Currently there are two LGE members who keep meeting on the regular basis: Pawel and Marek. Jacek is taking a needed break from the meetings.
Things may seem more quiet at the moment, but in fact a good preparatory work is going on.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Trio
Sunday 23th May, 2010
North London
Today we meet for the first time since performing together in February. It's also the first LGE session after Guitar Craft ceased to exist.
We are now a trio: Pawel, Marek and Jacek, so 100% Polish!
Today we worked on circulating, rhythm, both hands calisthenics and repertoire.
The next two meetings will be without J, as he'll be away in Poland. The next meeting as a trio is planned for Sunday 13th June - we'll then define what is the next step.
North London
Today we meet for the first time since performing together in February. It's also the first LGE session after Guitar Craft ceased to exist.
We are now a trio: Pawel, Marek and Jacek, so 100% Polish!
Today we worked on circulating, rhythm, both hands calisthenics and repertoire.
The next two meetings will be without J, as he'll be away in Poland. The next meeting as a trio is planned for Sunday 13th June - we'll then define what is the next step.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Transitions
It's the time of transitions, locally and globally. Currently, there's an individual and also some pair practice going on here in London, a useful preparation for the upcoming new commitment of the London Guitar Ensemble.
We might be a smaller Team this time, but it doesn't matter, as long as there's a clear Aim and Commitment.
The participants gradually make themselves known.
We might be a smaller Team this time, but it doesn't matter, as long as there's a clear Aim and Commitment.
The participants gradually make themselves known.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Saturday, 13th March
Duo Guitar Practice III
Catford, London
Session One - lead by MM.
17:06 - We begin.
Tuning.
Left hand exercise presented by Leo R last Summer in SC. 2 chords, then 4 chords.
Right hand: one string picking -> cross picking.
Left hand: the variations on all permutations beginning with the 4th finger.
18:02 - Complete.
Session Two - lead by JK.
18:10 - Begin again
Play Tremolo (aka 28 Bars)
Work on Integralactic Boogie Express.
Section work, counting, practice with and play without the metronome.
19:10 - Complete ...
... and begin again...
-------
The difference between practicing with another person/people and practicing on one's own is qualitative. The latter is good and necessary, but some things won't quite happen without Other People.
Catford, London
Session One - lead by MM.
17:06 - We begin.
Tuning.
Left hand exercise presented by Leo R last Summer in SC. 2 chords, then 4 chords.
Right hand: one string picking -> cross picking.
Left hand: the variations on all permutations beginning with the 4th finger.
18:02 - Complete.
Session Two - lead by JK.
18:10 - Begin again
Play Tremolo (aka 28 Bars)
Work on Integralactic Boogie Express.
Section work, counting, practice with and play without the metronome.
19:10 - Complete ...
... and begin again...
-------
The difference between practicing with another person/people and practicing on one's own is qualitative. The latter is good and necessary, but some things won't quite happen without Other People.
Friday, March 12, 2010
More words on the Saturday Performance
This space is open for comments / noticings / observations etc. from other LGE members. Here are few words from one of the Team:
My observations of the concert and the day.
During preparations everybody did good job despite our different characters we have managed to prepare the flat with stunning result.
Performance itself became an effective test for my inhibition skills. Because of the irritating situation just before the performance I had to bring my hands back to calmness and maximum effectiveness. I am glad that It worked. There were moments when I lost contact with surroundings by looking at my fingers but I could call myself to order at some point. There is clearly need of work to be done at some points.
Written by Pawel H
12th March 2010
My observations of the concert and the day.
During preparations everybody did good job despite our different characters we have managed to prepare the flat with stunning result.
Performance itself became an effective test for my inhibition skills. Because of the irritating situation just before the performance I had to bring my hands back to calmness and maximum effectiveness. I am glad that It worked. There were moments when I lost contact with surroundings by looking at my fingers but I could call myself to order at some point. There is clearly need of work to be done at some points.
Written by Pawel H
12th March 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Duo Practice
Guitar Practice.
Wednesday, 10th March.
There are two of us tonight.
18:10 - Beginning.
