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.

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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!

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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.