Circulation Day - Meeting VIII - 19th December 2009

Saturday, 19th December 2009
Lower Sydenham, London.

Meeting VIII

Circulation Day / LGC Commitment Completion

There are five of us in the Circle today: Pawel, Jacek, Mark, Tywi and John visiting from Paris.




Pierre, another member of the Paris Circle couldn't make it because of the train cancellation. He is going to join us AAD.

The space is ready:




We are going to pause on the hour between 10 and 16 o'clock.

10:00 - Morning Sitting.

TR leads the guitar work today.

Session I [10:45-11:57]

JK needs to address some house necessities, so he participates in about the half of this session.

...

Circulating different rhythmic patterns in F major.

Skip every 2nd person, then reverse.

Circulate pattern in 5 playing on 1 2 3 and 4 and 5 and.


* * * Coffee break. This is coordinated with a short visit of the landlady and potential buyers of the property - chaos. But then, here's an opportunity to practice being present while surrounded by noise and accident - provided we notice and accept the opportunity * * *

Session II [12:30-13:55]

Begin with the exercise of directing attention to our right hand - scan it in more depth/detail than in previous meetings.

Look at the patterns presented by RF at the recent course in SC.

Metronome at BPM 66

Circulate an open empty string: plus 4 minus 1

The aim is to sound as one guitar.

Then circulate short phrases of one quarter note duration:

- two 16th notes
- four 16th notes (also plus 4 minus 1)

Circulate the notes of d minor on the A string. Circulating two notes at the same time is beyond us today.

Build up on this: circlulate two notes of the chord, then three and four arpeggiated notes.

Rhythmic variations (dotted rhythm).

There's a healing quality in these chords.

Complete the session - go back to the right hand in depth.

*** Break for lunch. Superb food made by MB. Most of it was pre-prepared in Bristol yesterday, so only little work is needed now. PH assists.***




Some of us have dessert and coffee. One of us forgot about the role he was meant to take on today.

We give ourselves break until 15:30, postponed until 15:35, we gather at 15:35-ish.

Session III

JK leads the Division of Attention w/o the guitars.

Begin by giving part of the attention to the sounds outside the house - inside the house - inside the room - we listen to ourselves.

Metronome at BPM 69

Count in 4 together.

Circulate the count of 4. Circulate the count of 3 bars of 4.

Feet are on the beat - Left Right.
Let go of the count -> add the hands Left Right Right.

If impossible - establish the possible and gradually move towards the impossible.

We circulate the count of 4 on top of it. Then 3 bars of 4

Some of us move to tapping hands in double speed.

Circulate the count. Stop.

Allow tensions that arose from the exercise to go. Listen to the sounds inside the house.

TR continues.

LGC performs The Experiment in Terror for JH.

10 more minutes of work on the phrases from SC.

Follow up on the Chords circulations work - more advanced patterns, for example in 6:

1 2 3 4 and 5 and 6 and.

And the body is more actively engaged in this, however, we are not quite ready for this (i.e. Attention levels)

Good effort.

* * *

After this session we sit down together and share comments and observations from this meeting and also about our work in the previous months. Today was the last meeting we committed to.

LGC:



We made it - our commitment is completed at 17:23.

This was the last meeting as the London Guitar Circle.




(LGC photos by JH)

Meeting VII - 13th December 2009

Sunday, 13th December 2009
Lower Sydenham, London.

Meeting VII

Today's meeting is the least attended so far. Some of the Team are either still traveling back from the Course in Spain, or recovering.

In the Circle today: Pawel & Jacek.

9:28 - The Practice of Doing Nothing.

Session I [10:05-11:15]

We begin with sending best wishes to Chris, Tywi & Mark. Then pay attention to the sounds outside the house, inside the house, inside the room, we listen to ourselves.

Metronome at 60bpm.

2nd Primary on the A string:

Begin with half notes, then J plays his half note on the upbeat, which adds up to quarter notes. We play the count of 4 like this, then swap the parts. A good challenge.

