introduced.

The final step in the process was to introduce the Minor 7th, turning the scale into a Lydian Dominant. A very different texture, highlighting the power of the choice of 7th. When we put it all together we circulated beginning with the C Major triad and added notes as the spirit moved, this time with both the Minor 7th and Major 7th available; listening for which 7th was present at a given moment and making the choice to run with that tonality, to move to the other tonality, or to allow them to coexist in a musical way. Very satisfying.

There was something wonderful about these circulations. We managed to maintain the tonal center of gravity at all times, without any sense of restriction. From time to time we would move off into a related mode, and this had the flavor of intelligent modulation rather than a loss of center. Time spent in this new mode served to strengthen the primary mode, rather than dilute it.

The reason for exploring this particular scale was that it is used in a Chick Corea piece entitled Children’s Song #1. I learned this piece too many years ago to think about, and it flew by for me seemingly out of the blue yesterday. It is a simple little piano composition that could easily be played by 2 guitarists, but for this I divided each “hand” into two interlocking parts. On the surface it is a very simple little 6/8 lullaby, but the timing is not quite what it seems. So while all of the “parts” can be learned in just a minute or two, playing it is another matter – doze for a moment and it goes off the rails. The melody includes both the Major and Minor 7th, as well as the #11th; on the one hand rather exotic – “ethereal” is the impression one gets hearing it – but so beautifully constructed that there is absolutely nothing odd, contrived or radical sounding, even to western ears.

Wonderful.

Tuning the Air #191

2010-11-11T23:35:00.000-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday November 11, 2010 – Tuning the Air #191

Tuning the Air #191
November 11, 2010
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle WA

The set:

Tuning the Air into Chimes – F Harmonic Minor w/Joel
Vrooom
The Children's Hour
Cultivating the Beat

Selection from the Hat: Sailing the Sea of Sun Machines

Chacarera
A Day in the Life

Travis Address Audience

Spiral Circulation Ab Major
Twilight

Selection from the Hat: Moonbeams and Shadows
My Precious Dream
Ninth Guitar E

Spontaneous Composition in A Minor
Eve
Space Zombies! From Outer Space! w/Joel

Encore:

Eye of the Needle

Opening for the California Guitar Trio

2010-11-10T11:49:00.000-08:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Wednesday November 10, 2010 – Opening for the California Guitar Trio

The Tuning the Air Performance Team (with special guest, Tony Geballe) did a short opening set tonight for the CGT at Fremont Abbey…

The set:

C harmonic minor Zither: high to low
Circulation into Spontaneous Composition in C harmonic minor
C harmonic minor Zither: low to high
Voices of Ancient Children
Space Zombies From Outer Space
A Day in the Life
Twilight
Where is the Nurse?

Encore: Sat in with CGT for...

Chacarera

Tuning the Air #190

2010-11-04T23:55:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday November 4, 2010 – Tuning the Air #190

Tuning the Air #190
November 4, 2010
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle WA

Special Guest Artists: Darlene Franz (oboe) and Tony Geballe (guitar)

The set:

F Harmonic Minor Chimes w/Joel
Vrooom
The Children's Hour
Cultivating the Beat

Selection from the Hat: Like A Tiger With Wings

Chacarera
A Day in the Life

Travis Address Audience

Spiral Circulation Ab Major
Twilight

Selection from the Hat: Journey Into A Mysterious Cave

My Precious Dream
Ninth Guitar E

Spontaneous Composition in A Minor (with oboe)
Eve
Space Zombies! From Outer Space! w/Joel

Encore:

Horn Up Your Ass (for Taylor’s 35th birthday)
Eye of the Needle

D-Day #2 for Gustav, followed by a Music Lab

2010-10-30T17:22:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Saturday October 30, 2010 – D-Day #2 for Gustav, followed by a Music Lab

Back to the living room again today for another rehearsal entirely dedicated to Neptune. This is very meticulous work. In three hours we worked our way backward from the end of the piece to the beginning, building it one block at a time until we were able to run it from beginning to end successfully. It is a deceptively simple sounding piece, and there is no room for any lapses of attention. The next step would seem to be to get completely “off book”, and to really begin to address the musical issues, in particular flow and continuity. It may take a while yet; we don’t have any full days to give to it in the next couple of weeks – Monthly Open Circle next Saturday, and the CGT in town the following week.

