GH. Wed. 45 minutes, Chrysanthemum, "The Battle," MHB. Short answer to Victor, "probably not" but perhaps we should throw something at the wall, and see what sticks.

last night 45 min right hand work, moto perpetuo, love is green, some improvisation. internet is spotty. just read glenn's report of the cafe. as far as i can see it gives no sense that it is the place for us, but no sense it isn't. any thoughts?

GH: Zeitgeist Gallery reconnaissance. (Also apparently called Its also called "outpost cafe" or "subconsciousness cafe") Its at 186 1/2 Hampshire St Cambridge. You have to walk down a little side ally to find the place, and this section of street does not get a lot of foot traffic. It does look like they put out "sandwich boards" to indicate that something is going on, but none were out. Overall, very low street visibility. I walked back the ally. No real sign indicating which door to go through. I took a guess and found myself in a small room. Seating capacity probably about 20. It felt a little awkward walking in on what looked to be a improvisational performace about to get under way. The people there seemed like they were all friends. As I was leaving I said "I wish I could stay," someone made a farting sound. I smiled and said "what he said." They made another farting sound. It was a bit odd.

More info: booking email robchalfen@hotmail.com
Website: zeitgeist-outpost.org

GH: Tues. 45 Minutes. Derailed, "The Battle of the Mice and the Frogs" etc.

Wednesday 10/29

60 Minutes

Left hand wrist articulation with Calliope(sp?), in the higher and lower registers. Learning and incorporating the alternate Flying Home lead line. Right hand exercise.

GH: An hour. Playing with LoCG CDs. MHB. Derailed, slowed down in DP to half speed.

12 min of runs of moto perp at 100 116 and then 108. sing and play for 8 mins. 10 mins of love is green.

Monday 10/27

40 Minutes

Working more with speed exercises, and reviewing Love is Green.

Monday afternoon
Who: Terry T.
Aim: to work on Flying Home
Duration: 50 minutes
1. Warming up with first primary, 16 bar exercise and Eye of the Needle
2. Played FH twice to identify problem spots
3. Addressed various problem spots with related exercises, ie. playing open strings with just the right hand jumping back and forth from slow tempo to double tempo
4. Made adjustments to strap and guitar position - noticing that right arm is pushing too hard on the guitar causing numbness in right hand
5. Played FH again, slow and very legato
6. Played FH faster but still keep the legato
7. looping Dm section to address left hand accuracy
8. looping Em and Fm section to address left hand fatigue
9. Played FH again, take notes, made adjustments
10. looped the beginning first 5-6 notes of FH with the aim of "beginning" the piece appropriately

Other: Touch up on Growing Circle and Moving Force

Sunday 10/26

60 Minutes

In preperation for group work, I focused on speed and fretboard knowledge. For me, the challenge of playing quickly is doing the same thing more rapidly without applying extraforce; so, theoretically, I've "got it" if I can play something with the same tone and muscle tension I use at half speed. And that's what I did, alternating between a slow, gentle bar and a cumulative amount of fast bars, paying attention to the mentioned things.

For fretboard knowledge, I worked with first inversion C Major triads in the middle of theneck.

For yesterday:

Saturday 10/25

40 Minutes

Working on the release of the left hand fingers.

GH: Sat, half hour, similar to recent days.

GH: Fri. Half an hour on rep. Playing along with League CDs. Its good work attempting to play with Moving Force, and sucking proudly. Also prep for CoFD recording sessions coming up.

Friday 10/24

Learned two new bars to the Bach cello prelude.

GH: Thurs, Hour or so practice with Shawn in Arlington. Later on 10 or 15 mins on MHB, a bit wobbly.

have been working approximately 45 min a day for the past 3 days. mainly on this piece i did with tony on the course called lament. some scale work, and a bit of work on the right hand. have realized i need to confront my right hand with more exercise to fully heal an injury from a year and half ago, which is still causing systematic weakness in my wrist. internet connection has been dodgy until today.

GH: Wed. 20 Mins. Playing along with IBE and Show of Hands CDs. Giving the Moving Force a crack at 120, and then 116. Crack, as in ass crack.

Wednesday 10/22

60 Minutes

Continuing with the solo cello theme, specifically, with release of the fingers, since there is so much of it in the first bar.

I'm almost ready for bar 6.

Tuesday 10/21

60 Minutes

Worked on a Bach prelude for solo cello, beginning with memorizing the form of the first five bars (by playing them in reverse order) and moving to working on tone.

GH: Mon, Half hour, EotN, CofD material, MHB, Askesis with Show of Hands.

Monday 10/20

Sat down with the guitar for ten minutes.

GH: sun, knew I wasn't going to have any time in the PM, so 10 or 15 mins in the AM. L2 patterns, mhb, chrys.

GH: Sat. apx 30 mins. Spent some time with the C and G versions of the pattern RF presented at my L2. MHB, singing while playing. Neck and back feeling stiff.

GH: Thurs. In the basement, played for 15 or 20 minutes. Fingers feeling not so hot. Spent about an hour drawing chord charts for MHB.

GH: Wed. 40 mins on repertoire. Feeling a lack of coordination, which was somewhat remedied by the end.

GH: Tuesday night: EotN bass, and recording a new version of MHB. About an hour.

GH: 30-40 mins, new and existing rep. Playing at elevated tempi.

GH: Sat & Sun half-hourish each night, working on problematic parts of GC and CoFD repertoire. Learning EotN bass. Corrected Calliope lead.

GH: Half hour or so, GC & CoFD repertoire. Looked at the EotN bass and corrected Calliope lead line. Doing some speed work.

