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Looper's Delight
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Luis posted this video of Preston Reed's percussive style (probably an influence on Kaki King, the wonderful percussive and now, looping guitarist) www.youtube.com/watch I thought it might be cool to watch it and find some other resources on the web (as well as post our own thoughts and practises) about how to use the guitar as a percussion instrument. My own brother, Bill Walker has been finding incredibly cool sounds out of hi lapsteel guitar, by brushing the strings to create shaker effects and , just lately , he's discovered a very hip really high pitched cowbell sound buy manipulating false and very high harmonics and then damping immediatlely. His 'drumset' loops at the latest Heroes of Slide Guitar show in Santa Cruz was particularly compelling to me. He even used his cell phone on the pickup to amplify some cool 'cricket' like sounds. Preston uses his techniques in real time, interspersing them with tapping, strumming and glissing the strings in much the same way a beatboxer can weave in a melody , linearly, in to a beatbox). The cool thing about this technique is that it presents us with only partial percussion that is so convincing that the pattern orientation of the brain completes the pattern.............this is done analagously by beatboxers who can weave in faux instruments, lyrics and drums by interspersing individual 16th notes of different timbres of sound....all in a row. My brother, uses live looping and then layers several parts on. They are both very valid approaches but require really different mental sets. In some ways, because one doesn't have to hold down the fort in looping, it means we can search for more interesting and idiosyncratic sounds to weave into our instrumental mix that we don't have to be responsible for holding down constantly (in much the same way that I can use a frisbee as a kick drum sound without having to play the instrument for the entire song). The acoustic real time way is certainly more difficult and technically impressive, but the looping part may, ultimately, be more liberating and innovative in terms of pure timbre. What do y'all think?