Robert Fripp's Diary

Monastery Of Our Lady Of

08.30

Monastery Of Our Lady Of The Angels, Dominican Order,

Sant Cugat, Spain.

Left View…

Forward View…

Right View…

Rising at 06.15 local time. This was 05.15 to an English body, itself not quite adjusted from US Central Time. Oh! how I suffer.

The theme introduced by Dr. Mike, and posted on the board, is Noticing. What I have noticed this morning is the constant traffic noise. At 06.15 this was already a pre-dawn chorus. This is now accompanied by the sound of construction work. That’s what you get for checking in at night: you wake up overlooking a construction site. Or, 4 kilometres from the centre of Sant Cugat, several construction sites. This is a quickly expanding area for Barcelona commuters for housing in blocks & blocks of apartment buildings. Last night Luciano told me the monastery was surrounded by green fields when he was here, only 3 years ago. Now, the fields are growing blocks of concrete.

09.45  T’ai Chi at 09.00 with Luciano & mosquitoes.

11.22  Meeting with the Level Three performance team from last night, looking more closely at the parts with a mosquito.

The monastery, a modern building, has generously allowed me accommodation in the apartment reserved for the visiting priest. This is part of the same building as the Team, but on the other side of the space reserved for the Sisters’ use. Once, the whole of the building was used to house the Dominican Sisters. Today, relatively few find their vocation in orders. The House currently has 9 Sisters, and the remaining space is made available for renting. As I move from the priest’s apartment to the GC space, I hear the Sisters singing & the morning (public) service being celebrated. We are fortunate to be here.

14.12  Only 2 comments at lunch. The team were too worn out practising Guitar Craft Face to have enough energy left over for observations.

This is the first course where constant traffic, hammering, drills, pneumatic drills, trains & a choir of Dominican nuns accompany our guitar playing.

Early Afternooon View…

Beaudoux Beast Of Terror, Sweetness & Sensitivity…

Not everyone in the GC family prefer this to the Ovation shallow body. The Ovation is a superb instrument, and a reliable guitar to take into the front line. The Beaudoux GC model isn’t quite as loud, but is sweeter; also more sensitive to changing weather (all natural materials). But it is far more playable to these hands.

17.36  A meeting with the Course’s visitors, and anyone else who wanted to be there, with guitars in ballroom. The symmetrical scale on C with circulations. Not everyone is familiar with this scale.

19.13  T’ai Chi with Luciano & mosquito. The evening service is underway below, a wonderful contribution to the evening.

20.50  A quiet dinner, and silence visited. The dessert was small, composed mainly of small bits of fruit, but with cream. It looked good, and was well presented. It was also small.

The Introductions Meeting is called for 21.30. This is not an Inaugural Meeting, because the Level Three is in its middle, yet there are visitors. So, to introduce ourselves to each other, we have an Introductions Meeting.

22.08 Introductions were made stating who, where, what & why. Participants are from Argentina (particularly Mendoza), Italy, Poland, England, France, Austria, Spain, Guatemala, Mexico, Wales & Norway.