Reply-To: toby at cs dot man dot ac dot uk Sender: toby at cs dot man dot ac dot uk Precedence: bulk From: toby at cs dot man dot ac dot uk To: toby at cs dot man dot ac dot uk Subject: Discipline #38 Discipline, Number 38 Monday, 4 May 1992 Today's Topics: Guitar Craft Adrian Belew In Cleveland Fripp News Re: Compilations Re: Discipline #37 Adrian Belew Concert Review:SPOILERS ADRIAN BELEW stuff [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Date: Fri, 1 May 92 17:54:37 BST From: Toby Howard Subject: Guitar Craft { The following is the text of a free flyer I got from writing to Guitar Craft a few years ago. Hope you'll find it interesting. -- Toby } An Introduction To Guitar Craft Guitar Craft is three things: 1. A way of practising the guitar; 2. A way of coming into a relationship with music; 3. A way of practising the person. By developing a relationship with the guitar we develop a relationship with music. By coming closer to music, perhaps we can come closer to ourselves. The exact details of each Guitar Craft course are left open so that it can find its own level and discover its own character. Generally we work individually and in groups each day, with personal meetings to focus on individual needs. My intention is to address the fundamentals of playing the plectrum guitar rather than to focus on music theory. This can be as intensive as the student can handle. In my experience, music is a benevolent presence constantly available to us but that we are not generally available to this benevolent presence. With a certain intensity of application our state can change, and at this point we may find music waiting. So, how to reach this point? The direction of attention is fundamental: if we cannot direct our attention we can do nothing. Relaxation is fundamental: little is possible when we are tense. In a relaxed state with our attention engaged we begin to be sensitive to the needs of the moment. The introductory course in Guitar Craft, or Level One, is open to all levels of experience, even none at all: the requirement is intention. Emphasis is on how to play rather than what to play. We work with the new standard tuning for the guitar. There are seven main guitar exercises available at Level One: these are called the Seven Primaries. Very few students on the introductory courses are ready for all of these exercises. Although some of the exercises for the left hand are available elsewhere, I am unaware of another school which specialises in alternate and cross-picking to the same degree as in Guitar Craft. Because of the importance attached to developing a centre of gravity for both hands, we call this approach the Middle Way. There are ancillary exercises derived from and related to the Seven Primaries which are available, generally in response to individual needs and as part of the development of a personal program. There are other exercises available to Level One where this is appropriate, such as the Division of Attention exercise: this is an introduction to the practice of co-ordinated functioning. More sophisticated and subtle techniques, such as the Exercises of the Transmission of Qualities, and the Assumption of Virtue, can only properly be introduced in person. The Alexander Technique has proven to be very helpful, and is a feature of most GC courses. Work with relaxation and an alert sense of presence is connected to our work with attention, which in turn is related to the cultivation of a relaxed and sensitive state within our own volition. The student is presented with a series of challenges, and rather than being simply told what to do is invited to make an honorable response within their own limitations and talents. Room is given to allow the student to act from their own initiative, and sometimes more experienced students are available to give support and encouragement. The management of surprise is also a part of the course. If music is an art and the musician an artist, how can we approach this in a tangible way? Guitar Craft is, as its name implies, a way of craft: that is, developing an instrumentality of functioning which can be directly responsive to the creative impulse of music. Put simply, the musician becomes a trained instrument to be played by music. We approach the intangible by working upon the tangible. At a certain point of application, of concentrated effort, craft becomes an art. This is straightforward, but exceptionally difficult. At Level One we begin to develop competence; i.e., a flexible technique. This is the foundation of a personal discipline. Once established, discipline enables us to become effectual; that is, to honor a commitment in time. If this is difficult to grasp, it can be simply practised. At Level Two we apply the GC principles in the strengthening of personal practice and the learning of the Guitar Craft repertoire, which often grows during a course. The GC Themes are basic to the repertoire. Emphasis is placed upon working in groups of varying size. We say that there are three contributions which we can make to the group: 1. One note. If we can only play one note, this is sufficient. To this one note we apply three criteria: i) Is it in tune? ii) Is it in time? iii) Is it in tone? This means, does it sound good? 2. Silence. This is far harder than playing one note. To be silent with all that one is, is exceptionally hard. If this is too hard, one is asked to make the third contribution. 