161003-1730

161003-1730

created by

2016-10-04 10:06
Time in Studio: 
2016-10-03 17:30 to 19:40
Location: 

Regular weekly practice.  Glad for it, especially because I haven't been practicing on my own at all during the renovation.  The 37-mi round trip is a bit daunting (RPV <-> ATUS <-> Kaz') but it's always worth it.  Got caught in a "delay spiral" on my way out of ATUS... need to better figure out how and why that happens.

Instrument: 
Minutes On Instrument: 
40
Other Participants: 
Blaine O'Brien
Kaz Mogi
Notes: 

Improv in odd-time signature practice.

Used the 21+ride / 7 / soloist diminshment arrangement from last week.  Was compelling to have soloist cue out by joining the completely-reduced base-beat one time.  KM was particularly able to guide us through builds and major changes.  In my own playing, I come closest to this with busy, repetitive rhythms (de vs ka, teko, etc).  Although we're all getting better at hearing the groove while we improvise and I had moments when I liked how choreo aligned with groove, I still felt occasionally lost during large movements.  To address this...

Next personal challenge: brush cutting

Pick a starting movement that allows for perfect alignment with groove ("don su da su su...").  Practice it a few times and quickly notate it.  Add the next portion and notate that, gradually working through the whole groove.  If it's not able to be looped, improvise a bar between runs of the new "trail".

If it feels awkward to do this kind of practice because it's pulling you away from the other players, perhaps only do this once at the beginning of the practice session, then improvise after that, trying to use the new trail.

Instrument: 
Minutes On Instrument: 
65
Other Participants: 
Blaine O'Brien
Kaz Mogi
Notes: 

Work on BO piece, "Mute".  Tried the following.

16th-note blended transitions
"catepillar walks" through gears 1-3-5 of each groove
sudden changes cued by soloist
using counting to offset players' start times so that diferent odd-time grooves end simultaneously

next: additional offset ideas - interlocking end-patterns, words for offsets

try writing bold and distinct endings to each of the groove patterns that clearly interlock (solid 16ths on "ka" or a high->low tone series).
think of a theme relevant to BO's concept and list words that could be chanted for different count offsets.  Think through what offsets are required to match pairs of the grooves in short-med-long time-spans.