It's the middle of the first period of work for me.
I begin with collecting myself, being attentive to the body.
Challenging form of 4 against 3 exercise. I also work on the individual pattern of the feet (accenting) and find out that the difficulty is not only related to the challenge of dividing attention, but also to some lack of connection/voluntary control over the feet. If it makes sense.
Also come back to the basic form.
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Monday, 16 March 2009
Week Two
More work on the 4 against 3 pattern. The basic form plus reversed hands/feet.
Coordinate 'mind' and 'hands' here, wondering what happened to the third element.
There's one stage of the exercise where the foot accents on every count of one. This is very challenging, as soon as i accent one. the hands are out of time. So i just establish the first out of 3 taps.
I'm happy to see this area for potential improvement, impartially.
Coordinate 'mind' and 'hands' here, wondering what happened to the third element.
There's one stage of the exercise where the foot accents on every count of one. This is very challenging, as soon as i accent one. the hands are out of time. So i just establish the first out of 3 taps.
I'm happy to see this area for potential improvement, impartially.
New week
No metronome, 45 minutes:
Fratres chords: sufficient pressure, transitions, fluency.
Review and practice part of The Moving Force.
Play 28 Bars.
---break---
Play.
Fratres chords: sufficient pressure, transitions, fluency.
Review and practice part of The Moving Force.
Play 28 Bars.
---break---
Play.
Saturday, 14 March 2009
Fratres
Work on Arvo Part's Fratres.
I received the score from Pablo M, so can review the chords and their sequences. This has actually been presented during our L3 in Kiel in the Summer 2005.
There are 7 chords. I also look at their individual voices.
This progression has 'moving away and coming back to the source' feeling for me.
I received the score from Pablo M, so can review the chords and their sequences. This has actually been presented during our L3 in Kiel in the Summer 2005.
There are 7 chords. I also look at their individual voices.
This progression has 'moving away and coming back to the source' feeling for me.
Friday, 13 March 2009
4 against 3
Moving on to a new 4 against 3 pattern today.
Clearly, this is based on the work done so far.
Holding two counts is the point where something clicks and where the main work of today lies.
Moving to symmetrical (left hand) is little more tricky, because my dominant hand is right. A job for the brain to work it out.
This completes the work for this week.
Clearly, this is based on the work done so far.
Holding two counts is the point where something clicks and where the main work of today lies.
Moving to symmetrical (left hand) is little more tricky, because my dominant hand is right. A job for the brain to work it out.
This completes the work for this week.
Thursday, 12 March 2009
Repertoire run through
As it happened, I just got familiar with The Last Hour talk, before grabbing guitar today. It was influential.
Play. Practically most of the repertoire I'm familiar with.
Play. Practically most of the repertoire I'm familiar with.
2/3 follow-up
I'm less attentive today, so just begin at the different place, following the principle.
Take some time to collect myself, do nothing. Then move to the follow up of 2 against 3 exercise - the rhythmic foundation of Intergalactic Boogie Express chords part.
Also come back to the basic 2/3 pattern. Focusing on some problematic aspects.
Uneventful, yet sound practice I'm happy with.
Take some time to collect myself, do nothing. Then move to the follow up of 2 against 3 exercise - the rhythmic foundation of Intergalactic Boogie Express chords part.
Also come back to the basic 2/3 pattern. Focusing on some problematic aspects.
Uneventful, yet sound practice I'm happy with.
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Guitar on this Wednesday
Primaries and Repertoire today:
Push up the speed to 85 and work on DAAAA figure in various time divisions, put the money in the bank! Also a brief look on the legato exercise, using different fingers combinations.
Play through some pieces, metronome off:
Intergalactic Boogie Express (bass)
The Eye of the Needle (lead, bass and review 'burbles' part. Play the last two with the recording)
Allegro (Carcassi)
Music for a Found Harmonium
One hour.
Push up the speed to 85 and work on DAAAA figure in various time divisions, put the money in the bank! Also a brief look on the legato exercise, using different fingers combinations.