GH: Practice with Shawn in Arlington. Ran through the CoFD material with metronome, smoothing out rough spots. 1 & 1/2 hours.

Wed: Forty minutesish, new rep, CoFD material. Right hand work.
Tuesday: half-hourish, new rep, CoFD material. Right hand work.
Monday: Night off.
Sunday: An hour or so, broken up into two sessions, reacquainting myself with the three parts to Love is Green. Circle meeting 7:30-10 V,David and me: LIG and Calliope.
Saturday: Worked for 15 or 20 minutes on some icing on the arrangement cake for the new piece for the circle. Spent more time away from the guitar thinking about it.

yesterday 20 more mins love is green.

today 30 min right hand then moto perpetuo @108

Monday 10/7

Taking a break for a few days before leaving for Seattle on Friday morning. This way, I can address a (for me) pretty big pile of stuff and feel rested and focused on the course.

Sunday 10/5

60 Minutes

Repertoire work. Beginning with various challenges in Invention #1; memorizing the form, playing the notes with rhytmic flow in the fourth seat (on the 'a'). Really fun; then working with Flying Home, trying to bring out the counterpoint in the main line by workingout the placement of the accents in the higher and lower parts.

15 min right hand 8 min moto perpetuo 7 min moving force

35 min l.i.g. review

Worked for about an hour and a half recording the new cover tune for
the project.

Friday 10/3

30 Minutes

Returning to the technical exercises I have been working on all week, with a focus toward bodily relaxaion and keeping a "space". Good work, with attention on the wrists of both hands. I'm ready for some repertoire work.

1.5 hours. Rehearsal with Shawn, running through our repertoire with
metronome.

half hour: 5 min new music, 10 min right hand, 5 min caliope bass review, 5 min moving force, 5 min right hand.

Worked for about half an hour or forty minutes on "Since you've been gone," the new cover MHB, and various bits of repertoire. Right hand work.

GH

Wednesday 10/1

50 Minutes

Struggling to play semi-quavers at 80 BPM. Most of my practice focused on addressing this; I notice there seems to be a point where I "lock in" with my whole body during play. I believe that it is this extra squeezing force that is preventing me from playing faster. I tried doing a 16-bar exercise with mindfulness of the tension in my body, but this was too difficult, so I peeled back to a single string. I switched back and forth between eight notes and sixteenth notes, slowing down when I felt I was "pushing" or getting frustrtated, beginning again with a sense of lightness. The arm feels like it is hovering over the strings. Somehow, I have to play faster without any extra force.

I didn't forget the left hand. Returning to my glitchy index finger; perhaps it is its position near the fretboard that places it at a mechanical disadvantage. After working inthis direction, I'm becoming convinced this may be the case.

Calliope at 84 BPM. No. Calliope at 80 BPM. Do-able, but crummy sounding. There is a big difference between 80 and 84.

I am now also going to practice being mindful of a certain nervous habit during my sessions.

Wednesday night

60 minutes
Theme 1: Left hand accuracy and reduce squeeks
Doing first primary but advancing one fret while moving on to the next string going up and down the neck. Being as legato as possible with out making squeeks

Theme 2: Right hand accuracy
Doing the first primary but with out fretting. Visualizing the left hand moving up and down the fret board while keeping the picking as rhythmically even as possible.

Theme 3: Building speed
Doing the first primary from low string to high (or vice versa), pause for two beats, then advance to the next fret. Moving up and down the neck in this fashion. Start bpm at 90, then 100, then 110, and then 120. Keeping all 24 notes in a set as even as possible (both volume and time) while attacking the strings with full relaxation.

Theme 4: Regaining left hand muscle
Playing 'Moving Force' at a very slow tempo (60 bpm), keeping each note as legato and even as possible, while relaxing the left hand.

Theme 5: Familiarize myself with the acoustic guitar
Finding good and balance position that optimizes the left hand and right hand operation. The aim is to find a position where the guitar is sitting still on me while the left hand and right arm just simply float over it.

Worked for about an hour on the new GCNE cover tune, the swing tune
for Ann, and CoFD/GC repertoire.

DR:

Worked for 40 minute tonight on acoustic, and the moved to electric for 20 minutes.  The 40 minutes were a little unfocused, switching back and forth between exercises.  I'm in a bit of a strange position since I'm not really in the Performance Project, but am still a part of it.  So, what do I work on?  Repertoire?  Perhaps this is a chance for me to work on exercises without the pressure of pieces.  So I did both.  

Beginning with Second Primary work, also introducing my own string skipping exercises.  This was recommended to me by Victor at my last lesson.  Followed by First Primary work and some variations of the 4th/5th Primary, (I've gotten confused since people have told me different things - the single-string scale primary), and also using Trapiche to work on speed and left and right hand coordination.

Working on Calliope at 84 BPM, this is the first time I've worked on this piece in maybe a year, maybe more.  The feeling of our last work together from Sunday night was still in my hands and I could feel that work still resonating.  Specifically, cross-picking the intro.  Can I play the main bass line with authority and tightness?  The C-string can present it's own challenges.  Transitions that I have always had problems with were noted, but not worked on.

A little Askesis and Flying Home for good measure.  Again, working at 84 or 88, trying to push my limits.

Lots of Right Hand work, again, working on speed limits.  Managed to push to 16ths at 152 BPM, though quite difficult and hard to hold on to for more than 20 seconds.  Can I do this with a relaxed hand and decent tone?  

Electric work focused on some exercises by John Petrucci.  Finger stretches and independence.  Also work on bending and general fluidity on electric.  This was done unplugged, however.  

Finally, some free-form improvisation on both acoustic and electric.  Fun.