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Looper's Delight
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Dave sais brilliantely: >Sometimes we make music because we *have* to, not because we *want* >to. I've made a lot of music that I personally dislike, but I felt I >needed to make. I had a master (Steve Cooney) that listened to my early loops. At that time, when the loop "went wrong" because strange notes crept into the peacefull clima, I used to cut or fade out. But he told me to go on, because these notes I disliked were part of mine and I had to go through it. I did. I went into the most horrible screeming laments and realized that I always came out and usually to create a new theme, nicer than all before. With time, the horror parts became weaker, rarer - it IS therapy. Now they almost stopped. Also the necessity to play daily. Maybe I got too much envolved with the principles so it has become harder for me to just let loop. Now we use our no AC room where I play Kalimba and claypot... I had said: >> For me, there are the two phases: walking (traveling to places you only >go >> once) and resting (come back to the same bed every night), developing >and >> harvesting. Loops help for both, but are more obvious for the resting. >> Some of the nicest recording of mine happened *after* the loop had faded >> and I played real solo, but really relaxed and inspired because of the >loop >> that before. And in those phases we often modulating like classical >music >> without ever coming back. This "anti-loop" kind of music is very little >> explored. It asks for a lot of atention by the listener (not to miss the >> bus), while the loop kind just enters mind for free. >This makes me think of the Western classical theory ideals of tension >and resolution. In classical-descended music, this is done mostly >with harmony. I don't know how many jazz theory books I've read that >defined "movement" in terms of tension and resolution. The cool thing >about looping (and all the various repetitive, non-harmonic world >musics this theory implicitly ignores) is that you have motion WITHOUT >tension and resolution. The motion doesn't go away just because >you're not playing at the moment. The loop is still moving. And once >you've abandoned the idea of tension/resolution, you can abandon it >for the "walking", too. You can just play, without setting up clear >goals. Sorry, I only read about two books about music... Really advanced. I will have to explore that. So far I thought, relaxation only happens after tension. Or we do not look for relaxation. For what? Whatever we do, we grow out of it one day. In my perception really, there are not just the two phases of walking and resting, but four different main applications for music: Concentration (waiting, meditation...) Travel (searching, experience, crazyness...) Dance (energizing, partnership, body consciousness...) Praising (finale, overwhelming harmony, admiration, thanking...) >I was just thinking of the music of Edgar Varese. He often composed >for just percussion, or percussion and brass/woodwinds. One of my >favorites is a percussion/horn piece that just comes in waves and >waves of chaotic sound. It's a composed loop. I'm almost certain he >was trying to simulate the effect of a migraine headache. That's just >what it sounds like to me. Hurts like hell to listen to. Like tibetanian religious music? And does it do any good? I have this doubt for a long time: If helps me to listen to my own horror story, does that mean it can help somebody else too? I tend not to listen to "ugly" music exept of my own, sometimes. A matter of taste? >Yes, looping has obviously touched us all on some very deep level, as >musicians. We should think about this philosophically, to try to >understand our emotional reaction to this method of performance, >composition, and improvisation. Hope it really helps. For someone who is new in looping, those experiences, theories or "rules" that may result, do they expand or limit the horizon? Anyone? >Hope I haven't muddied the waters even more. Was there any mud? I love this kind of talk Mattias