Re: backing solo performances

[Matt Davignon <mdavig@sfsu.edu>]

I have to agree with Mike. I saw an experimental show a few months ago. 
One of the musicians had all sorts of neat stuff in front of him to play. 
When he got around to doing his set, he played a minidisc recording of 
himself and played his stuff to the already generated musical background. 
He reminded me of Janet Jackson concerts where they play a CD of the music 
and just dance in front of it.

On the other hand, I really enjoy musicians who create the backing loops 
as they play, then switch instruments and play or loop the other parts 
"live". I always thought that was really cool.

matt

Michael Tuminello wrote:

> Hi -
>
> my original plan was to do something similar (probably midi synth + drum 
>backing only), until I saw a guy @ Sidewalk cafe in NY do this. He seemed 
>like an accomplished musician - he had arranged string tracks and all 
>kinds of crazy backing for his stuff.
>
> However, the end result for me was that I felt like he was playing 
>karaoke. I had the feeling that he wasn't even singing or playing guitar 
>anymore, and that it was all recorded. (Not true, but that's what it felt 
>like to me.) At that point I decided that a full band was the way to go.
>
> Other people may have differing opnions (I'm sure they will), but you 
>should try to check out someone who performs like this before you totally 
>commit to doing it yourself, in my opinion. I went from no doubt that it 
>would work to completely discarding the idea.
>
> MT
>
>      Greetings:
>      In the most recent issue of Guitar Player magazine, there is an 
>article on the use of MiniDisc backing tracks for live performances by 
>solo artists. This article is timely for me because I'm currently 
>developing a repertoire of recorded rhythmic and ambient accompaniment to 
>supplement my guitar looping for solo live performances. My desire is to 
>maintain an improvisational element in my performance but also to give 
>the gig some structure with the accompaniment, which I'm committing to CD 
>via my new HP CD recorder. I would like to hear from other members of 
>this list who are doing similar things. I'd be interested in hearing how 
>others use accompaniment (what kind of medium, what desired effects are 
>being achieved, etc..).
>                                                                          
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