Session One - lead by MM:
Variations on the 4th & 1st Primaries.
Session Two - lead by JK:
Play El Topo, work on Intergalactic Boogie Express.
19:42 - Completion.
Clearly, something new is beginning. The next meeting is on Saturday.
Wednesday, 10th March.
There are two of us tonight.
18:10 - Beginning.
Session One - lead by MM:
Variations on the 4th & 1st Primaries.
Session Two - lead by JK:
Play El Topo, work on Intergalactic Boogie Express.
19:42 - Completion.
Clearly, something new is beginning. The next meeting is on Saturday.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
LGE House Performance
Saturday, 6th March 2010
LGE Performance
Catford, London
LGE: Tywi, Marek, Mark, Pawel & Jacek.
One of us is late, so since we are unable to begin together as planned, we go with the flow and begin (10:14) to prepare the flat for the performance. MM goes shopping.
Extra challenges today... we have to prepare the space in the environment not entirely welcoming to us - this is an opportunity to exercise turning the seeming disadvantage to our advantage, although this one requires sensitive, careful and intentional actions. The forces are at work.
11:17 - Sitting
12:00 - 112 minutes of the Rehearsal - Callisthenics / quality practice of some of the pieces / Circulations.
Coffee break, then a light and tasty lunch made by Marek.
More preparation: food, cleaning, organizing the space. Four of the Guitar Craft Pillars are available to us today.
17:00 First guests arrive.
17:45 Meet in the green room that is also a performance space:
18:01 - LGE Performance for 7 guests. All but one are sitting inside the Circle, and one on the chair.
The setlist:
C whole tone Circulation
Crumb of Glass
The Arrow
Music for a Found Harmonium
A minor pentatonic Circulation / Beehir
Experiment in Terror
El Topo
C major Circulation
Asturias
More food for our guests, socializing. Mark has to leave early to Bristol, so before that we spend few minutes together to acknowledge the completion and share comments/observations. We're done at 20:14
The current LGE:
Pawel's girlfriend Beata arrives when the last guests are leaving, but 4 of us give her a special performance - a good call by PH. This is quite a moment.
The future of LGE is in the Performance. We need it. We are going to begin again soon in a smaller configuration, as some of us decided to complete with GC, or need to address important personal issues. Some of us, positively charged with the energy of the performance are ready to keep going right away.
More soon...
(written by JK)
LGE Performance
Catford, London
LGE: Tywi, Marek, Mark, Pawel & Jacek.
One of us is late, so since we are unable to begin together as planned, we go with the flow and begin (10:14) to prepare the flat for the performance. MM goes shopping.
Extra challenges today... we have to prepare the space in the environment not entirely welcoming to us - this is an opportunity to exercise turning the seeming disadvantage to our advantage, although this one requires sensitive, careful and intentional actions. The forces are at work.
11:17 - Sitting
12:00 - 112 minutes of the Rehearsal - Callisthenics / quality practice of some of the pieces / Circulations.
Coffee break, then a light and tasty lunch made by Marek.
More preparation: food, cleaning, organizing the space. Four of the Guitar Craft Pillars are available to us today.
17:00 First guests arrive.
17:45 Meet in the green room that is also a performance space:
18:01 - LGE Performance for 7 guests. All but one are sitting inside the Circle, and one on the chair.
The setlist:
C whole tone Circulation
Crumb of Glass
The Arrow
Music for a Found Harmonium
A minor pentatonic Circulation / Beehir
Experiment in Terror
El Topo
C major Circulation
Asturias
More food for our guests, socializing. Mark has to leave early to Bristol, so before that we spend few minutes together to acknowledge the completion and share comments/observations. We're done at 20:14
The current LGE:
Pawel's girlfriend Beata arrives when the last guests are leaving, but 4 of us give her a special performance - a good call by PH. This is quite a moment.
The future of LGE is in the Performance. We need it. We are going to begin again soon in a smaller configuration, as some of us decided to complete with GC, or need to address important personal issues. Some of us, positively charged with the energy of the performance are ready to keep going right away.
More soon...
