Steve Ball

Seattle Guitar Circle: 1998 Circulation Project Notes, Meeting #3

Next up: I’m continuing to share notes from this (ancient, timeless) project. This one included some special guests: the California Guitar Trio. 

For potential next-gen instructors, note: this entire project began as a simple one-page outline based on ~10 years of working in various guitar circles around the globe testing out each of these specific types of circulations.  These notes about what we worked on in each session were written right after each of the meetings, capturing what unfolded from the original simple outline.  In other words, the sessions were also mostly improvised within a loose, pre-defined framework.

  

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Seattle Guitar Circle
1998 Circulation Project
Meeting #3: Special Guests
Saturday September 12th, 1998
1416 Evergreen Point Road, Medina

Agenda
9:00 - 9:30 Sitting
9:30-10:00 Coffee and free warm-up
10:00-12:00 Circulation Meeting #3 

Present for the Meeting:

• JT Milhoan
• Scott Adams
• Steven Rhodes
• John Henning
• Jaxie Binder
• Brock Pytel
• Heather Pytel
• Curt Golden
• Steve Ball
• Frank Sheldon
• Bert Lams
• Hideyo Moriya
• Paul Richards
  

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SECTION 1: Horizontal and Vertical Melody

1.    Horizontal Melody - the group plays a specific melody (scale up or down)
2.    Vertical Melody - each person plays a melody with-in their own part
a)    direct progression, Up / Down
b)    movement in thirds
c)    melodic up / dual notes
d)    movement in thirds / dual notes

SECTION 2:  Vectorizing

1.    Left to Right / Right to Left Shifting
2.    Dual direction / node transmission techniques
3.    Even / Odd
4.    Note Toss with eye contact
5.    Note Toss naming the name of the person to the right of the eye contact

SECTION 3: Time shifting

1.    free
2.    equal
3.    swing
4.    quarter and eighth together
5.    node transmission techniques

 

SECTION 4: Group Loops

Principles:

1. One person begins playing a very simple part, improvised in the moment.

2. Before playing, each person listens to what the group is playing and contributes a part which:
     a. complements what is already being played
     b. is simple enough that you could play your part for an hour without resting

3.  If in doubt, play a slow pulse on a single note

4.  Each person adds a new part in turn only when receiving a clear nod from the person to their left.

This is how we "circulate in" to a Group Loop.

5.  The piece begins to end when the new part that someone adds in is silence.  This silence is then circulated until there is only one person left playing their part.  When this person adds their silence, the Group Loop is completed.   This is how we "circulate out" of a Group Loop.

 

Variations after the Loop is "cooking':

1. Round - small sub groups continue playing their parts while others rest.  Pockets of Silence are circulated.

2. Trading - groups trade 4-bar chunks of silence and playing their parts (directed by one person by naming names during the piece)

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SECTION 4: "Follow the Leader"

Rule 1: there is one designated leader who comes up with an improvised looping part on the fly which is:

a) simple enough that everyone in the particular group will be able to learn to play the part within 10-15 seconds, and

b) simple enough that every instrument in the group will be able to emulate the part

 

Rule 2: The person to the right of the leader acts as an "analog delay" to the leader's part.  The group "delay time" is determined by the person to the leaders immediate right.  After an appropriate delay time, the person to the right begins to play (as best they can) exactly the part which the leader is playing. 

Rule 3: Always play precisely what the person to your left is playing after waiting for the group "delay time."  If the person to your left changes their part, continue to play your current part for the duration of the group delay time, and then change to the new part.  If the person to your left plays "silence" wait the delay time, and then begin to play "silence."

Rule 4:  The leader does not change their part until at least three other people are playing the same part.  There are always at least 3 people playing each part.

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On Wednesday night we will work with the transmission of Quantity (circulation-based ear training)  
Next Saturday, we will begin to look at repertoire circulations.  

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Seattle Guitar Circle: 1998 Circulation Project Notes, Meeting #2

Building on the notes I shared from my 1998 Circulation Project, Meeting #1 a few months back, here are the notes from the next meeting, #2.

As I prepare to launch Bleak Strategies (a new product designed to energize personal practice and improvised group work), it has been useful to look back on my notes from these meetings that happened seventeen years ago.

When I look back on these, and see the names of the participants, I’m amazed on multiple levels:

1. that we have such a long and rich history of working together, and
   
2. that we’re still just scratching the surface on this new means of improvised group music work that was initiated so long ago.

    

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Seattle Guitar Circle
1998 Circulation Project
Meeting #2:   Transmission of Quality

Wednesday September 9th, 1998
Bob and Jaxie's House

Agenda
8:00 - 9:00pm  Circulation Meeting #2

Present for the Meeting:

• JT Milhoan
• Scott Adams
• Chris Gibson
• Steven Rhodes
• John Henning
• Jaxie Binder
• Brock Pytel
• Heather Pytel
• Curt Golden
• Steve Ball
• Frank Sheldon

*  *  *

We began with a classic "free circulation" (no rules, no instructions), left to right

SECTION ONE: Exploration of Qualities

We began by circulating only the note "A" in any octave.  We stayed on A so that we could focus on one particular attribute of the quality of the note we are passing rather than being distracted by harmonic decisions.

One at a time, we played circulations with a focus on each of these qualitative attributes:

•    Dynamics (soft / loud)
•    Pitch (high / low)
•    Duration (short / long)
•    Timbre (thumb / pick )
•    Tone (bright / round)

During the (high / low ) circulation, we were asked to use our peripheral vision to see whether the person to our left was going to play a high or low note - our note was to be the same (high or low) as this persons.

We then were instructed to play a note which is higher in pitch than the note played by the person to our left.   When we reached the point where we could go no higher, we began again at the bottom.

A leader was chosen to initiate a series of notes which emphasized one or more of the extremes of dynamics, pitch, duration, timbre, and tone, and the circle was asked to identify and propagate  the same qualities of the note played by the leader. 

SECTION TWO: Extremes of Physical Transmission

We experimented with six extremes of physical transmission:

1. We exaggerated the gesture of passing of our note to the person to our right so that our entire bodies would turn and literally "deliver" our note to the person to our right. 
2. We were instructed to also transmit the "content" of our note by using our bodies and our faces in the process of passing the note.
3. We then made direct eye contact with the person to our right as we passed the note.
4. We also accepted the note coming from the left with direct eye contact before passing the note on with direct eye contact.
5. We were then asked to adopt our very best Guitar Craft face while being completely still, facing forward during the circulation.
6. Same as 5 with our eyes closed, completely still, no movement.

We were then asked to find a balance between each of these #1-#5.

SECTION THREE: Group Qualities
1.    Conversation - we were asked to play a circulation as if we were having a conversation.
2.    Story - we were asked to play a circulation as if the circulation were telling a story.

*   *   *  

Next Saturday, we will quickly review our work to date, and expand upon this basic work with the "Transmission of Quality."   We will continue working with the performance techniques known as "Group Loops" and "Follow the Leader". 

The California Guitar Trio will join us for the second half of the meeting. 

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