3. Restraint. This is where we think we can play our one note but we really know we can't. So, we contribute sound, silence, or simply quiet. At Level Two we often introduce an exercise to extend the moment in which our attention is engaged. There are several forms of this, but the essence is to train the mind to hold a pattern. That is, we train the mind to see integrally. Once established, this enables us to be in contact with all the notes in any piece of music whichever particular note we are playing. With practice, this can go further. Level Three is where we learn what is really involved in us becoming a musician. What is our capacity for effort? What is involved in making a commitment? Can we apply the quality of our relationship with the guitar to the mundane activities of our life, like cleaning the bathroom and cleaning the house, or preparing food? So, House Craft and Kitchen Craft are part of Level Three. These are longer courses and are a way of practising the life-style of the musician. This is a test of the vocational aptitude of those who wish to become professional musicians, or for those who expect the musical life to be glamorous. So, Level Three is where we practice making efforts and commitments. What is involved in making a commitment? We look back to the point where music drew us in, forward to the acquisition of craft, while working towards having the capacity to make a commitment. The first three levels move from the point where music is the moving force to where the student is increasingly able to work from their own initiative. Level Four is where the commitment to a musical life, at least for an extended period of time, is made. Inevitably, this commitment will be tested. We look backward to Level One, our foundation in Guitar Craft, our experience of possibility and of music as a benevolent presence constantly and readily available to us; look forward to capability in personal practice and the GC repertoire, and developing a responsiveness to challenge; while preparing to put ourselves under the conditions of apprenticeship. Level Five is where the student undertakes apprenticeship to Guitar Craft. The time frame on this is three to five years. As of April 1987 there are four Guitar Craft apprentices. At this stage we look back to the establishment of our personal voice, forward to earning a living while working to acquire craft. For some of us, Guitar Craft is a way of life. In Guitar Craft we say, there are no judgements: we accept people as they are. We may not have an equality of talent, or ability, or experience: but we can be equal in commitment. If we are not equal in commitment, we may be equal in aspiration. If we share the same aim, something becomes possible. In Guitar Craft we say, there are no mistakes. That is there are no mistakes save one: the failure to learn from a mistake. In Guitar Craft nothing is compulsory. One is not asked to violate cherished beliefs or accept any of the ideas presented. Rather, one is asked for scepticism. Most GC courses include a presentation of the Systematics of the Music System, the application of which becomes increasingly practical. Guitar Craft in America is sponsored by the Seminar Program of the American Society for Continuous Education, a registered not-for-profit corporation, and in Europe by the Red Lion Trust, an educational trust to promote the social application of music and the arts. Courses are currently available at five levels. There have been eighteen courses in America between March l985 and May l987 generally lasting one or two weeks. Currently we are holding longer residential courses in England for those who have made a considerable commitment to Guitar Craft. Level One courses have taken place or are planned during 1987 in Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Israel and American, and longer residential course are planned in America from 1988. Application: The accommodation is adequate, but not necessarily comfortable. All work will be done on acoustic guitars with steel strings. Students should bring an acoustic instrument, spare strings and plectrum, a metronome, footstool and guitar strap. The recommended guitar is the Ovation Shallow Body Cutaway (model no. 1867) or failing this any other Ovation is preferred. Students on American courses may take advantage of our close relationship with Ovation and a local music store to buy any model at half list price. The recommended model is $575.00. Students should have a fluency in the English language and be at least 18 years of age. The American courses are held at Claymont Mansion near Charles Town, West Virginia. The cost is $625.00-$725.00 to include food, lodging and instruction. I recommend that this money is raised as far as possible by those who wish to attend, rather than by borrowing from others: this is a valuable preparation for the course and in a sense is part of it. Although in Guitar Craft nothing is compulsory, one thing is compulsory: to refrain from the use of drugs. In many cultures drug use is socially acceptable, even quasi-legal, but it is incompatible with participation within GC courses. One of the single greatest lessons I have learnt from GC students is the extent to which a generation of young musicians has been damaged by drugs, in some cases probably irreparably. Some students have even taken part in GC as a support to their drug treatment program, and prior usage is no handicap to participation whatsoever. But within the course: although nothing is compulsory, this is compulsory. The addresses for those interested in further details are: 1. Guitar Craft, c/o ASCE, Rt. 1, Box 279, Charles Town, West Virginia 25414; 304-725-4437. 