(written by JK)
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Last preparations before Saturday
Catford London
LGE Rehearsal
It's Thursday evening.
The beginning of today's meeting had a particular quality to it. The stillness & silence came to us graciously, the Spirit of Guitar Craft was distinctly present. This moment had the course intensity, but perhaps all this was only the subjective experience of the person writing these words.
We began by coming back to our declared aims and re-stating them. Marek who is a new member of LGE shared his aims.
Calisthenics session was disrupted at the end.
Some of the members of the Team were struggling more than usually today - a good opportunity to notice something and respond to it.
The second session: we go through almost all the pieces.
Good meeting with some good guitar and non-guitar mistakes made, but the good news is that the Ensemble provides us with a supportive context for making them.
Few points are also made, i.e.: listening/responding to the group when circulating, what do we do when we make the mistake?
(written by JK)
LGE Rehearsal
It's Thursday evening.
The beginning of today's meeting had a particular quality to it. The stillness & silence came to us graciously, the Spirit of Guitar Craft was distinctly present. This moment had the course intensity, but perhaps all this was only the subjective experience of the person writing these words.
We began by coming back to our declared aims and re-stating them. Marek who is a new member of LGE shared his aims.
Calisthenics session was disrupted at the end.
Some of the members of the Team were struggling more than usually today - a good opportunity to notice something and respond to it.
The second session: we go through almost all the pieces.
Good meeting with some good guitar and non-guitar mistakes made, but the good news is that the Ensemble provides us with a supportive context for making them.
Few points are also made, i.e.: listening/responding to the group when circulating, what do we do when we make the mistake?
(written by JK)
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Intensive preparations
Catford, London
London Guitar Ensemble - meeting IV
Today we meet at the new place in Catford:
The fifth chair is for Marek who joined in the preparations for the performance. 60% of the team is now Polish.
9: 55 - The Practice of Doing Nothing.
TR leads the meeting.
Session 1: The Primaries (Right and Left Hand) & the fretboard knowledge (C major)
.
Session 2: Learning new repertoire & circulations
Session 3: Old & new material.
Session 4: Define the sitting arrangement, run through some of the pieces and learn one more piece.
We worked for about 8 hours today.
The next meeting is on Thursday.
(written by JK)
London Guitar Ensemble - meeting IV
Today we meet at the new place in Catford:
The fifth chair is for Marek who joined in the preparations for the performance. 60% of the team is now Polish.
9: 55 - The Practice of Doing Nothing.
TR leads the meeting.
Session 1: The Primaries (Right and Left Hand) & the fretboard knowledge (C major)
.
Session 2: Learning new repertoire & circulations
Session 3: Old & new material.
Session 4: Define the sitting arrangement, run through some of the pieces and learn one more piece.
We worked for about 8 hours today.
The next meeting is on Thursday.
(written by JK)
Friday, February 12, 2010
LGE Evening Meeting
LGE, Meeting III
Thursday, 11th February 2010
Today we meet in the evening, for a change. We did the Sitting Exercise in the morning, and acknowledged the others and the meeting at the end of it.
Comments about the little performance from the last week are invited. The word Presence comes up.
An hour of work with the Primaries lead by TR
Careful work - right & left hand, fretboard knowledge.
T works on our hands.
*** Coffee break***
Play through Crumb of Glass while standing.
JK presents a piece Beehir. We learn it in almost hour and a half.
The next meeting will be in over 10 days. Two of us will be attending the Project in Germany next week.
The current LGE Repertoire:
Experiment in Terror
Crumb of Glass
Beehir
(written by JK)
Thursday, 11th February 2010
Today we meet in the evening, for a change. We did the Sitting Exercise in the morning, and acknowledged the others and the meeting at the end of it.
Comments about the little performance from the last week are invited. The word Presence comes up.
An hour of work with the Primaries lead by TR
Careful work - right & left hand, fretboard knowledge.
T works on our hands.
*** Coffee break***
Play through Crumb of Glass while standing.
JK presents a piece Beehir. We learn it in almost hour and a half.
The next meeting will be in over 10 days. Two of us will be attending the Project in Germany next week.