Do the same with the quarter notes, with second guitar playing on the offbeat = eighth notes.

Both of us have to make an effort to make it happen. It's good - every timing inaccuracy is very clearly exposed.

4th Primary that builds up to the 28 bars picking pattern. We begin very slowly, then move to the possible and comfortable speed. Add the chords and gradually extend the number of bars. We complete the session with going through the piece (for the first time). It sounds good.

Very diligent and hard work so far.

We complete with listening to ourselves, sounds inside the room, inside the house, and outside the house.

* * * Coffee break * * *

Session II [12:45 - 15:00]

Rhythm Exercises / Division of Attention (without the guitar)

The importance of relaxation is acknowledged. Time to let go of tensions.

Metronome at 66 BPM.

Quarter notes pattern in the feet: Left Right

Stop the feet.

Quarter notes pattern in the hands: Left Right Right

We count 3 bars of 4 and 4 bars of 3 on top of it.

Put the hands and the feet together - this is impossible. So we establish what is possible, and gradually move towards this. While the feet are going we just tap on first out of three beats: Left. Then add the second one, and finally third one. There's a short moment when we 'have it', and there's a modest sense of accomplishment.

ca 85 BPM

Feet tap with the metronome.

We count in 5.

Then tap on 'one'. Then move to internal count - possible.

Tap on 'four'. Then move internal count - possible again.

Tap on 'one' & 'four' is impossible, so we just go back to 'one' and work towards integrating in the body the compound rhythm produced by the feet and the hands tapping together - this is possible.

Review some parts of Music For a Found Harmonium. Pawel asks a very good question about the left hand, which leads us to reviewing the 1st Primary and looking at how this can be practiced. This is very clearly needed at this point.

May we have more of such quality questions - this is useful not only to the person asking it, but contributes to the process and is useful and available for all.

We look at 3421, 1234 & 4321 permutations.

We complete with listening and then acknowledging the other members of the London Guitar Circle and also other active Guitar Circles in the world.

* * * * * * * *

We have lunch together, then Pawel has to quickly leave to work, but there's time for a quick photo.

At least the faces are not all that count:



At the moment there are three people from the Paris Circle that are planning to join us for the Circulation Day this Saturday. This is good news!

Circulation Day

Dear Team,

The London Guitar Circle is approaching the end of its current commitment. We have worked together for almost 3 months now, and we are going to mark the completion of this period with a Circulation Day. This meeting is open to other Crafties who wish to join in.

The Circulation Day will be held in London (exact location TBC), on Saturday, the 19th December. We will begin at 10:00 and complete at 16:00

The work on this day will be lead by Tywi and Jacek. It is open to anybody with the prior GC Course experience.

The expenses will be modest and will only involve covering the renting of the place somewhere in central London. Lunch will not be provided.

If you wish to attend, please contact Jacek at jacek_kaleta@tlen.pl

Best Wishes,

LGC

Meeting VI - 22nd November 2009

Sunday, 22nd November 2009
Lower Sydenham, London.

Meeting VI

LGC today: Jacek, Mark, Pawel & Tywi.

Today we are working at a distance with Marcin and Marek in Tychy, Poland. An opportunity of supporting each other presented itself, originally as a project between GCL & GCP.

We pause, do nothing, acknowledge and send our best wishes to other participants on the hour, beginning at 10 o'clock, then at 11:00, 12:00, 13:00 & 13:30.

On the table next to the Circle:



Very late arrivals today, but we manage to begin on time, while standing in the lounge - we acknowledge M&M.

A wooly start.

The Practice of Doing Nothing

10:50 - Sit in the Circle, tuning.

11:00 - Second pause.

Session One

T leads:

We being with paying attention to our right hand, palm of the hand, back of the hand, thumb, index, middle, ring and little finger. The hand as a whole.

2nd Primary - BPM = 60

Half notes -> sixteenth notes.

It develops into DAAA pattern across the strings.

While doing this:

Feet: Left Right Right Right
Loud count of 8.