2. Guitar Craft, c/o EG Management Ltd., 63a, Kings Road, London, SW3 4NT. If you wish to attend a course please write to me in English stating briefly why you wish to attend with a short outline of your background and experience, if any. [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Date: Fri, 01 May 92 16:15:10 EST From: Jeff Tucker Subject: Adrian Belew In Cleveland I was able to see the very enjoyable Adrian Belew show In Cleveland on the 26th of April and the set list might be of interest to you. Inner Revolution Young Lions This Is What I Believe In None Of The Above (The Bears) Big Blue Sun Only A Dream Standing In The Shadow Matte Kudasai (King Crimson) Superboy (The Bears) Men In Helicopters I Am What I Am I'd Rather Be Right Here The Lone Rhinoceros Heartbeat Heaven's Bed Member Of The Tribe Pretty Pink Rose first encore: The Rail Song Elephant Talk (King Crimson) second encore: The Momur [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Date: Sat, 2 May 1992 12:10 EST From: NAG8916 at ACFcluster dot NYU dot EDU Subject: Fripp News Good News if any of you are in the New York region... Robert will be doing two free shows at the Winter Garden of the World Trade Center.. One will be on May 19th at 7:30pm. It's called "Firepower" with Trey Guinn. The other show (on May 20th) is Frippertronnics with the California Guitar Trio!! I found the ad in the Village Vioce if any of you are interested it's part of a guitar innovators series..Oh by the way did I mention the shows are FREE!! to Bill Furman: Yes "A Young Person's Guide" is available as a Japeneese import..it's a double cd w/ the booklet.. And yes Frame By Frame had several abbridged songs, but the booklet is pretty nice.. I dont' know if any of you have seen it but my friends copy said Talking Drum was over 29 mins...I got my hopes up, but it turn out to be a missprint..it was a little shorter than the original..bummer Nils [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Subject: Re: Compilations From: Ron Harding Date: Sat, 2 May 1992 14:19:41 -0400 > Also, can anyone verify that the frame by frame boxed set includes many > abridged versions of tracks?? ( You know - fade out before the end ). My > local CD shop claimed this was the reason that they were only special > ordering the set. > I think most of the abridging was tastefully done. I don't really miss the missing parts. Except for Starless. They removed the wrong half of the song! The abridged or otherwise different tracks are Cadence and Cascade : New vocals by Belew. The Sailor's Tale : Weird first half skipped. Bolero : I don't have the original (yet). Larks' Tongues 1 : Violin part from the middle removed. Fracture : Quiet part in the middle removed. Starless : Everything after vocal part removed (eek!) ============================================================================= Nuke'Em: Get them before they get you! | Ron Harding Another quality home game from Butler | rbharding at descartes dot waterloo dot edu Bros. | ============================================================================= [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] Date: Fri, 1 May 92 17:22:47 -0700 From: James Livingston Subject: Re: Discipline #37 _A Young Person's Guide to King Crimson_ does exist on CD. In fact, I own a copy. There's a slight problem though, it's a Japanese import manufactured by Virgin Records Japan. The catalog numbers are VJCP-3001 & VJCP-3002. It comes in a double gem case with a CD sized version of the original booklet as well as a book of lyrics (which includes English and Japanese versions of all songs) that has what appears to be a Japanese version of the Booklet and an 8 * 8 copy of the Crimson Family Tree. -james livingston "At night he's a star in the milky way, A man of the world by the light of day." [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] From: Greg Hatch Subject: Adrian Belew Concert Review:SPOILERS Date: Sun, 3 May 92 1:13:22 EDT Review of Adrian Belew concerts, April 17, Cincinnati and April 24, Columbus. The band is: Adrian Belew, guitar and vocals; Rob Fetters, guitar and vocals; Brian Lovely, bass and vocals; Mike Hodges, drums. They are an incredibly good band. They performed a lot of complex numbers that came off very well onstage. Set List: Inner Revolution Young Lions This Is What I Believe In None Of The Above Big Blue Sun (with electric violin) Only A Dream Standing In The Shadow Matte Kudasai Superboy Men In Helicopters I Am What I Am I'd Rather Be Right Here The Lone Rhinoceros (just Adrian with guitar-no backing band) Heartbeat Heaven's Bed Member Of The Tribe (with balloon