Play through some pieces, metronome off:
Intergalactic Boogie Express (bass)
The Eye of the Needle (lead, bass and review 'burbles' part. Play the last two with the recording)
Allegro (Carcassi)
Music for a Found Harmonium
One hour.
Begin again
We have a defined time frame for our Division of Attention project with AP now: beginning again today and completing on 11th June 2009.
Carry on with 2/3 work, all 4 ways of performing the pattern.
Notice that transitions are important, something worth looking at happens at these points.
Also notice how elegant the operation of Attention can be - for example, part of it being in the left foot and anticipating its tap every 2 metronome beats. No earlier, no later, without the rush. Almost as if allowing a different degree of freedom in action.
This sort of exercise challenges me, and at one brief point notice the E4. Would it be an indication of transition from E6 to E5, as informed by today's JGB reading? My sense is: yes.
The tricky 'feet' patterns are possible today, but for sure these can be improved, i.e. degree of relaxation etc.
Carry on with 2/3 work, all 4 ways of performing the pattern.
Notice that transitions are important, something worth looking at happens at these points.
Also notice how elegant the operation of Attention can be - for example, part of it being in the left foot and anticipating its tap every 2 metronome beats. No earlier, no later, without the rush. Almost as if allowing a different degree of freedom in action.
This sort of exercise challenges me, and at one brief point notice the E4. Would it be an indication of transition from E6 to E5, as informed by today's JGB reading? My sense is: yes.
The tricky 'feet' patterns are possible today, but for sure these can be improved, i.e. degree of relaxation etc.
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
11th March 2009
A brief practice today: moving from the 2nd Primary, at the 76 speed, alternating between 16th triplets (alternate) and 8th triplets (accented), changing every bar. Then taking this pattern further, into more musical direction, i.e. pentatonic phrases.
2 against 3 continues
10th March 2009
Begin with the moment to relax and collect myself.
More work on 2 against 3.
Review yesterday's work. There are 4 approaches to this exercise, given by left/right and hands/feet symmetries.
Review two of them, the easier ones, where the hands pulse changes and feet remain stable. The reverse is more challenging, and that's what i'm working on today.
Wearing my chi kung shoes helps, a practical detail, but makes a difference. Also decide to tap by lifting the heel up, instead of the front of the foot, important in terms of relaxation.
The switch to accenting the right foot is very tricky, also practice it on its own.
It seems that these 4 different approaches give the body chance to integrate this poly-rhythm and look at it from different angles.
Begin with the moment to relax and collect myself.
More work on 2 against 3.
Review yesterday's work. There are 4 approaches to this exercise, given by left/right and hands/feet symmetries.
Review two of them, the easier ones, where the hands pulse changes and feet remain stable. The reverse is more challenging, and that's what i'm working on today.
Wearing my chi kung shoes helps, a practical detail, but makes a difference. Also decide to tap by lifting the heel up, instead of the front of the foot, important in terms of relaxation.
The switch to accenting the right foot is very tricky, also practice it on its own.
It seems that these 4 different approaches give the body chance to integrate this poly-rhythm and look at it from different angles.
Monday, 9 March 2009
Session with Marek II
9 March 2009
We had a second meeting with Marek today. It's a sunny day, the road works outside are very noisy.
M made a good call to work on the basics.
'Being in time' turns out to be the main work today, we don't look at the operation of the hands.
Picking - 'downstrokes' and alternate on the A string.
BPM = 60: Whole notes, half notes, duplets, quarter notes, and ...
... quarter notes triplets. We stay here for longer and pay attention to the metronome pulse. Tapping the foot on the beat is too much at the moment. We work on counting 4 bars of 4. Good work!
Then move to eighth notes, extend the pattern to EAA, and then to EAD.
We establish the EAD pattern and play it alternately in two speeds: quarter and eighth notes, changing every bar of 6.
