Drummers and Syncing

[matthias@bahianet.com.br (Matthias Grob)]

Watch out: this is a very long post, but full of different interesting 
stuff!

Greg West gave his debut:
...
>In reference to the asynchronous looping, I'd love to find a drummer who 
>can
>keep track of beats and time signatures without help (isn't that what a
>drummer's supposed to do--keep time?)  But I've not found one yet who can
>play freely and creatively against a separate time signature or 
>polyrhythmic
>textures.

I hate to disagree to the first paragraph of your first post :-).
Although I use loops almost constantely and got used to follow the constant
speed, I do not think this is the only, natural way of playing.
The drummer is supposed to *define* time, but for my taste, it may *vary*
with the developpment of the music.
Maybe you find a drummer who can play creatively if you let him follow his
timing intuition?
Are you sure you will not like it, or is it just a bit more difficult to 
follow?
Or is it the DJs who will not like it?

Working in studios here I was amazed to see that brasilians do not use
click tracks. And I also looked into shocked american faces when they came
here to record THEIR music with a BAHIAN touch, but could not imagine that
this touch could be *connected to rhythmic freedom*.
Its amazing how "inacurate" a nice grove can be. Its what they call
"swinge" or "xinga" here.

I am not a drummer and may be completely wrong. I gave up to play with
drummers ten years ago, because they all sounded like machines. And it
clearly came up with the machines. The drumming of the 70ies was looser,
more creative, I think. The snare was not constant, but full of rolls and
uneven accents. Then they suddenly had to compete with the machines...

Having said all that, I will need to review looping technology, 
though...;-)

>I recorded my album "Orion Ascending" with Pat Mundy, who played Indian 
>tabla
>on two cuts.  His ability to function in dense and intricate rhythmic
>textures was phenomenal, but when we experimented early on with loops, he
>just couldn't get used to it.  He felt too "exposed" by being out there 
>with
>no one else holding down the beat with him.  My concept was that the drums
>create their own space while the loop makes a "context" for the events 
>that
>occur within its "domain."  It seems that drummers feel "naked" without a
>bass player or someone else keeping time with them.  (I'd think that 
>would be
>liberating!)  On the CD, Pat ended up recording two acoustic (non-looped)
>pieces with me.

Very interesting point... "naked"... for me, the looper is like a "dress"
when I am alone on stage. ;-)

I observed that a acurate loud and clear rhythmic sound coming from the
loop does not at all what a playing person radiates. There is something
like a "spiritual pulsation" coming from the claves player for example. In
case of the conducter, this is more explicit even. And there is no way I
can build this into a looper... :-)

So the case of your tabla payer sound like he wants to radiate and needs
someone to reflect it. Could that be?

>...I enjoy the way the loops interact when they're not synced.
>... Our brains
>naturally seek patterns out of chaos... and left with only chaos to 
>process,
>the brain will create its own patterns.  In this manner, the audience 
>becomes
>a participant in the creative process and no two listeners will come to 
>this
>resolution in the same time or even the same way.  It's like quantum 
>music!

I often use the harmonic chaos that arises if I play a lot of melodies into
the loop, or the rhythmic chaos if I chop up a running loop. And I fully
agree that its completely fascinating how we hear a pattern we like in any
(?) sound.
I also agree, that the public participates in this process, even "sends"
its interpretation to the musician so he might end up playing acording to
the publics taste (not so bad, after all).
Now, I always try to elaborate a bit the "thing" I hear out of the chaos.
Isnt that our work? In case of the harmonies, I let the loop fade a bit and
put some notes that fortify the "thing" I heard in it.
For the "syncless chaos", that would mean: Once that brilliant pattern
shines out of your chaos, would it not be nice to sync on the spot and work
out what has been heard?

This might turn into a very fundamental question:
How much of our creations should be a direct channeling of what we "hear"
from beyond and how much an interpretation, an adaption for beeings with
less sensibility (with full respect. a less developped ability to "listen")
?
I will think about it.

>... My whole philosophy is that music exists around
>us like white light. My job, in performance, is to act as a prism that
>refracts the music that exists in that time and place into patterns, 
>colors,
>and shapes that can be used to make "audible light."

Oh, you did give an answer before I asked! Are we synced?
(that "chaos" happens if you answer a mail while reading it :-( )

---
>Finally, someone discussed earlier how to get your audience more involved.
> Here's an idea I use.  Before launching into looped works, I briefly 
>explain
>and demonstrate how the various pieces of technology work and show how a 
>loop
>is constructed.  Typically, I take a short children's round, like "Row, 
>Row,
>Row Your Boat" or "Frere Jacques" and loop the melody and add the rounds.
> People can relate to that easily.  Then I work from that loop and change 
>the
>tonality to something modal, and begin to warp and twist it.  Audiences 
>love
>this!
>The other tip I had, is to explain briefly (accounting for non-musicians
>present) that the octave consists of 12 tones, and how they are named.  I
>then select four people at random from the audience to call out a note 
>name,
>which I then enter into a loop of varying length.  The audience becomes 
>very
>involved in this, and members with musical backgrounds often try to
>"sabotage" the process by adding intentionally dissonant tones.  The last
>time I tried this the four notes I was given perfectly outlined a 
>wholetone
>scale.  This made a particularly monstrous loop which was delightful since
>the concert took place under a full moon, just a few days before 
>Hallowe'en!

Great! We should add this to the "Performance Theory" file on the page!

>Enough ramblings!  This list is cool.  I enjoy your comments and will 
>answer
>e-mail as often as time permits.

This is not rambling, man, this is sheer beauty and astral intelligence!
Be carefull, it can turn into a full time job :-)

Thanks a lot, you moved me!
Matthias

PS I feel like spliting this mail into 2 or 3 and call the others something
like "Performance Theory again" and "transforming light into sound", but as
it grew so nicely... up to you!

Lets take our time to discuss such serious stuff.
There are "concrete" posts that might be more on topic.
These philosophic ones I consider as our preparation for the next millenium
and they can take a few years for everyone to sync together.

Anyone thinks that this is "New Age" religion or something and thus not for
this list?