For the Music Lab we moved to looking at the harmonic material from earlier weeks, but this time coming from a “playing by ear” approach, rather than theory and/or fretboard knowledge (although having access to that information was certainly useful). The game involved one player choosing a note, any note, and pulsing it. That note is the tonic and it is up to the other players to add notes necessary to create a particular modality; for this session we stuck with major and natural minor. This is an exercise that works best when there are at least 7 or 8 players. With only 4 today, it was difficult. Not a lot of room for much more than the basics. Some good insights into choices of inversions, though. I would hope we could pick this up again with more players in the future, and move on to a wider selection of modes.

For me, the two high points of the Music Lab were the opening and closing circulations. Some of the best circulating I have heard in a long time. The opener was specifically C Major, and was singing right out of the gate. Wonderful listening and choices. The closer was “the note of your choice.” It began wonderfully, and got better. Several times it began to wind down, but it turned out these were just breathers, and it would spring back to life. We went about 10 minutes overtime, but there was no way I was going to do anything to interrupt; I would have been very happy to have it go on all afternoon.

Tuning the Air #189

2010-10-28T23:12:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday October 28, 2010 – Tuning the Air #189

Tuning the Air #189
October 28, 2010
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle WA

The set:

F Harmonic Minor Chimes w/Joel
Vrooom

The Children's Hour
Cultivating the Beat

Selection from the Hat: Constellations

Chacarera
A Day in the Life

Travis Address Audience

Spiral Circulation Ab Major
Twilight

Selection from the Hat: What Can You See In The Dark?

My Precious Dream
Ninth Guitar E

Spontaneous Composition in D Major
Eve
Space Zombies! From Outer Space! w/Joel

Encore:

Eye of the Needle

D-Day #1 for Gustav, followed by a Music Lab

2010-10-23T20:38:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Saturday October 23, 2010 – D-Day #1 for Gustav, followed by a Music Lab

Some time ago, Taylor indicated that he had an arrangement in mind for Holst’s Neptune, from “The Planets”. From time to time he would bring bits and pieces in and we would test out the concepts; various zithers, cascades and tremolo-ed chords to simulate the harps, voices and long tones of the orchestral arrangement. Over the summer break he completed his arrangement, and when we began getting together in August to experiment with potential new material, it was among the pieces worked with. It is not a piece that any of us can really practice alone, other than to memorize the sequence of events, the chord voicings called for and perhaps the picking pattern of the arpeggios. It can only be practiced together.

It has been some time since we have taken on a new piece of repertoire that requires this level of rehearsal to realize. Until we can play it with some level of competence, we can’t really even judge whether or not the arrangement works on a musical level, or is right for this group and the production. It is entirely possible that once it is on its feet we will discover that it the arrangement needs rethinking or reworking. It is rare, but not unheard of, that we practice a piece for weeks or months, only to ultimately decided that it isn’t right for us for any number of reasons, and abandon it altogether.

We decided to take advantage of the fact that Fremont Abbey is not available for our regular Saturday rehearsals for the next two weeks, and dedicate those rehearsals to getting the piece on its feet.

So, three hours of Gustav Holst today. The first 22 bars are the most straightforward, and we have been playing them for some time. The challenge here is largely counting. So we began with just a short review of that section.

What follows are 22 more bars, each one different, and each one involving some form of zither or cascade, accompanied often by arpeggiated lines in sixteenth-note triplets. There was nothing to do but to walk through the entire arrangement, one bar at a time, and work out the details. This can be tedious work, only relieved by the ability to finally hear what had only been a concept. We strung bars and sections together as best we could, so that there would be as much context as possible for this string of otherwise disparate bars of music, but the primary aim was to get every bar on its feet. A number of errors in the score were discovered and winnowed out. A handful of general concepts and techniques were identified. Next Saturday we will, presumably, be putting it all together.