solo) Big Electric Cat (first encore) Pretty Pink Rose The Rail Song Elephant Talk (second encore) The Momur (w/Adrian on drums, Fetters on bass, Lovely on guitar and vocals) The entire band seemed to enjoy themselves throughout the entire show. Adrian was very energetic the whole time and was jumping up and down, as was Rob Fetters. They worked together as well, or better, than they did in the Bears. Some of the high points were: Lone Rhinoceros, with just Adrian and his guitar. He did it without any of the other band members and it sounded great! On Superboy, Adrian and Rob were playing their guitars and singing without backup from the other band members for almost the entire song. Their voices complemented each other well and the song sounded great. Adrian and Rob both did some incredible stuff with their guitars on Member Of The Tribe and Big Electric Cat. For those of you who have seen the Psychodots play, Rob does the thing with the balloon. He blows up a balloon and puts it against the strings of his guitar and yells into it, which creates a voice-box effect through the guitar! Very cool. Big Electric Cat has always been one of my favorite songs, and this band did a very capable version. Rob did a credible David Bowie imitation on Pretty Pink Rose. Rob and Adrian were perfectly in synch on The Rail Song. If they weren't, the song would sound like crap. Finally, on The Momur, Adrian started out on drums with Rob on bass and Brian on guitar. Adrian can still beat the skins pretty well! Rob was an ok bass player and Brian did a great job of singing and abusing the guitar. After a while, Mike took over on drums and Adrian played his guitar for one final guitar solo (after throwing his drumsticks out to the crowd). A la Hendrix, he played it with his teeth and tore the volume knob off with his teeth and spit it out to the crowd. A great finish to a great show. I took a friend with me to both shows who hadn't listened to a lot of Adrian. My friend is more into heavy metal (he loves Steve Vai and Eddie Van Halen). He is a metal shred-head. Anyways, both shows, I would look over and see him with his mouth hanging open with this look on his face that said "how the hell is he doing that?" He confessed that Adrian was probably the best guitarist he has seen and had equally high praise for Rob. He was more surprised at Rob because he knew that Adrian was supposed to be great, but Rob doesn't get the respect he deserves. After the show, we had passes to meet Adrian. He is a very warm, engaging, and funny person. We talked to him and Martha, his girlfriend, for quite a while. After the tour ends in the end of June, they are going on a trip to Hawaii and then he will see if he will reform King Crimson with Robert Fripp. He was very gracious and signed autographs and CD covers for anyone who wanted to. This is a great tour that everyone should go to if it comes close to you. I would absolutely love to have a taped copy of this tour. I can only hope that they might (doubtful) release this live someday. Oh, the opening band (Over The Rhine) was also good. They sound much better live than they do on their CD. The lead singer is very similar to Edie Brickel l. A good band to go see if you get the chance. [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] From: wcsanil at ccs dot carleton dot ca (Anil Prasad) Subject: ADRIAN BELEW stuff Date: Mon, 4 May 92 3:29:17 EDT Well, I saw Adrian Belew live in Montreal the other day, and it was *PHENOMENAL*. I've seen him live twice before, but nothing came close to this. Greg Hatch's review elsewhere pretty much sums it up. I'm speechless. I also was in the enviable position of being dead in front of him, about 8 inches away for the whole show! I got to see every unbelievably difficult twang trick he did. The guy is mind numbing to watch at close range, I've never seen anyone use every last square millimeter of a guitar to make a sound before. From headstock to twang bar, he had it covered. Unbelievable. Big Electric Cat, was beyond words... I can't even begin to describe how intense it was to watch. If you get to see this show, do it!! And to the guy that claimed that Belew solo is crap -- get a clue... Anyway, I'd really like to get some quality live tapes from this solo tour (or any belew/bears tour). If you have some, get in touch with me. I've got mucho crimson related stuff to trade. See ya, Anil Prasad wcsanil at ccs dot carleton dot ca P.S. In other Belew-related news, I was talking to Rob Fetters after the show, and The Psychodots are *very* close to a major record deal with Epic/Sony!!! Apparently Epic wants to sign them to a two record deal, the first record being a repackaged version of the debut album with extra tracks. Or should that be "CD"... Best of luck to these guys. If you like the Bears or Belew's solo work, you owe it to yourself to check out the Psychodots. If you need to know how to get ahold of the Psycodot's first CD, drop me a line. [][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][] To join this group or have your thoughts in the next issue, please send electronic mail to Toby Howard at the following address: toby at cs dot man dot ac dot uk The views expressed in discipline are those of the individual authors only.