What prompted "A wave from San Cugat"

Sent 11/23/09

Dear Robert

Ever since the Raft Island OCG II course I have been debating with myself if is it necessary to reach out to you about my observations and experiences, and I concluded, yes it is. I asked _ _ for your e-mail address (he sends his best wishes, by the way). I apologize in advance if this was not a proper thing to do.

I agree with your diary post from Friday, 30th October 2009,

“One of the Outer Circle, waiting in The Basement of Fremont Abbey while the Inner Circle were playing encores upstairs, was hoping to be called out & up to join them, and was disappointed they were not.”

My sense is this does not completely convey my disappointment with the course.

I feel that this course, while billed as preparation for the Completion course in March 2010, became something else. From my perspective, it became a vehicle to present and promote Tuning The Air, to put them on the map, so to speak. This is a noble endeavor, one that I support. But I felt a sense of ‘bait and switch’ as the course progressed. I strongly believe that if this was the intention, from the outset, it should have been stated clearly, in advance.

I also felt at the performance at Freemont Abbey, that the OCG was a toy, a gimmick, even a joke, and the real work presented, and the real ‘music’ was solely Tuning The Air. The fact that the OCG was not acknowledged after TTA’s encore, called up and out of the Basement in recognition of our joint work, the work of this course, reinforced the notion of separation between TTA and the OCG. This was indeed a disappointment to me, and, as I see it, a missed opportunity for the course.

This sense of separation was pervasive on this course, for me. I felt that the “Gnarlies” were perceived as less than, unaware and unawake, a nuisance, and most strongly, not good enough, by many, especially the TTA team. Personally, this sense that there is, in GC, a cult of personality, of chosen or anointed ones, and tolerant condescension for the rest, has kept me away from GC courses for the past 4 years.

Yet, there were many moments of beauty and ‘music’ in our House of Guitars, one being the duet I performed on Monday night, an experience I’ll treasure for the rest of my life. Where did that come from? I’ll be pondering this question for a long time. I paraphrase something you said, I believe, regarding this course: Music so wants to be heard that it calls upon the most unlikely characters to bring it to life.

I hope that my comments do not come off as the inappropriate rambling of a petulant, immature child. There are enough Lemmings in this world.

I am a GC lifer, and it inexpressible how grateful I am to be a Crafty and to have GC in my life for the past 10 years.

Sincerely, with best wishes,

A.


Robert's reply, sent 12/09/09

Dear Crafty,

A wave from Sant Cugat!

Each course is unique, each course is a multiplicity of courses. So, whatever the course was for you, is as valid as "my course". My own approach is to arrive, with an aim or two or three, and see what is possible. Then the course takes on a life & lives of its own, and I respond as I am able. What happens is pretty much outside my capacity to control.

The centre of gravity of my own work is increasingly towards supporting those who have a measure of competence. The standard of the Beginners here at Sant Cugat is so low that I am despairing of how to be useful.

One of the strengths of The OCG is that, whatever level of competence on the instrument & quality of personal presence we are able to bring, we have opportunities to contribute & participate & shape what is taking place, to our own degree.

Taking this into a public arena is risky. Long experience suggests that members of the public have limited degrees of patience, attention & support available, for ventures that fall upon their ears from outside the mainstream. So, it is useful during the unfolding event to have available something which can invite back wandering ears. At Sant Cugat for The OCG I last February 27th. we had ZUM. For The OCG II we had the TTA team comprising the inner circle.

You feel that the performance at Freemont Abbey, that the OCG was a toy, a gimmick, even a joke, and the real work presented, and the real ‘music’ was solely Tuning The Air. This is not my view, even a little. From your perspective it became a vehicle to present and promote Tuning The Air, to put them on the map, so to speak. This is not my view either.

One of my declared aims was to support the work of the Seattle Circle; and I feel the performance did that. But that wasn’t the extent of the course, nor the only focus of my interest.

I felt that the “Gnarlies” were perceived as less than, unaware and unawake, a nuisance, and most strongly, not good enough, by many, especially the TTA team. Personally, this sense that there is, in GC, a cult of personality, of chosen or anointed ones, and tolerant condescension for the rest…

Clearly I don’t speak for others, including the TTA team. For myself, I don’t have much resonance with these views, while agreeing that cluelessness & dopiness is as part of Guitar Craft as anything else in the world.

My own primary difficulty stems from not knowing how to help members of the Team where there is little basic competence in, for example, counting & circulating. Even after more than 24 years, a familiarity with C major into 3 octaves in the first five positions continues to be an exception rather than a basic skill. Similarly, counting in 5 or 7 while circulating in time is not complex, yet remains an exotic accomplishment for many. What to do with this? Well, very soon, this will no longer be my responsibility!

… there were many moments of beauty and ‘music’ in our House of Guitars… and many wonderful moments too over the whole period, in addition to the disappointments, opportunities missed & mistakes that were not-quite-the-teachers they might have been.

And now a time is coming to an end.

Thank you for coming to Raft Island: I was happy to see you there, not quite knowing if we would meet again.