Then add the left hand chord in the Position of Readiness (M's guitar is very uncomfortable in the original EOTN position). First 3 notes of the Eye of the Needle arpeggio, using established picking pattern. Then move to notes 4-6. Then combine all 6 of them. J shifts his part to the off-beat, which gives a little challenge and helps to listen to individual parts.
Once established we move on - the same but in 8th and 16th notes alternating every bar of 6.
Diligent work, stop when enough.
The main issues: time & tone.
------- short break-------
Present the 9 notes of the first the Eye of the Needle descending line. We are standing now.
Then we establish the count (simplified, 13 broken up into 5 subdivisions) and clap the basic rhythm pattern while counting (w/o guitars).
Once established, J adds the lead line, but we mostly fail, miserably, due to the timing issues.
At the end we come back to clapping the rhythm pattern w/o guitars, a strong pulse is established in the feet. We are sitting.
End.
-------
Very intense 70 minutes (45 + 25).
Personally - a very good meeting for me. A good effort by M & J.
We had a second meeting with Marek today. It's a sunny day, the road works outside are very noisy.
M made a good call to work on the basics.
'Being in time' turns out to be the main work today, we don't look at the operation of the hands.
Picking - 'downstrokes' and alternate on the A string.
BPM = 60: Whole notes, half notes, duplets, quarter notes, and ...
... quarter notes triplets. We stay here for longer and pay attention to the metronome pulse. Tapping the foot on the beat is too much at the moment. We work on counting 4 bars of 4. Good work!
Then move to eighth notes, extend the pattern to EAA, and then to EAD.
We establish the EAD pattern and play it alternately in two speeds: quarter and eighth notes, changing every bar of 6.
Then add the left hand chord in the Position of Readiness (M's guitar is very uncomfortable in the original EOTN position). First 3 notes of the Eye of the Needle arpeggio, using established picking pattern. Then move to notes 4-6. Then combine all 6 of them. J shifts his part to the off-beat, which gives a little challenge and helps to listen to individual parts.
Once established we move on - the same but in 8th and 16th notes alternating every bar of 6.
Diligent work, stop when enough.
The main issues: time & tone.
------- short break-------
Present the 9 notes of the first the Eye of the Needle descending line. We are standing now.
Then we establish the count (simplified, 13 broken up into 5 subdivisions) and clap the basic rhythm pattern while counting (w/o guitars).
Once established, J adds the lead line, but we mostly fail, miserably, due to the timing issues.
At the end we come back to clapping the rhythm pattern w/o guitars, a strong pulse is established in the feet. We are sitting.
End.
-------
Very intense 70 minutes (45 + 25).
Personally - a very good meeting for me. A good effort by M & J.
The Division of Attention Project
9th March 2009
Today my daily commitment to the Division of Attention practice (without the guitar) begins. I had it in mind for some time actually, and the penny had dropped just before the recent OCG course.
I'm very happy to do it, especially because we'll be working together with Alain P.
My plan is to do between 15-20 minutes daily.
Begin with the material presented during the AAD Course 2005-06.
2 against 3 is the first one.
Work in the natural and relaxed speed for me, from step A until G.
Today my daily commitment to the Division of Attention practice (without the guitar) begins. I had it in mind for some time actually, and the penny had dropped just before the recent OCG course.
I'm very happy to do it, especially because we'll be working together with Alain P.
My plan is to do between 15-20 minutes daily.
Begin with the material presented during the AAD Course 2005-06.
2 against 3 is the first one.
Work in the natural and relaxed speed for me, from step A until G.
Saturday, 7 March 2009
7th March 2009
2 x 30 min:
1) 4th Primary on 4 & 3 strings.
Visualize the space in the elbow to encourage more freedom in its movement.
Continue to extend what is possible for me on the guitar.
Realize that in order to do that i have to accept that:
- it can get uncomfortable, i.e. arising body tensions while playing faster.
- mistakes are inevitably built in into the process.
I complete with playing very slow.