After rehearsal, a short break and then there were five onboard for the Music Lab. Today was part one of a couple of Labs that I have in mind to bring our practical connection with the quality and character of intervals, chords and modes up a notch. Two of the players, as well as myself, had just spent three rather intensive hours in critical listening, which either primed us for this work, or had us in a giddy altered state. Today’s exploration was a little on the mathematical side, laying out modes in terms of their base triads and upper structure harmonies, realized through some technically tricky circulation patterns, with theory informing practice. Next week I plan to turn it around and work more from the ear, working back to practice and theory from a more tangible auditory experience. Somewhere between the two approaches is where understanding abides.

Tuning the Air #188

2010-10-21T23:42:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday October 21, 2010 – Tuning the Air #188

Tuning the Air #188
October 21, 2010
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle WA

The set:

C Harmonic Minor Chimes w/Joel Palmer
Voices of Ancient Children

Cultivating the Beat
Vrooom

Selection from the Hat: Swimming in Wind
My Precious Dream
Selection from the Hat: The War Machine Awakes

Address Audience

Spiral Circulation Ab Major
Twilight

The Children's Hour
A Day in the Life

Spontaneous Composition in D Major
Eve

Ninth Guitar E
Space Zombies! From Outer Space! w/Joel Palmer

Encore:

Eye of the Needle

Performance Team Rehearsal

2010-10-18T23:27:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday October 18, 2010 – Performance Team Rehearsal

Pretty much a night of nuts and bolts for the performance team. We are working on learning the CGT’s Chacarera, just in case it might be something useful to know, perhaps early in November, when they are in town. Howard learned much of it when he was on the summer project in Spain a couple of years ago, and the Trio had sent us mp3’s of the individual parts. I spent a bit of time over the weekend mapping out the arrangement that is used on “Andromeda”. So it was a matter of organizing, playing and counting, and getting the feel and flow. In an hour, it was pretty much ready to roll. A bit more personal work all the way around is necessary, I would venture, but we are substantially there.

After a break, we worked on tightening up Ninth Guitar E, with Bob at the helm, putting us through our paces. We seem to have crossed a certain threshold with the piece, and so daring to have fun no longer seems to be fatal to our capacity to play and count. That is a good thing.

A little Vrooom work, and then we ended the rehearsal with an exploration of Chris’ final arrangement of the de Hartmann/Gurdjieff piano piece, Prayer of Gratitude. A lovely way to complete the evening.

Full Team Circle and Performance Team Rehearsal

2010-10-16T23:10:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

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

A truly remarkable morning of work together.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2010-10-14T23:21:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday October 14, 2010 – Tuning the Air #187

Tuning the Air #187
October 14, 2010
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle WA

The set:

C Harmonic Minor Chimes w/Joel Palmer
Voices of Ancient Children

Cultivating the Beat
Vrooom

Selection from the Hat: A Tornado Is Coming This Way
My Precious Dream
Selection from the Hat: Boomerang

Address Audience

Spiral Circulation Ab Major
Twilight

The Children's Hour
A Day in the Life

Spontaneous Composition in D Major
Eve

Ninth Guitar E
Space Zombies! From Outer Space! w/Joel Palmer

Encore:

Horn Up Your Ass (in honor of the visiting Hellboy’s birthday)
Eye of the Needle

Performance Team Rehearsal

2010-10-11T23:14:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday October 11, 2010 – Performance Team Rehearsal

A little circulation to warm up, and then we launched into Ninth Guitar E, which will be in the set for next Thursday’s performance. Necessary detail work with the metronome on the connections and interactions between the 3 parts, one section at a time. Integration. Work with playing the piece with a sense of ease and fun. Noted that it really is a very silly little ditty, and yet it requires maximum care and attention to pull off. Counting through the solo sections remains one of the most hazardous aspects of the tune. It was declared ready for performance, and so we are on for Thursday.

