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Re: Academic/musicological research on looping technique?



Hello All,

My only change here would be to use "improvise" instead of "compose" to 
avoid getting even more confused or complicated.
Otherwise, all good points.

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Matt Davignon <mattdavignon@gmail.com>
> To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
> Subject: Re: Academic/musicological research on looping technique?
> Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2010 14:43:25 -0800
> 
> 
> Hmmm... interesting.
> 
> I'm coming into this conversation late in the game. The following is
> just from what I've witnessed - there's no claim of expertise here. :)
> 
> To me, "Looping" is a technology, a technique, and could be called a
> compositional style.
> 
> Technology: You buy a looping and put it in your rig. You have looping.
> 
> Technique: You learn how to use the looping pedal, and to incorporate
> it into what you're doing. You learn a few tricks that can only be
> done with looping pedals.
> 
> Compositional Style: As you continue to work with looping technology,
> it affects the structure of your music. I find that even when the
> looping pedal is taken away, I often still imitate things that it
> does.
> Example 1: Except for relatively advanced players, the song structure
> of a looping performance is often "the ramp". That is, the player
> starts out with a single layer, and continues adding layers until
> he/she gets to a certain plateau, then solos over it. (I'm totally
> guilty of this!)
> Example 2: Except for relatively advanced players on relatively
> advanced equipment, music that depends on looping equipment often
> tends to focus on patterns that repeat for the entire song with little
> variation. For example, if there is a Verse/Chorus song structure, the
> Chorus often has additional loops on top of the existing chord
> progression, rather than a different chord progression.
> In some songs where there is a bridge, or a different chord
> progression before the chorus, sometimes those elements are performed
> and stored on the looping device before the song begins.
> Example 3: Compositions often use elements or "tricks" that are
> provided by the technology, that wouldn't be used otherwise. For
> example, since I've been using a DL-4, many of my "songs" have
> included point when everything switches to 1/2 speed. I also
> frequently use the reverse function to layer forward and backward
> material at the same time, to give a sense of disorientation.
> 
> Live Looping could arguably be called a genre, but in my brain, a
> genre called "looping" would not necessarily describe all music that
> involves live looping. In the same way that not all bands that jam fit
> in the genre name of "jam bands".
> 
> Perhaps it works better as a modifier to a genre, like "Post" or
> "Proto". In other words, there will be a definite genre like rock or
> hip-hop, but with the definite added aesthetic that's provided by
> repeating phrases of recorded musical material.
> 
> --
> Matt Davignon
> mattdavignon@gmail.com
> www.ribosomemusic.com
> Rigs! www.youtube.com/user/ribosomematt

>



Mark Showalter
Minden Jot!

myspace.com/folkstone57
http://www.last.fm/music/Mark+Showalter
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