2) Learn all the bars of the Carcassi piece and work on it - with and without the metronome.
1) 4th Primary on 4 & 3 strings.
Visualize the space in the elbow to encourage more freedom in its movement.
Continue to extend what is possible for me on the guitar.
Realize that in order to do that i have to accept that:
- it can get uncomfortable, i.e. arising body tensions while playing faster.
- mistakes are inevitably built in into the process.
I complete with playing very slow.
2) Learn all the bars of the Carcassi piece and work on it - with and without the metronome.
Friday, 6 March 2009
6th March 2009
An hour:
1) Right hand drill - with and without mirror, observing the release. Notice how both muscular and nervous system are involved in this.
I'm happy to discover that i'm able to play faster now without getting tired or tensed. Well, relatively fast - on my personal scale. 16th notes at 80BPM. Then approach 16th triplets in this speed.
Also approach underlying accented picking pattern of Intergalactic.
It wasn't a good day for me today, but i feel much better after this practice. It helped a machine to come back to the functional level. A healthy way of spending time.
2) Intergalactic bass in various speeds with metronome. between 74 and 112. 116 is shaky. Also play without the metronome.
Play The Eye of the Needle lead without the metronome.
Basically, putting money in the bank during this hour.
-------
Later on:
- learn more bars of the Carcassi piece presented during the recent AAD course.
- left hand exercises.
1 hour 45 minutes of attentive practice today.
1) Right hand drill - with and without mirror, observing the release. Notice how both muscular and nervous system are involved in this.
I'm happy to discover that i'm able to play faster now without getting tired or tensed. Well, relatively fast - on my personal scale. 16th notes at 80BPM. Then approach 16th triplets in this speed.
Also approach underlying accented picking pattern of Intergalactic.
It wasn't a good day for me today, but i feel much better after this practice. It helped a machine to come back to the functional level. A healthy way of spending time.
2) Intergalactic bass in various speeds with metronome. between 74 and 112. 116 is shaky. Also play without the metronome.
Play The Eye of the Needle lead without the metronome.
Basically, putting money in the bank during this hour.
-------
Later on:
- learn more bars of the Carcassi piece presented during the recent AAD course.
- left hand exercises.
1 hour 45 minutes of attentive practice today.
5th March 2009
30 min sessions:
1) Left hand exercise acquired in SC.
Practice slowly and build up to 16th notes, also play reverse, and extend 5-notes pattern (12345) into 8-notes 12345432.
I play around it spontaneously, the time flies by.
It sound 'crafty'.
2) Integalactic groove.
Thanks to the left hand exercise the hand copes better with this tricky line. It doesn't tense as it usually does.
More counting work, BPM 108 is possible while sounding good and groovy. Also work on the 7 notes lead line with counting.
-------
And later more play on my own.
1) Left hand exercise acquired in SC.
Practice slowly and build up to 16th notes, also play reverse, and extend 5-notes pattern (12345) into 8-notes 12345432.
I play around it spontaneously, the time flies by.
It sound 'crafty'.
2) Integalactic groove.
Thanks to the left hand exercise the hand copes better with this tricky line. It doesn't tense as it usually does.
More counting work, BPM 108 is possible while sounding good and groovy. Also work on the 7 notes lead line with counting.
-------
And later more play on my own.
5th March 2009
Harrogate, England
We had our first NST guitar session with Marek tonight, and here's a brief info on what we did.
A little jam first, just play for fun.
We don't share much repertoire yet. We look at the first 4 bars of The Eye of the Needle lead line with metronome at 60.
Pause, and check out how much pressure from the left hand is really sufficient to press the strings.
Original speed (4 notes per beat) is too much, so we take it slowly - quarter notes, then eighth notes. Gradually we readjust the material to suit 'where we are' and 'what is possible'.
So we just stay with the first 13-notes figure while playing 2 notes per beat. The challenge is to do it while counting from 1 to 13 with the metronome. After persistent work it's finally discharged, honorably. Very revealing work.