The current LGE Repertoire:
Experiment in Terror
Crumb of Glass
Beehir
(written by JK)
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Preparation - Meeting II
LGE Meeting II
Saturday 6th February 2010
The train has been cancelled, so one of us is running late. We wait.
10:45 - Sitting.
We state our aims for this project, and then move straight into 2 hours guitar work! Attentive, well paced and with the right level of intensity for this time duration. TR corrects our hands while we practice:
Right hand / Left hand / C major (3rd Primary)
*** Lunch break. We also have coffee and chocolate brownies home made by MB to make us fat ***
Session 2: Repertoire work lead by TR.
We conclude with the short performance of this material for Tania & Ivor, spontaneously called by JK. LGE responds to this and deliver honourably:
C major Circulation
Crumb of Glass
The Experiment in Terror
There's a sense of completing the first period of preparations. We can move on now!
4:10 - Completion. We leave the comments about our performance for later, to keep the experience fresh (put the money in the bank).
(written by JK)
Saturday 6th February 2010
The train has been cancelled, so one of us is running late. We wait.
10:45 - Sitting.
We state our aims for this project, and then move straight into 2 hours guitar work! Attentive, well paced and with the right level of intensity for this time duration. TR corrects our hands while we practice:
Right hand / Left hand / C major (3rd Primary)
*** Lunch break. We also have coffee and chocolate brownies home made by MB to make us fat ***
Session 2: Repertoire work lead by TR.
We conclude with the short performance of this material for Tania & Ivor, spontaneously called by JK. LGE responds to this and deliver honourably:
C major Circulation
Crumb of Glass
The Experiment in Terror
There's a sense of completing the first period of preparations. We can move on now!
4:10 - Completion. We leave the comments about our performance for later, to keep the experience fresh (put the money in the bank).
(written by JK)
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Beginning again - LGE first meeting
Today we begin again: the team remains the same as during the LGC days: Pawel, Jacek, Tywi & Mark.
We arranged to begin at noon, but we had to reschedule due to late arrivals.
12:20 - Sitting.
Session one - lead by Mark: Calisthenics: 1st and 2nd Primary (also combined).
break
Session two - lead by Tywi: C major circulation, Experiment in Terror, then T presents his piece: Crumb of Glass.
break (Pawel & Tywi meet with guitars)
Short session lead by Tywi: circulations.
We complete with a short meeting without the guitars to touch base. Everyone's in for the challenge presented: we are going to give 20 minutes performance in 5 weeks.
We'll meet again next weekend.
We arranged to begin at noon, but we had to reschedule due to late arrivals.
12:20 - Sitting.
Session one - lead by Mark: Calisthenics: 1st and 2nd Primary (also combined).
break
Session two - lead by Tywi: C major circulation, Experiment in Terror, then T presents his piece: Crumb of Glass.
break (Pawel & Tywi meet with guitars)
Short session lead by Tywi: circulations.
We complete with a short meeting without the guitars to touch base. Everyone's in for the challenge presented: we are going to give 20 minutes performance in 5 weeks.
We'll meet again next weekend.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Next meeting
The next LGE meeting:
12 o'clock on Saturday 30th January.
And some members of tLGE are going to attend the Guitar Circle of Germany Project in February: http://www.guitarcraft.com/calendar/186
12 o'clock on Saturday 30th January.
And some members of tLGE are going to attend the Guitar Circle of Germany Project in February: http://www.guitarcraft.com/calendar/186
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Transition
Things are moving on. Changing our name to the London Guitar Ensemble is a response to the developments in the world of the Guitar Circles.
All four of us (Tywi, Pawel, Jacek & Mark) attended the Introduction to Guitar Circle and the New Standard Tuning in Paris yesterday - http://www.guitarcraft.com/calendar/188
18 people in total, 3 beginners. Intense and quality work.
All four of us (Tywi, Pawel, Jacek & Mark) attended the Introduction to Guitar Circle and the New Standard Tuning in Paris yesterday - http://www.guitarcraft.com/calendar/188
18 people in total, 3 beginners. Intense and quality work.
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