During the break, discussion about possibilities for the CGT gig in November, including a piece that we might be able to join them on. Also a mention of a change in the House Team and the gap that will create, with a major role in need of filling.

I had some questions about a particular section of A Day In The Life, and so after the break we took a little time to explore how we are interpreting it. Good work, and clarity achieved.

The balance of the rehearsal on continuing work with Vrooom, and a little discussion about the set list for this week.

Full Team Circle and Performance Team Rehearsal

2010-10-09T15:18:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Saturday October 9, 2010 – Full Team Circle and Performance Team Rehearsal

Sitting at my place. A drizzly Seattle Saturday morning. Then off to Fremont Abbey Arts Center for rehearsal.

The first hour or so was for the entire guitar-playing team, making sure we have a continuous exchange of experience and information within the group as a whole. The obvious motivation is to give the guitarists not on the performance team a regular and reliable opportunity to work with the performers in musical situations that are not beginners circles or open circles or the music lab; to stretch and challenge the entire group. That the non-performers benefit from this is the obvious hope. The actual result is actually a lot more bilateral than that. At last week’s circle we played a bit with some cascades using the augmented scale, and that exploration led very directly to the introduction the Performance Team is using for Vrooom. Not only good R&D, but good music.

Today we began by moving wordlessly into an improvisation. I cannot speak for the other players, but my intention was to work with introducing, hearing and developing themes within the composition. I opened with a little statement in C Lydian. This was answered, in shape and spirit if not perfectly in the tonality. The composition took a number of turns as it developed, and I was able to recognize a certain amount of thematic material that appeared and reappeared at crucial moments.

Next we moved onto the de Hartmann piano piece that Chris has been introducing. We worked with everyone learning the melody together (two parts in parallel harmony), and getting a handle on overall form. Before we wrapped it up, Jaxie, Carl and I took a shot at the bass line as well. There are a couple of internal parts that need to be fleshed out, but the piece is substantially there for us. At some point, we may be able to include a full-group rendition of the piece in a performance. We shall see.

A short break, and then the Performance Team, with Bill sitting in as listener/advisor, reconvened to have a look at some of the things we learned from Thursday’s performance. An observation and decision quickly made about the end of Space Zombies! From Outer Space! and a change we can make that will tighten up the end of the show considerably. Then on to Vrooom. Thursday was our first ever performance of the piece (much to the delight of our resident Audient), and we had plenty to look at in detail based on the experience. Some clarifications, a bit of tightening, and a whole lot of metronome work.

Another, even shorter break, and on to Ninth Guitar E which, we learned at the end of rehearsal, will be in next week’s set. Bob presented a modified arrangement that felt all the way around to be a very definite improvement. Again, mostly metronome work. Bill and Bob mixed and matched the sections, with a lot of work on better understanding the timing and phrasing of the parts, and how they interact, compliment and contrast one another. This was nuts and bolts work of the most basic and necessary kind, and very clearly moved us out of the learning phase and into the performance phase. The need for some serious personal practice is evident before we reconvene on Monday, when we will do section work to pull it all together for next Thursday’s performance.

Opening Night

2010-10-07T23:55:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday October 7, 2010 – Opening Night

Late Tuesday night I got a Google alert about a reference to Tuning the Air on the web somewhere. Clicked on it and it took me to the Seattle Times, and an article by Michael Upchurch. It opened with:

The sound can be brushstroke-soft or plectrum-sharp as the melodies are passed around the room. And because the nine guitarists surround you rather than face you from onstage, there's a marvelous feeling of floating in the middle of their music, with each "current" of sound coming at you from nine different directions.

That’s something I’d like to experience. Wait a minute… it’s us!