We also address some timing problems that come up while playing 16th notes. Come back to foundations - alternate picking on one string in various speeds extended to the cross-picking on 3 strings. I hesitate to say 2ND & 4TH PRIMARIES, as we didn't really address the operation of the right hand (i.e. release)
Very good work and I'm happy we finally did it.
We worked for about an hour and a half, and all this while standing!
We had our first NST guitar session with Marek tonight, and here's a brief info on what we did.
A little jam first, just play for fun.
We don't share much repertoire yet. We look at the first 4 bars of The Eye of the Needle lead line with metronome at 60.
Pause, and check out how much pressure from the left hand is really sufficient to press the strings.
Original speed (4 notes per beat) is too much, so we take it slowly - quarter notes, then eighth notes. Gradually we readjust the material to suit 'where we are' and 'what is possible'.
So we just stay with the first 13-notes figure while playing 2 notes per beat. The challenge is to do it while counting from 1 to 13 with the metronome. After persistent work it's finally discharged, honorably. Very revealing work.
We also address some timing problems that come up while playing 16th notes. Come back to foundations - alternate picking on one string in various speeds extended to the cross-picking on 3 strings. I hesitate to say 2ND & 4TH PRIMARIES, as we didn't really address the operation of the right hand (i.e. release)
Very good work and I'm happy we finally did it.
We worked for about an hour and a half, and all this while standing!
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
4th March 2009
A follow up on the pattern in 3 - Left Right Right
BPM = 66
This time reverse the speeds:
Hands tap quarter notes.
Feet tap eighth notes.
This is actually much more tricky than the original. My guess is because there's a lot of tension in the ankles which makes tapping in time difficult. On top of this the tension spreads.
So begin with possible - relax into the feet pattern and establish it.
Then add one tap of the hand: Left
Once established add the second one: Left Right
And finally all three: Left Right Right
Then work on reversing the hands: LRR & RLL
A nice little example that the attention work needs a foundation of relaxation.
BPM = 66
This time reverse the speeds:
Hands tap quarter notes.
Feet tap eighth notes.
This is actually much more tricky than the original. My guess is because there's a lot of tension in the ankles which makes tapping in time difficult. On top of this the tension spreads.
So begin with possible - relax into the feet pattern and establish it.
Then add one tap of the hand: Left
Once established add the second one: Left Right
And finally all three: Left Right Right
Then work on reversing the hands: LRR & RLL
A nice little example that the attention work needs a foundation of relaxation.
4th March 2009
One hour split into two sections:
1) Right hand work with the mirror - release & alignment.
After 20 minutes of challenging my right hand wrist I attempted a division of attention exercise (counting 4 against 3) After this has been accomplished something clicked and I saw myself plucking the strings and the pattern, as from the distance, as an observer. This didn't last long, perhaps few seconds, because I spoiled it with my excitement and intellectualizing. This reminded me of the description of 'Consciousness' in HWDT. Perhaps that would be an example of E5 -> E4 ?
2) Intergalactic Boogie Express groove.
Work on the count until the point where the bass pauses.
Establish the solid base in BPM 80, 84 & 88.
I feel it's time to nail this bass line in the possible speed and take it further. So far I haven't 'got it' in any speed at all.
1) Right hand work with the mirror - release & alignment.
After 20 minutes of challenging my right hand wrist I attempted a division of attention exercise (counting 4 against 3) After this has been accomplished something clicked and I saw myself plucking the strings and the pattern, as from the distance, as an observer. This didn't last long, perhaps few seconds, because I spoiled it with my excitement and intellectualizing. This reminded me of the description of 'Consciousness' in HWDT. Perhaps that would be an example of E5 -> E4 ?
2) Intergalactic Boogie Express groove.
Work on the count until the point where the bass pauses.
Establish the solid base in BPM 80, 84 & 88.
I feel it's time to nail this bass line in the possible speed and take it further. So far I haven't 'got it' in any speed at all.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
