RE: we don't need no stinking rehearsal!

["MIKO" <m-i-k-o@attbi.com>]

You are killing me and you care not.  This is a looping-related post.  You
are killing me with overindulgence in looping and repeating and with any
failure to monitor battery or electricity levels.  You should not be 
looping
or repeating using tools that will short circuit because of all those wires
and frantic movements.  Turn the machine off.  Wipe it down with a moist
cloth perhaps.  Ensure that it remains in good condition.   If you decide
you don't want to use the same machine because in your abuse of it you come
to the errant conclusion that the looping device sucks, and not you, you 
are
not any musician I would ever respect.

-----Original Message-----
From: anti:clockwise [mailto:anticlockwise@tensionheadache.org]
Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2002 1:41 PM
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: we don't need no stinking rehearsal!



comrades.

sorry - i'm joining the fray on this one rather late in the game, so i
might be weighing/wading in here with a restatement of the theme as already
expressed nineteen times, but...

speaking just for myownself:
i will report my own aspect of my own unique and individual experience with
all this. and lucky for  yall that it _is_ that way.

so. me? i just feel better playing than i do doing most other things. that
means i play a LOT. i find all that volume and distortion to be quite
therapeutic; to say nothing of the
strategic/chessmoves/trying-to-stay-not-painted-in-a-corner mental moves
required to keep the pieces moving along nicely.

(strangest thing: somehow in all of this effort i do not see my technical
playing improving one bit, but, yknow, whatever. can't have everything.)

but the "chops freeze" not the worst news: what's also happening as a
result of all this practicing is a weird sort of codifying of my
improvisational techniques. almost to a place where i wonder if i even AM
improvising any more. sure, the stuff that comes out of my, er, operations
is never the same twice - tho i do repeat given elements a lot, cause,
well, they're the ones i have. my record collection may be unwieldy, but it
IS finite.

and i guess i am improving and pushing some boundary someplace. but lately
i wonder if it wouldn't be more improvisational to actually use a bunch of
different stuff from time to time. (think i can't play guitar? wait'll you
hear what i don't do with a trombone...)

but i'm not gonna do that cause i can't afford any new stuff, and right now
i have an extremely complex setup fairly well tamed and i have no intention
of letting THAT beast out of the cage any time soon (richford'll tell ya.
he's seen it... the horror...)

at one point i realized that the "rehearsal" part of my sessions extended
so far as getting my ass set up and ready to play in 25 minutes or under,
and that everything else was "playing". for the record, it's never taken
under 25 minutes to get it going, but what the hell, it's something to
shoot for.  so i'm actually rehearsing being a stagehand, and then
switching roles to "player" in order to answer back to whatever
emotional/personal/cataclysmic fracas i'm experiencing. fun, huh?

all of this is totally fine with me. or at least, it is what it is. and i
do get the juice from doing it that i wanna get. and i stay in shape by
lifting & carrying all that crap when i have to go someplace to perform!

so as a result of all that "practicing", the best compliment i've ever had
was a recording engineer who told me "wow! you set all that shit up like a
union guy!"

as a result of all that "playing" comments have been.... rather slow in
forthcoming. but it feels great to be good at SOMETHING, right?

custom made,
a:c


  Tim Nelson <psychle62@yahoo.com>
said in part


 > So when we talk about "practicing", how much of our response is
influenced by that sort of
 > cultural baggage? I think it's difficult to discuss the subject in a
group without some sort of
 > equivocation. Our definitions are bound to differ; some may see
practicing as a way to develop
 > manual agility and muscle memory so that it'll be simply easier to play
the music they hear in
 > their heads. To some, the notion may connotate a guy with a pointy
headstock hunched over
 > the Guitar Grimoire ripping scales.
 > As loopers, "practice" can involve more, too, as the definitions and
boundaries of our
 > instruments are extended.

and per opined:


 > To me "programming a midi foot controller" is as important as
 > "developing a muscle memory suitable for handling a certain instrument".
 > It all comes down to opening up the channels for musical expression.
 > As well as practicing on playing certain "licks", "compositions" etc you
 > may need to practice staying away from those things. Personally I like
 > the vision of a music that never repeats any part. A non-composed flow
 > that doesn't have a start, doesn't have an ending and that has no
 > "recognizable hook elements". Short excerpts could of course have a
 > strong identity but if you keep listening even that is changing... I'm
 > not yet especially good at playing that type of music but I'm
 > practicing. Practicing on.... TIME ;-)