Toward the end of last season, Michael attended a show. We spoke briefly afterward, and on the strength of his experience he posted a short notice in his column in the times. We had record audiences the last two weeks of the season. A little attention is always a good thing. But a little attention from a sympathetic and insightful writer who has the ear of “our” audience – it doesn’t get much better than that. He and I sat down and spoke last week for an hour, and this week’s article was the result.

Good sized audience tonight. Not the onslaught we experienced at the end of last season, but very respectable; not to mention attentive and appreciative.

All in all, a good show. The improvs had life to them. My only critical observation was that the pacing was not what it can be when we are on our A-game. Not surprising for the first show of the season. It usually takes a few shows for us to really hit our stride. The silence after Eye of the Needle was profound. Very difficult to decide to violate it.

Tuning the Air #186
October 7, 2010
Fremont Abbey Arts Center, Seattle WA

The set:

C Harmonic Minor Chimes w/Joel
Voices of Ancient Children
Cultivating the Beat
Vrooom

Selection from the Hat: Sun and Rain
My Precious Dream
Selection from the Hat: A Picnic on the Moon

Address Audience

Spiral Circulation Ab Major
Twilight

The Children's Hour
A Day in the Life

Spontaneous Composition in D Major, with Oboe
Eve
Space Zombies! From Outer Space! w/Joel

Encore:

Eye of the Needle

Final Tech Rehearsal

2010-10-04T23:32:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday October 4, 2010 – Final Tech Rehearsal

Our final rehearsal together before Thursday’s opening. We arrived at Fremont Abbey at 8:30 and quickly set to work. We completely set up the performance space, lights and sound reinforcement, including chairs enough for a sizeable audience. The House Manager worked out the details for the front of house and other off-stage details. We made very short work of this. The work we did last week served us well, with a number of people holding responsibilities for the various aspects of the system. We were ready to soundcheck and begin the runthrough in about 30 minutes.

We ran the set, more or less without comment, except to look at various blocking issues, entrances and exits, balance issues for the places where Joel will be playing along with us, and to fill in necessary details. Bill once again provided ears, sitting in the center of the circle and making notes for the Music Director. Darlene arrived just in time to play oboe on the D Major Spontaneous Composition.

Generally uneventful; neither transcendent nor shabby. The D Major Spontaneous Composition certainly had something, and everything was adequately represented. A working rehearsal. Eye of the Needle in the encore slot was particularly good.

Striking the set went very quickly, as Bill and the Music Director compared notes. No doubt some changes will be made in the set before Thursday.

Monthly Open Circle and Performance Team Rehearsal

2010-10-02T18:28:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Saturday October 2, 2010 – Monthly Open Circle and Performance Team Rehearsal

The Monthly Open Circle consisted of TTA company members and one returning visitor this month, so once again I elected to sit down in the circle and work as a player as well as directing the action. For the first hour we focused on various circulation patterns, with very satisfying results. Even the most complex patterns, once the team had internalized them, flowed very well and seemingly naturally. Before taking a break we worked with some cascade patterns, first in a whole tone scale and then in the augmented hexatonic scale we have touched on lately in the Voodoo Situation. Chris, the TTA Music Director sitting to my left, clearly heard/saw something in this exercise that would be useful in the Tuning the Air set.

Since the assembled group was entirely from the company, and the one visitor was keeping up very well, for the second half of the Circle I turned it over to Chris to continue presenting his arrangement of the de Hartmann piece, and we managed to get the entire form up and running. Some refinements yet, but essentially it is there.

From there back to my place for the final rehearsal before opening night. We will be able to run the set on Monday, but that is the dress/tech rehearsal, so this was our final opportunity to work out details. Bill was onboard to give us feedback. The first part of the rehearsal was all about getting Vrooom into performance shape, adding the cascade intro that appeared at the Open Circle.

Through the setlist, only pausing to focus on necessary details. Everything coming into shape, although every player was certainly making mental notes about things to focus on in their personal practice in order to be prepared.