AEEE DEEE GEEE DEEE - a preparatory work for 28 Bars.

Some of the points made during our work: the amount of movement necessary for moving between strings, the quality of attention we give to our right hand, where does the release come from, the connection between the hand and the elbow, playing quietly as the means of developing the efficient technique...

1st Primary:

2413 in the Position of Readiness - strings A&D.

M knows what is its mirror and retrograde. We play it, also across the strings.

Another pattern with its mirror and retrograde. M knows it again.

4132 - We also circulate this pattern and its modifications - a good exercise. We have an opportunity to listen to ourselves and each other. This gradually develops into something more musical...

Who knows where 'we could be taken' by it with a different quality/degree of attention, without analyzing it and reacting to our mistakes.

We complete with paying attention to the right hand exercise.

12:04 - 3rd pause.

12:05 - Break, we clearly define the beginning of the next session at 12:25. Despite this, we start 3 minutes later. It's useful to look at the mechanics of how did it happen - and why? Something is lost at those moments, so it's useful to ask indeed.

Session Two

J leads:

The Division of Attention. Follow up on the last week's work.

BPM = 60

Part of the attention in the contact of the feet with the floor. Part of the attention in the hands and their contact with the legs.

Feet: Left Right Right
Hands: Left Right Right

Then hands move to a double speed, add the count of 3 on top of it in double speed. Then:

Feet: Left Right Right
Hands: Right Left Left

Then hands move to a double speed, add the count of 4 in quarter notes. This is more challenging.

In order to divide the Attention, we have to have something to divide first.

T leads:

Work on the Experiment in Terror. There are 3 pieces we are learning at the moment, so we aim at completing one of them today. M learns a new part, we practice.

13:00 - the fourth pause.

13:30 - We acknowledge the completion of the AAD work. Then we carry on for another 10 minutes, playing through the piece twice.

-------

P has to leave. The rest of us goes to Sainsbury's to get some ingredients for lunch: We already have some hummus made by Ania. We get some veg, soups, garlic and naan bread. There are also home made chocolate brownies from Mark... Having lunch together is a regular part of our meetings now.

The progress made by certain members of the Circle is remarkable.

The next 7th meeting will be on Sunday 13th of December.

Meeting V - 15th November 2009

Sunday, 15th November 2009
Lower Sydenham, London.

Meeting V

In the Circle today: Mark, Pawel and Jacek.

Chris needs to address some Family Necessities, so he announced his temporarily withdrawal from the work of the Circle. There's no feeling of loss, once this has been done with intention and definition.

Not much talking before we begin today. This allows a different quality of beginning. It continues like this throughout the meeting.

10:00 - 40 minutes of the Practice of Doing Nothing.

While we practice, the noises in the house provide us with some useful distractions for our attention training. We acknowledge and send our best wishes to Chris, his family and Tywi at the end of the Sitting.

Session one [10:45-11:35]

J declares his aim for this meeting: to observe his energy leaks - what are ways the energy is lost.

Circulation - this happens spontaneously.

2nd Primary - metronome at 40 BPM.

1 note per beat.
2 notes per beat.
3 notes per beat.

And so on, until we reach 8 notes.

We also alternate between 4 and 5 notes per beat. This proves to be very challenging.

The improvement in the group timing is noticeable. One can see some personal practice has been done on this.

16th notes in 72 BPM:

Leave out: the 4th, the 3rd, the 2nd and then the 1st note of the series of 4 notes. This is a follow up on the exercise we've done in previous meetings with T.

Then leave out every 6th note, moving it towards something more musical, but we are not quite 'available' for this (i.e. unnecessary tensions in the right hand, stamina)

*** Break. 15 minutes is reportedly sufficient, but in fact, it isn't ***

Session two [12:00 - 13:05]

Division of Attention without guitars.

BPM = 66

Direct part of our Attention to the feet.

Begin tapping Left Right with the metronome.

While maintaining contact with the feet, we direct part of our attention to the hands. Then join in in sync with the feet: Left Right etc.

