24/01/09

Good focused time with guitar. Play.

I'm unable to record today, so will tackle today's phrase next time possible.

23/01/09

No guitar today, some peace for the neighbours.

22/01/09

I didn't feel like practicing today - tired after the night shift, but it was worth it!

Writing & recording 2 bars of 4 phrase went very smoothly and developed further. It looks like a new piece was emerging...

2 bars of 4: http://www.4shared.com/file/82082611/e56876c6/2009-01-22_-_WR.html

21/01/09

The focus is still on play. Go through some pieces: Allegro, 9 dias, G courrante.

Then extend the knowledge of E maj pentatonic in a playful way.

Also record a little piece of music - 2 bars of 4. I haven't noticed the distortion was on (can't hear it while recording) Maybe better it was on. Here's the sound of distorted Ovation: http://www.4shared.com/file/81820041/a190b6eb/2009-01-21_-_WR.html

20/01/09

Play. Apart from this not much to report, really.

19/01/09

No guitar today.

18/01/09

Practice after the night shift.

Turn the metronome off after few minutes.

Play!

W&R exercise.

45 minutes is enough.

17th January 2009

Day off.

16th January 2009

Play.

Writing & recording exercise. I compiled all 9 recordings from the week into one file. It can be streamed at this site:

http://www.4shared.com/file/80976441/2639168a/Compilation_WR__8-16_January_.html

Time with the instrument, such a clear indication of where i am. Spend the rest of the hour practicing Aspiration.

15th January 2009

I don't feel very well today and the practice is directed towards getting out of this.

Feel unwell, but not too unwell to drop it ...

A penultimate W&R recording of this week:

http://www.4shared.com/file/80800549/7537a4e6/2009-01-15_-_WR.html

14th January 2009

I haven't noticed anything tonight.

Here's today's Writing & Recording exercise file (2 bars of 4):

http://www.4shared.com/file/80673540/96740ecc/2009-01-14_-_WR.html

What was that about being able to play in sleep?

13th January 2009

Various AAD material including working on the new piece. Unable to play the last bar where the hand shifts over 5th fret position. Notice that it's because my attention was limited to the first position. Once this was noticed and attention expanded to all the fret board something clicked.

Also play 8 bars of 4 with counting.

And here's today's W&R recording:

http://www.4shared.com/file/80532431/645871a1/2009-01-13_-_WR.html

The spectrum of possible notes extended. I.e. F sharp was used.

12th January 2009

Various AAD material.

Here's today's W&R exercise recording. Only 3 notes played twice (2 bars of 4), but the most difficult phrase to discharge so far.

http://www.4shared.com/file/80401817/285e49e9/2009-01-12_-_WR.html

11th January 2009

AAD Material:

Repertoire:

Learn next two bars (3&4) of the new piece and practice it slowly with a clock. One note per second.

First get the sense of the downbeat notes (bass) and play only every 1st note in the series of 4.

Then add second note in the series of 4.

etc. until complete part.

The same for one note every half a second.

And then the pace that feels 'natural' for this piece.

Writing & Recording:

Pay special attention to the process of setting up the gear.

Also check out the picking to maintain the alternate approach when playing 'pull-offs' (two downstrokes in a row).

And here's a link: http://www.4shared.com/file/80121838/a0daf429/2009-01-11_-_WR.html

10th January 2009

Tune in.

AAD material: Variation on the First Primary, Developing Variations (DV) and Writing & Recording Exercise (W&R).

Three takes of the latter, choose the first one.

Here's the link:

http://www.4shared.com/file/80057562/69b72a48/2009-01-10_-_WR.html

Nothing can be hidden in the acoustic recording!

At the end of the week I'm going to compile all these little W&R recordings together into one file and present it here.

9th January 2009

Begin. Where I am at this point, and can i accept it impartially without judgement?

The focus is on relaxing the tensed front of the body. Release the breath.

2ND PRIMARY.

-------

DEVELOPING VARIATIONS.

WRITING & RECORDING EXERCISE:

2 bars of 4:

http://www.4shared.com/file/79868001/1f07a10b/2009-01-09_-_WR.html

8th January 2009 [Relaxation]

About to begin, this makes me wonder when does the practice begin? When the through 'I'm about to begin' appears, or when reaching for the guitar, or playing the first note ? Are these the only options? It seems that the element of preparation is important.

Sit down with the guitar and observe unnecessary tensions in the body and let them on the out-breath. Left upper arm & belly stand out most.

AAD material:

The Variation on the First Primary.

Metronome - 80 BPM
Half notes, quarter notes, ..., 16th notes

8 note figure on two strings.

When practicing 8th notes add the count of 4 bars of 3 and it's a good challenge, it's a struggle to establish it.

Finally 16th notes - that's when the left get tensed - aha!

Developing Variations.

Metronome is off, but the clock ticks away loudly, so follow its 60BPM time. Play a short 4 note phrase which requires a stretch. Notice the tension in the back of the left hand in the triangular area (side of the wrist - the thumb knuckle & the first finger knuckle) Pause to relax it.

Writing & Recording Exercise.

One of my declared AAD aims was to make a good use of the learning opportunities the course provides.

2 bars of 4. It can be streamed and listened to here: http://www.4shared.com/file/79867479/1f70774/2009-01-08_-_WR.html

At the moment the best available way to share these is uploading them on the free file storage site (which means a lot of ads) and putting links to them here.

30th December 2008

Marcin comes to pick me up and we go to his place for some guitar work while we have time for it. It's our last meeting during this visit, and indeed it has this 'the end' flavour.