Keeping the other new material up and on track, we ran as much of Neptune as we have memorized, and then Ninth Guitar E. The latter had a lot of life, even if not note perfect, and as a result it was promoted to encore material for Thursday.

We ended the rehearsal with some focused metronome work on a number of pieces.

Performance Team Rehearsal at the Wilsons

2010-09-30T23:42:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday September 30, 2010 – Performance Team Rehearsal at the Wilsons

Jaxie was going to be a little late, due to a family obligation, so for the first few minutes of the rehearsal we focused on getting the “head” to Ninth Guitar E on its feet. The middle 8 was the only part we had not yet addressed, so the 3 sections split off for a few minutes to review and consolidate the parts. We came back and ran the new section several times with and without the metronome. We then put it into context and ran the entire head a number of times, mostly with the metronome. Finally, after Jaxie had arrived and settled in, the whole piece, beginning with the head, moving to the whacky-Williams improv section, and then returning to the head. Clearly, we can do this.

We then moved on to a systematic review of all of our repertoire, much of which we have not played together for some time. For the most part we did not stop to correct of fix anything. The function of the runthrough was more as a reality check; for the performers in terms of seeing where their personal work lies, and for the Music Director as he begins to put together the set list for opening night. We played (not necessarily in this order):

Voices of Ancient Children
Cultivating the Beat
My Precious Dream
Sigh and a Kiss
Twilight
Space Zombies! From Outer Space!
A Day In The Life
The Children’s Hour
Vrooom into Thrak*

During the break, the conversation turned to the CGT’s visit to Seattle in November, and Paul’s suggestion of one particular piece we might join them for. This segued into the presentation by Lost Pedro of a CGT piece for consideration in the set, as well as the possibility of expanding it into a full group piece. Chris also mentioned the idea of expanding Pipeline for the large group.

Saturday will be the Open Circle in the morning and then Performance Team rehearsal in the afternoon. By then we will have a preliminary set list to work with and tweak as necessary. Monday evening will be a full tech/dress rehearsal at Fremont Abbey. Then… Thursday!

* I observed that as of the first week of December, I have been playing and performing this piece for 25 years.

Tech Rehearsal at Fremont Abbey

2010-09-27T23:56:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Monday September 27, 2010 – Tech Rehearsal at Fremont Abbey

The team arrived at the Abbey at 8:30. We gathered, and the Managing Director gave us our marching orders. The aim was to get the lights and sound set up as quickly as possible. Travis was working with Gene, the soundman/genius, and training Carl in the setup of the sound. Necessary backup, and freeing Travis to attend to larger concerns. Ian also worked with Greg as backup on the light setup. Redundancy in technical areas is a good thing.

We were set up in record time. Sound check was relatively painless. One small glitch in Joel’s gear was the only hang-up, and that was addressed swiftly.

Chris began calling pieces. A Day In The Life, Vrooom, My Precious Dream, Ninth Guitar E (as far as we know it so far), and even the first page of Neptune. Joel was so hot in Space Zombies! From Outer Space! that the guitarist were tripping over their own smiles, and so we did it again. Greg, from his post in the center of the circle, registered an unambiguously thrilled thumbs up on Neptune. A good night all the way around. The work that needs to be done between now and opening night was definitely clear, but the sense was that it is totally doable.

Striking the set was notably efficient. We're getting pretty good at this.

Thursday evening we rehearse at the Wilsons. On Saturday, the Open Circle and then the Performance Team rehearses. The set list for opening night will be set, and it will be run at the dress rehearsal next Monday. On our way!

Full Team Circle and Performance Team Rehearsal, and Tech Preparation

2010-09-25T22:42:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Saturday September 25, 2010 – Full Team Circle and Performance Team Rehearsal, and Tech Preparation

Ah, the perils of having 4 rather major and time-demanding projects all on the front burner… the Tuning the Air blog ends up fifth in line, and too often left off entirely. Mia Culpa.