Then the hands tap in double speed.

Add the count of 4 bars of 4 on top in double speed again.

So:

Feet - quarter notes.
Hands - eighth notes.
Count - sixteenth notes.

Then we move to another pattern, taking similar approach:

Left Right Right.

Feet - quarter notes.
Hands - eighth notes.
Count of 3 bars of 4 in sixteenth notes.

This is impossible for some of us. We establish what is possible, and gradually move towards the impossible. Sometimes we need to go back to what is possible few times.

That's it. Give permission to tensions that arose from this exercise to go, and let go of the exercise.

Repertoire:

28 Bars:

Review the chords, then work on the first four bars of the piece. We have three picking patterns to choose from, according to what is possible for us.

Music for a Found Harmonium:

Practice the first two parts.

** Break. This time specific time for beginning is given, and we begin on time ***

Session three [13:20 - 14:20]

Part of the attention in the left hand ... in the contact of left hand with the leg ... in the space around the hand. Allow the hand to take as much space as it needs, let it expand.

Repertoire:

Music for a Found Harmonium:

Learn the 3rd part. Play through what we've got so far few times.

The Experiment in Terror:

J passes on the lead melody to M. Then practice first part of the piece in duos.

Play through it together few times.

We complete - acknowledge and send our best wishes to other Circle members.

Good work today!

----------

This has been the most quiet meeting so far. It has also been the most intensive meeting. Perhaps these two things are related.

Spontaneity has entered the defined framework of our meeting few times today.

Afterwards we cook a fish pie. There's also carrot cake, and peanut butter blondie from Mark.

Meeting IV - 8th November 2009

Sunday, 8th November 2009
Lower Sydenham, London.

Meeting IV

In the Circle today: Pawel, Jacek and a new LGC member Mark.



It's the first meeting that begins on time, this makes a difference.

10:00 - The Practice of Doing Nothing.

Guitar session one [10:45 - 11:45]

We acknowledge Tywi and Chris who are not here today. J also speaks for Crafties who forwarded their best wishes for the Circle.

We pay attention to the connection of the feet with the floor, sitting bones on the chair, top of the head, space behind our back, space on our left, right and in front of us.

BPM = 60

2nd Primary: one note every 4, 3, 2 and 1 beats.

Stay with quarter notes - count 3 bars of 4 as a group, then circulate the counting in both directions on top of sometimes steady pulse of D strings.

Our timing is affected by the excessive effort we put into counting, but at least the count keeps the mind focused on a defined task, instead of leaving it to its associative devices.

Stay with eighth notes - count 5 bars of 3 as a group, then 3 bars of 5, and then keep alternating between these two counts.

Stay with eighth notes triplets - circulate the count of 3 bars of 5 on top of it.

Sixteenth notes -> extend it to the first section of Music for a Found Harmonium.

Attention in the feet, top of the head and what is in between - complete.

*** Break***

Mark brought over some delicious blueberry muffins, that he claims were made by him last night...



... but we well know that they were actually acquired in Starbucks.

Guitar session two [12:10 - 13:20]

Direct the attention to the left hand, go in depth. How many times are we going to remember our left hand in this session?

We investiage how much pressure is sufficient to press the string with each finger in the Position of Readiness.

BPM = 66

Alternate the notes in the 7th position: E, F, F sharp and G with an empty A string, from slow to fast, across the neck

Then we continue with MFFH, work on the first two sections.

Acknowledge the end of the exercise of remembering the left hand.

A good effort today. We complete, and a flatmate Ivor takes the picture of the uglier fraction of LGC:



We have lunch with dessert together, talk.

Meeting III - 11th October 2009

Sunday, 11th October 2009
Lower Sydenham, London.

Meeting III

In the Circle: Chris, Jacek, Pawel & Tywi.

10:35 - Sitting

T leads the work today:

Session one [11: 10 - 11:55]

Today at this time another Guitar Circle is meeting in Paris. The list with the names of its members is placed on the stool inside our Circle, to acknowledge the work of Paris Circle.

