Yes to evening play

Anchor exercise for 15 minutes, then play.

I was distracted during time with guitar in the afternoon.

Guitar time after evening exercise was peaceful though, very supportive time to work on the new piece indeed.

End-gaining muscles

During practicing today I noticed that as far as my body is concerned, my belly muscles are at the centre of end gaining, at least on that level I am aware of.

So today I look at this reaction.

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Establish the basic form & 1st variation of the exercise. In order to maintain the pattern flowing I have to be attentive to its every beat. Most distracting to being attentive today were recurring thoughts & on-going inner analysis.

Late evening practice

Continue to work on 3 against 5 pattern. Every limb is involved in tapping here.

Pay attention to the softness, or its lack in the feet, as recommended.

Yesterday I realized that the movement of the feet can work using the same principle as the movement of the right hand when striking the string (The Principle of Release) So there is no doing here. I don't do tap the foot, just allow the tension necessary for the foot to be above the floor to release.

It's late and I'm less attentive than earlier during the day and than I would wish to be. Go through the basic form without counting, then just work on individual patterns:

Feet in 5, count of 5 bars of 3.
Feet in 3, count of 3 bars of 5.
Hands in 5, count of 5 bars of 3.
Hands in 3, count of 3 bars of 5.

Double speed.

E minor

45 minutes today:

C-harmonic minor, play through some Bach pieces & continue to work on a new piece. It begins in e minor...

10th May 2009

Practice Day with Marek:

SESSION 1:

2nd Primary:

Metronome at 60BPM.

We begin with giving part of attention to our right hand.

Accented & alternate picking. From whole notes to 16th notes.

Stay with 16th notes. We work on the exercise of skipping every 4th note of the bar. Then every 3rd, 2nd & 1st. We count.

During practice and at the end of it we come back to the right hand and pay attention to it.

45 minutes.

*** 15 MINUTES BREAK ***

SESSION 2:

We acknowledge certain fellow GC students.

Gradually approach Tremolo Picking Pattern.

Begin with 8 bass notes.

Then add E string on the off-beat.

Basing on this we gradually extend the number of bars of the 28 Bars piece.

We practice with & without counting in the following speeds: 62 - 52 - 72 - 40 - 80

Reach 20 bars, stop here.

45 minutes.

SESSION 3:

Division of Attention without guitars.

4th Primary:

Slowly and gradually build up to the following pattern:

GEEE DEEE AEEE DEEE

And then extend it to the complete 28 Bars picking pattern.

Play through all the piece.

75 minutes.

SESSION 4:

1st Primary.

Some approaches to practice 24 Permutations.

Extend 4th Primary exercise to Aspiration, and play solos on top of them. Then play around arpeggio part of Be Here, with solos & more spontaneous play.

We complete at 19:55

55 minutes.

10th May 2009

25 minutes practice with Marek.

We establish the pattern in the feet: Left Right.

Then add the count of 3 and the pattern in the hands: Left Right Right.

So it's 2 against 3.

This is impossible, so we establish what is possible and take it from there.

We keep going with the feet & counting and establish what is possible with hands: tapping 'Left' on count of '1'.

Once this is established add 'Right' on count of '2'.

When it's too much, we take step back and come back to what is possible, and then take it from there again. The Principle guides us...

We establish the complete pattern, let go of counting, and let the pattern integrate into the body.

We end with intention, and give our Attention to the sounds outside ... and then beyond those sounds ...

Inner talk

The current exercise I'm working on requires 5 beats attention span.

The first variation of the basic form the pattern fell into place straightaway, and when going through the cycle for the second time I said to myself something like: 'hmm, this never happened before', being bit impressed with myself. My voluntary attention got lost and engaged in the automatic considering at that point, and it's easy to guess that the pattern fell apart very quickly.

I spend few minutes at the end of the practice sending good wishes to somebody in need.

Moving towards impossible

A new exercise reaches my mailbox today. I always enjoy the first practice, when I don't have any idea what the new exercise is going to be like.

Today there's a loud music coming from the other room, cheesy arrangements of classical music... I refrain from asking C to turn it down. It's useful to have some external distraction.

Work on establishing the basic form. I begin from what is possible and gradually move towards the impossible. Sometimes I take a step back.

Back on track

My guitar practice is back on the track. At least today's work was balanced, engaging, challenging and I had the sense of accomplishment at the end.

And I'm working on a new piece for one guitar.

Challenge

I continue with the last days' work...

This is quite a challenge! In this case I dislike it, but it's beside the point whether I do, or not, really. Perhaps, that's the point of Challenge? That we are required to go beyond our likes & dislikes?

I accomplish the first 4 variations today and can certainly say that my brain must have turned into the scrambled egg, or something like this.

AAD

First Hour:

Right hand work.

Get familiar with the C harm minor in the first position, and with chord shapes shown by Chris. Gradually, establish possible first.

Then play around them, moving towards music.

During the hour I remember somebody who is in need now, and send the best wishes to that person.

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Lead part of the of EOTN.

Metronome at 56. Play through it 3 times. With:

- one note per beat.
- two notes per beat.
- four notes per beat.