Monday and Thursday were evening rehearsals at the Wilsons, and today we were at Fremont Abbey for an hour of full team self-organized musical work, followed by a Performance Team rehearsal and an hour or so of practical work around the Abbey.

For the full group hour we began again with wordless improvisation, and as with last week it was very satisfying on every level – good group interaction, thoughtful but still playful. High level work. Toward the end of the hour, the suggestion was made that Chris begin presenting the De Hartmann piece to this group. He showed us the first 8 bars. In earlier Performance Team rehearsal, he had assigned parts, but for this we all learned every part, and then gravitated to the one that best fit us. With very little adjustment of assignments, an excellent balance and sound was achieved, and the sense that this is the right group to be taking the piece on.

A short break, and then we transitioned into Performance Team rehearsal mode. Earlier in the week the Musical Director had the epiphany that all Music Directors always have about 2 weeks before opening: we are nowhere near ready to perform, and we have very limited rehearsal time. So the heat was turned up on the Performance Team get our practice regimen amped up, our established repertoire up to performance level, and to get a firm handle on the new material that has been presented thus far. For today’s rehearsal, we touched briefly on Vroom, and it was clear that the challenge had been taken up. Not quite performance-ready, but the path to performance-readiness is clear. Then on to Bob’s Ninth Guitar E. Here we are still at the beginning of the learning curve on the composed sections, and just a little further along on the improvs. We worked primarily on getting the next 8 bars up and running. This took some time, but we crossed a certain threshold, and the general feeling was that the impossible was becoming possible. A much clearer picture of the Whole, and how these individual parts and sections fit in. Again, not performance-ready, but the path is much clearer, and the necessary work very straight-forward.

Then on to Neptune. Still the most daunting of the new material, our full parts had arrived this week and we are in a position to begin to dive into the Music much more seriously, again with a much better grasp of whole. In the case of this piece, rehearsing the group is the work most needed. Individual parts are not particularly difficult or complex in themselves, but everyone has a separate part. There is no duplication, so the way they connect to one another, and the way the various sections flow from one to the next – that is the real challenge. While a modicum of personal work to learn and memorize the parts is called for, it will be the group work that brings this little gem to life. So little time, so much to do.

After rehearsal, a small team remained at the Abbey to install some shelving in the storage area, while the rest of us drove to the TTA storage unit to collect everything we need for the show; lighting rigs, PA and house stuff. By the time we got back, the shelves were ready and we stowed the gear away. Monday night will be a tech rehearsal, which generally means a lot of tech and not a lot of rehearsal. Necessary, of course, but wouldn’t it be nice to be spending that time on Neptune?

Full Team Circle and Performance Team Rehearsal

2010-09-18T13:42:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Saturday September 18, 2010 – Full Team Circle and Performance Team Rehearsal

For me, this was a big day.

Last season we saw that there was a need for the Tuning the Air company to spend more time working together in the circle. We were opening up the show to more improvisation, and more intentional hazard. But we had settled into small working groups – the Performance Team, the House Circle, Sgt Bones, etc – and were not making the opportunities for all of us to sit in the circle and work together. There were times when I got together with the House Team on guitars (this morphed into the Music Lab), and of course there was the Monthly Open Circle where we could all take part. But the open circle is geared for beginners, and the music lab is specifically “educational”. So we changed the weekly schedule to include 90 minutes on Saturday morning for the whole team. We invited Frank to take charge of these sessions, so that the entire team (myself included) could focus on the work. In this way, Alexander Technique became the unifying theme for the season, with a specific focus on breath and breathing. Sandra Bain Cushman came into town for a week of intensive work, that mirrored and amplified what we were doing with Frank.

We made a lot of changes last season, so it is difficult to say precisely what was responsible for the huge qualitative shift that occurred, but I feel very strongly that it all sprang from the foundation of this work together.

