Guitar Circle of Chicago

I spent a very intense practice session this evening focused on The Airport Exercise at various tempos. The piece needs work but is flowing nicely. The right and left hands are showing signs of life.

This afternoon I practiced with a focus on the right hand. The bulk of the session was spent on The Airport Exercise; improvement is evidence as I continue to spend time with the piece. In the near future I will watch the youtube video with pencil in hand and note the number of repetitions and exact placement of each pattern. I also revisited Eye of the Needle and Asturias, two pieces that require right hand precision. The rest of the session was spent working with a chord passage that, although in NST, is decidedly not in the spirit of GC right hand work, but rather inspired by Nigel Gavin's latest release Visitation.

This evening, after another long, long work day, I worked on the The Airport Exercise for another hour. Between my ears, a sketch of tab by Mr. Ball for part of the piece, and Steve's youtube video, I have cracked the code of the song. Not that there isn't a tremendous amount of work to do on execution, but I have the piece conceptualized now. I do believe a person could spend the rest of their life working on The Airport Exercise! From a Guitar Craft calisthenics perspective, it's got it all. And, as I've stated before, it's a lovely piece of music.

Traveling, traveling. I'm in Chicago on business for the rest of the week, but I brought my handy dandy Traveler Escape in NST. This evening I spent an hour working on Steve Ball's Airport Exercise. In addition to the tab that Steve has available on his site, I played along with the youtube video Steve has posted. It is a trance-inducing piece of music for the ears, a finger stretching piece of music for the hands, and a thought provoking piece of music for the brain.

Tuesday August 26th is the official release date of my new CD One Feather Shy. A couple of the tracks are available for a listen at my pages on MySpace, Facebook, and iLike. If you like what you hear you can purchase the CD at the Clayphonic Records^TM online music store.

That project has commanded 100% of my musical energy since my last post on this blog. It's been a lot of fun and a ton of work. The work, of course, isn't done yet, but it is changing form. The time has come to return my attention to playing guitar! One area of focus is, of course, my work with Guitar Craft.

Today I took a first step toward that work. I focused on the Claypool 2nd Primary Regimen and Day One of the Geballe 1st Primary Regimen at 60 bpm - nice and slow. At that same tempo I played Asturias and Eye of the Needle, two great songs for working the right hand. To finish I spent an extended period working on Steve Ball's beautiful Airport Exercise. The concept is understood and the song is getting way under my skin.

I took another step toward returning to my rehearsal discipline this evening with a focus on the 2nd Primary at 50 bpm. After several minutes of working in the standard four pattern, I extended the exercise to fives, sixes, and finally threes. My aim was on executing each pick stroke with intention and focus. Much work to be done, but a good exercise.

Today the Circle met for rehearsal with a focus on learning new original material. After an opening circulation and passes at Eye of the Needle and The Third Relation we got down to it.

First up was Road Trip, v2 with the circulation-like runs. We spent a lot of time working through the piece until the form sank in and the song took shape. Colchester Turning, a considerably easier song, was next. The song needs work but the form is set. After a break, and some lovely English-provided cookies, we began work on the intro to Get The Big Picture. Like Fight or Flight this song will take a lot of work. It is, though, a stunning piece of music. We also reviewed One More Memory and the form is absorbed. After passing on Fight or Flight we wrapped up our work on original material with a couple of runs of Grossderschau. Good progress on a bunch of new and original material.

We wrapped with Sun Music, a few different circulation forms, and Asturias. I've probably left something out; by the end of rehearsal my brain was toast. Today my fingers outlasted my sleep deprived mind.

For those not following my blog over at lorenclaypool.com I have completed recording for One Feather Shy. Much work remains to be done, but having the recording finished is a major milestone. Among other things I can begin to return some attention to my GC work. And so it begins, again.

Tonight I worked through my parts for One More Memory, Road Trip, Fight or Flight, and Colchester Turning. I need to put some attention to Grossderschau and Get The Big Picture. Rehearsal is Saturday, I'll do what I can.

I also began my first attempt at learning Steve Ball's Airport Exercise; good progress on the basic right hand pattern and the basic feel but the concept is still a little fuzzy around the edges.

I also did a little Circle administrivia, updating our parts log and shipping it out to the team.

Tomorrow is a big day for the CD project. I'll be going through each of the 18 pieces and preparing them for the mixing / mastering engineer. I'll bounce a rough mix in the process to begin work on the sequence. Good stuff.

We had a good rehearsal today, brief but good, and scrubbed off a little rust. In addition to running through several pieces of repertoire and reinserting Grossderschau into the playlist, we spent quite a bit of time on circulations. Good work.

The highlight of the day, though, was a pre-wedding performance by the team at a small chapel in Chicagoland. It was a lively crowd who were appreciative of our presence. We played quite well in a very different type of setting. Interestingly enough, from this guitarist's stool anyway, it was a lot of fun to be present and add joy to a happy ceremony. Not that I'm looking to get on the wedding circuit!

We discussed several things of the planning variety today; adding new original pieces to the repertoire, the possibility of hosting Robert Jurjendal on a trip to this side of the pond, and participation at the Guitar Circle Weekend in June. In checking my calendar, unfortunately, the GC course won't work for me. I look forward to working on new original pieces, we have six or so ready to go.

This evening I changed strings on the black Ovation, packed up the accoutrement, and ran through a few of the pieces I expect we'll be playing tomorrow. I look forward to seeing the team and performing for a private event.