We begin at 23.52

First we review TR preparatory exercise. 8 bars of 4. Patterns that begin from the higher strings.

Right hand only to begin with, quarter notes. Yesterday's practice is still present in our hands, it's notice-able. We practice slowly and with care.

After repeating 8 patterns several times, we loop numbers 8 & 6 (and call them respectively 'chords 1 & 2' for now, number 7 becomes 'chord 3')

Back to 8 bars of 4, add the left hand in the Position of Readiness. Again move to looping chords 1 & 2 at the end. We also give shot to playing this with mirror on the off-beat. This turns out to be beyond our capacity and we fail miserably several times. It seems that Attention is a key word here.

Double up the speed to 8th notes. Alternate between playing together and then one guitar switching to the mirror. We gradually move the phrase one fret up, until reaching the original position (1st finger on the 14th fret)

We repeat these chords and establish the framework. 4 repeats of chords 1& 2 = 8 bars. 16th notes. At the end we replace the 8th bar by 'chord 3' and arrive at the Intro part of the GC Theme IV.

... pause ...

Show Marcin the first 'lead' phrase that follows.

It's 1.19 am - time to go. Complete.

-------

I recall when this piece was passed on to a L3 2005 team by MS. It was in the ballroom of the GC House in Kiel, in the Summer ...

29th December 2009

At 18.30 meet with Marcin at his place, preparing the space... The ECP meeting formally begins at 19 o'clock, but in fact it has already begun, the process is already in motion. We gather together at 18.55

EXTENDED CIRCLE MEETING:

There are 15 participants with Marcin as a guest.

We take time to enter the ECP space. Relax the body, let go on the out breath. Give attention to the feet and the contact with the floor and accept the support it offers. We acknowledge the Extended Circle , those who are participating tonight, and those who are not, but are part of the project. Jacek speak out their names and locations. We visualize the group as a whole, working together despite the distance limitation between us.

We pause every half an hour: 19.00, 19.30, 20.00, 20.30 & 21.00. When pausing we come back to our feet and give attention to the contact with the floor. We also acknowledge the Extended Circle.

We begin with the Practice of Doing Nothing.

19.30 pause.

Tuning. It takes time.

Before we play the first intentional note of this meeting, we give attention to certain body points and see if we can observe any unnecessary tensions and let go of them. For example the contact of the thumb/first finger with the pick, muscles of the face or our back etc. How much is necessary?

2nd Primary on the A string. Whole notes.

20.00 Pause. See if we can directly experience our feet without thinking about them, or having emotional reaction to them.

The Division of Attention exercise:

Picking one string.
Feet tap Left Right Right etc.
Count 3 bars of 4

All these in quarter notes.

We direct attention to individual parts.

Then we keep it all going and double the picking speed (8th notes) Observe if there are any changes in the body.

Picking 8th notes.
Keep going with L R R feet tap.
Now we count 3 bars of 5.

We also alternate between LRR & RLL every 3 bars of 5.

What is necessary? What indeed...

19.30 break

Left hand work. Observe what pressure is sufficient to press the string. Work on each finger individually

We play EC-AAD 28 bars (aka Tremolo) for SW.

Acknowledge the completion of the Extended Circle Project, which has ran for 3 months. Tonight was the 12th meeting.

The key words of tonight: directing the attention, observing unnecessary tensions - effortlessness, division of attention.

It was our 4th meeting with Marcin so far and the strongest one in my experience.

26th December 2008

Tychy, Poland

Present: Marcin & Jacek

We meet in Marcin's room. Begin few minutes after 15 o'clock with the Practice of Doing Nothing.

Tuning.

PRIMARIES:

The metronome is set at 75 BPM. Right hand work:

Whole notes.

Half notes, also played with the 'up-stroke'.

Quarter notes. We play 4 'downstroke' notes on the downbeat followed by 4 'upstroke' notes on the upbeat. There are 8 notes, and 4th and 8th are eighth notes which gives 7 bars in total. We work on discharging this while counting 4 bars of 7. Then we count in 3. A challenging exercise in the Division of Attention indeed.

Half note triplets, 8th notes, 8th notes triplets & 16th notes.

We alternate playing 4 bars of this and 4 bars when leaving out the fourth note in the bar. Count of 4.

Then we leave out every 6th note, which with counting with metronome (4 bars of 3) results in another DoA exercise - 3 against 2. Some notes are added, and the challenge increases, but it also develops into something more musical.

After this we work on the preparatory Third Relation exercise for the right hand. At one point we aim to play it more gently, doing only what is necessary, and the tone/sound noticeably improves. It would be good to have the guitar instructor here to check our hands out! (i.e.release...) While this is unavailable we just have to keep going and observing. 8th notes are gradually extended to 16th notes. We add the chord and practice them together, also with the mirrors.

This is gradully approaching the introduction of the TR, but at one point there's some misunderstanding, and thinking 'kicks in'. Too much talking, something is gone, let go of it.

20 minutes break.

REPERTOIRE:

ASTURIAS

Work on the main arpeggio. Half speed, normal speed.

THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE

After playing the piece through we focus on the last 3 bars of 5 and approach it as a Quality Exercise.

28 BARS (aka TREMOLO)

We review the form, practice the piece twice with the metronome. Then we play it.

At the end there's a spontaneous call to pause & send the best wishes to those who most need it.

Completion at 18.35. A good session. We worked hard, but also had some laugh.