We pay attention to the right hand, going into details. An exercise in directed attention and bodily awareness.

Circulations: any note, then C major.

2nd Primary - various patterns in 16th notes, following up on the last meeting's work.

1st Primary - 8th notes 1243 and its retrograde pattern, on two strings along the neck. Some of us move to the 16th notes.

Chris has to leave earlier today. 3 of us take a coffee break.

Session two [12:20 - 13:30]

Right hand exercise.

We chose one note, and circulate it. Chords.

Then we chose another note, repeats.

The third note.

We circulate each note three times, changing the direction when playing retrograde.

C major scale review. Then various approaches to circulating its notes in one and two octaves. This puts our flexibility within C major scale and a degree of our attention to the test .

Repertoire work: Experiment in Terror.

We complete with more Circulations, and come to back to the right hand.

------

After the meeting we have a lunch together.

It's the third meeting of LGC and the third that it is half an hour delayed, is it good enough? Inevitably, this has its repercussions.

The Circle develops gradually and in it's own natural pace. How it exactly happens is a mystery to me, but one thing that is clear, is that we each contribute to its evolvement with our own personal work and application.

We have a clear framework to our commitment, and this commitment is being honoured. Some members of the Circle spend more time travelling than actually working with the group!

We are going to complete our initial 8 meetings commitment by Christmas.

Some of us wish to perform, including me. However we are not quite ready for this yet. I suppose we'll see when the right time comes.

Meeting II - 27th September 2009

Sunday, 27th September 2009
Lower Sydenham, London

Meeting II

There are four of us today: Chris, Jacek, Pawel & Tywi.

10:33 - we begin with Sitting.

Tywi leads the Circle Work today.

The first one hour session is divided into three blocks:

- A left hand exercise where each finger is placed on a different string and fret, and the sound is produced just by applying the pressure with the left hand finger.

- Alternate Picking. We play 16th notes and skip:

* every 3rd note of a 4 notes sequence, then every 4th note of a 4 notes sequence.
* every 5th note of a 5 notes sequence.
* every 6th note of a 6 notes sequence.

- 3rd Primary on A & E strings in the Position of Readiness. Six C major notes alternated with empty strings. Mirrors. Then the same pattern played one position up. We alternate between these two positions.

A lot of material / exercises covered over the hour. Something to keep us going until the next meeting.

We complete at 12 o'clock, then Chris has to leave...

--- Break. Tea, coffee & biscuits ---

The second 80 minutes session:

Learn The Experiment in Terror parts. We have the complete piece now.

13:40 - we complete the meeting.

------

All in all, a very good meeting. We are moving forward...

Meeting I - 13th September 2009

Sunday, 13th September 2009
Lower Sydenham, London

Meeting I

Pawel, Chris and Jacek are present.

09:30 - Morning Sitting.

10:05 - 10:45 - Guitar Work

J leads:

Any note Circulation.

2nd Primary:.

Metronome at 63 bpm. Various time subdivisions (from the whole notes to the eight notes) including the Division of Attention exercise while playing quarter notes:

Alternate between playing on the beat for 1 bar of 4 and playing on the off-beat for 1 bar of 4, while counting 3 bars of 4.

A good challenge.

2nd Primary extends to gradually introduced 4th Primary pattern:

DAAA EAAA GAAA gAAA

The main area for improvement: playing in time.


--- 5 minutes break ---


10:50 - 11:38

C leads:

Constant Release exercise on two middle strings in the seventh position.

We begin with playing the pattern of 6 notes.

Then extending it to 7 notes.

Good stuff. Something to work on and develop.

J leads:

Approach the first 12 bars of Tremolo. We play the parts according to where we are. I.e. some of us play just the basic 8 notes pattern.

There are few moments when we are actually in time.

The work completes at 11:38.

* * * * * * *

We agree that meeting every two weeks is the way to go, and we commit to attending another 7 meetings. Then we can see what's next...

For me, we became the Circle in the moment when we decided to commit to it.