This year as we began the pre-preparation for the new season, the question of what it takes to be on the performance team arose on a number of occastions. In our 5 years we have lost a number of players to normal attrition and necessity, and we have added a few players as well. There are certainly quantifiable standards and requirements that we could enumerate; but the truth is that no one currently on the performance team has absolute command of everything that might appear on that list. Clearly, it is not a matter of checking off items on a list of skills.

In fact – and this is the tricky bit – skill is not sufficient. There will never be a Tuning the Air audition. There is something else. For myself, I always know when someone is ready to be on the team – I can’t explain it, and it is always impossible to justify/rationalize on the basis of qualitative standards.

The x-factor is that it really comes down to “what does Tuning the Air need?”

Parenthetically, in every case I have known when a player is leaving the performance team, because I have seen that in fact they have already left. I was “taken by surprise” only once, and frankly that was because I really, really didn’t want to see what I was seeing; active denial – not a useful quality, but a human one I suppose.

So, in discussing the question of what it takes to be on the performance team with the Tuning the Air Artistic Director, Music Director and Managing Director, I came to the conclusion that holding the question is better than sitting down and trying to answer it. It is something that needs to be seen, rather than enumerated. Holding the question is active. The decision, then, was to dedicate the full company portion of the Saturday morning rehearsal to working together at the highest musical level we can, giving everyone who wishes the opportunity to see themselves in that circumstance, and hopefully to recognized the qualities required, as well as the skills.

We know how to do this. It is not a class. I do not have a pile of exercises that will unfold to reveal the answers. It is not for me or anyone else to “teach”.

So, without any preconceived plan, we set ourselves up in the circle, and sat for a few minutes in silence. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jaxie’s hands move to her guitar. We all responded by quietly bringing ourselves to a place of readiness and responsiveness. She played a note and passed it across the circle. Forty-five minutes later, the improvisation came to its completion. Fantastic.

Compared to that, the Performance Team rehearsal that followed was mundane. Necessary, and very good work done on a very practical level. I actually love this part of the process.

We dove into Vroom once more. I am substantially off-book at this point. There are 3 parts that I still use the score for, but it is more of a security blanket than a necessity. Two of the sections are short, rhythmically eccentric lines that simply need a bit of drilling. This rehearsal served that purpose for one of them, and a little practice before Monday should take care of the other. Then there is one long but technically very easy passage that simply needs memorization. This should also be possible before Monday. The primary accomplishment of this rehearsal was that we reached a full-group understanding of the piece. A very clear sense that we have turned the corner from hacking through the parts to addressing the Music.

Ran The Children’s Hour, A Day In The Life and Space Zombies! From Outer Space!, taking a few moments as necessary to address problem areas. The rehearsal ended with a little more R&D on Holzt’s Neptune, which we are chomping at the bit to get up and running.

Performance Team Rehearsal

2010-09-16T22:34:00.000-07:00

A Tuning the Air Journal

Thursday September 16, 2010 – Performance Team Rehearsal

Since Thursday is gig night during the season, we have decided to go ahead and set it aside for rehearsals during the preparation period. The full team was all present and accounted for at the Wilsons tonight. As is our practice this season, we opened with a bit of open circulation.

The work for tonight continued to focus on new material, and material that was new last season. We began with Vroom. We began looking at the “bass solo” sections, where the lead players are playing cross-picking figures in 7, Mary Beth and I are playing the low bass accompaniment, and Travis and Chris have the bass solo/melody. Each part has its particular challenges, and we had not yet picked this section apart to understand what is happening, and how these parts are related. Until now, in our run-throughs, simply getting to the end of the section at the same time was a major success. This is the kind of detail work that indicates we are beginning to change modes in our own process. We spent the better part of the rehearsal on this, resisting the temptation to spend a lot of time breaking up into sections, except for a period when Chris and Travis slipped away to compare notes on the tricky timing of the solo.

Grunt work, but necessary and useful grunt work.

After the break, we again touched on A Day In The Life, Space Zombies! From Outer Space! and The Children’s Hour, and a bit more R&D on Prayer of Gratitude.