It takes nearly half an hour.

I have the sense of accomplishment.

May the results of our work be available to others.

First step

First Meeting:

Present: Chris & Jacek

We begin at 17.35 and split the meeting into two session.

First session:

Chris shows the material he's been working on lately: C harmonic scale arpeggios, left hand constant release exercise, 5th primary, arpeggio part from one of his pieces. We also play through Carcassi's allegro few times.

Second session:

Begin with sending best wishes to the UK Team, and towards the future of UK/London Circle.

Right hand pattern based on 28 Bars. We gradually build it up and move towards the complete patterns with the first 4 chords on top.

Challenge.

We acknowledge the UK Team.

Complete at 18.50.

A modest first step.

Brain ...

One of the challenges of the pattern I'm working on at the moment is that the feet repeat the pattern that begins & ends with the same foot:

L L R L & L L R L & L L R L etc.

So when i'm working with two patterns I find it tricky to see the loop as a series of blocks of 4.

Work on the first two steps/variations, approach it gently.

I wonder what's going on in our brain when we divide attention, when we 'stretch our attention muscles'. What can be seen & measured from the outside? Is it change of wavelengths? Building up new synapses / connections? Is our nervous system affected, and if it is, then how? Or perhaps the left & right sides of the brain are being harmonized?

Something to check out...

Imagination

When talking on the phone today I noticed that my attention withdrew inside and got lost in the inner processes. Mainly in imagining what the other person might say, or might think, and how should/could I react, reply etc. A good example of wrong working (misuse ?) of the centres.

Once this was noticed I brought back attention to my neck and asked for a release, came back to my body. I looked at the wall in front of me, and attempted to get the sense of the space around me. I remembered what has been said about the visual connection and awareness as a form of grounding.

Upon reflection this reminded me of one of the SBC's (one of the AT teachers in GC) postings on the Guitar Craft journal site, few years ago. She mentioned Dr.Nicoll for whom the Alexander Technique was the Work.

But it's not the quotation, just paraphrasing what i remembered, and i have a vivid memory of reading it.

Two approaches

Two approaches that worked during the guitar practice today:

- observing and identifying muscular tensions, wherever they are located in the body. Acknowledge them & let them go.

- I noticed my shoulders overdoing. Spontaneously I visualized the hands of an AT teacher placed on them, and the penny dropped a big time. A reconnection, a step back.

Wow, what a relief & joy that!

Relaxation

Work on a new pattern, that goes like this:

Feet: Left Left Right Left.
Hands: Right Right Left.

Count 4 bars of 3.
Count 3 bars of 4.

Then it develops...

Today work on establishing the basic form.

Sometime like 15 minutes into the practice I pause and direct attention to certain parts of my tensed body, take time to relax...

Then the pattern with counting effortlessly falls into place.

Again and always the importance of relaxation cannot be exaggerated.

Playful

While hanging around London I took a short stroll on a wall. It was only one meter high and about two feet placed together wide. I noticed that my head was dragging me down and i had to rely very much on the visual contact with the wall. I attempted to walk while looking ahead, to free my head ... but sorry, not today.

Last week

Last week's notes:

Tuesday

10 minutes is possible today.

No metronome.

Basics - directing the attention. Is there a point of going further without establishing this?

Wednesday.

10 minutes again.

I add counting in 5 to the basic exercise of 3-4. It probably wasn't the required level of challenge, too much.

Thursday.

Work with a new additional exercise that has been recommended. It is AT related.

First 10 min: the pattern I've been working on lately.

Next 10 min: spontaneously review the old exercise that was presented to me as a challenge during the L1 Course in Los Molinos, May 2005.

Clap 7 bars of 5 while counting 5 bars 7, then reverse:
Clap 5 bars of 7 while counting 7 bars 5.

This exercise seems to be firmly established, even if I had a long break from working on it.

The second part of today's work is very energizing.

Friday.


The special exercise of sending relaxation impulse has a calming and balancing effect on me. I find it very useful.

I begin with just working on clapping in 5.

It's possible to clap in 5 when the feet tap on 'one' in the count of two.
It's impossible to clap in 5 when tap feet on 'one' in the count of 4.

Something to work on: establish the possible and gradually move towards the impossible.

Also continue to work on yesterday's exercise. Today focus on moving between two patterns without a break.

Part affects the whole

While practicing right hand picking today I spontaneously added a little challenge to it: to direct the attention to certain points of the body and to circulate it: from left hand fingers to right hand fingers via neck.

Once this has been completed I stood up and noticed there is more freedom in my hip joints. So a small act of attention to one part affected the other parts of the whole as well.

These feet were made for being placed on the floor...

I sat down on the chair to have my breakfast this morning and crossed legs. After a while, I thought it's probably not so good to do it this way, but why? for 'the good use' sake? I decided to leave it like this and observe what actually happens when the legs are crossed: my back arches, the tension appears in the chest area and breathing becomes shallow & requires effort. So there you go. I'm not saying it has to be like this every time the legs cross, it was just my experience on this very day.

The experience has left its trace...

And in the evening: 20 minute of lie-down. It was a strainging day. I day-dream a lot.