Re: WHAT COULD WE DO BETTER?

[Mark Hamburg <mark_hamburg@baymoon.com>]

Some observations:

* Multi-instrumentalists are more interesting to watch as loopers. In part
this is just because it's less common to see someone playing multiple
instruments, but I also think it helps with appreciating the looping 
because
the audience can map what they are hearing in the loop to what they saw
performed earlier and it's clearly separate from what is being played now.

* To a somewhat lesser but still relevant extent, people who use a series 
of
different instruments but generally only use one per piece get more variety
in their sets. This includes people like Bill Walker who play a series of
different guitars with each guitar more or less setting the style for the
piece.

* Let's face it. If you take away lyrics, unless a performer covers a 
pretty
wide range of stylistic territory, playing the same instrument over and 
over
again tends to make everything sound similar for most of the audience. This
may be an argument in favor of playing fewer longer pieces rather than more
short ones because it reduces the "but I just heard you play a looped
didgeridoo piece" effect. Another choice would be looping melodies that
people already know so that the known melodies provide a point of
distinction between the pieces for the audience.

* As a counter-point, multi-instrumentalists generally seem to take longer
to set up and soundcheck which is a bad thing in the festivals I've been
involved with.

Mark