Re: looping with other musicians

[Travis Hartnett <tiktok@sprintmail.com>]

If you're creating rhythmic loops, either everyone follows the pulse of 
the loops,  or you get a machine to stretch the loop as needed, or you 
keep your loops short and with few layers so you can re-record on the 
fly.

If you're playing with people who use terms like "selfish forced 
mechanized looped groove", then I wouldn't spend much time with the 
first approach.  I usually end up playing with people I like to play 
with for various reasons totally independent of their acceptance or 
ability to work with loops of any sort.  I don't have the luxury of 
replacing someone who's not in line with my looping outlook (a very 
small subset of my musical philosophy when playing in a non-solo 
context).  So, if they click with loops, great, and if they don't I'm 
not going to give them a Come To Jesus talk.

For me, much of the beauty of loops is the mechanized repetition.  You 
can add and subtract to the groove, but having a steady pulse has its 
own strong appeal.  The two ensemble situations I've been in where 
looping worked really well were a drummerless trio with a dj/programmer 
where everyone followed the forced mechanized groove loops in his 
sequencer and with a particular drummer who absolutely loved to play 
with a groove box handling the basic timekeeping role.  If everyone in 
your band is comfortable with a click, the click vanishes and the 
groove doesn't feel labored.

The second to last thing I want to do onstage is worry about when to 
re-record a loop because the collective tempo has shifted.

TravisH

On Oct 16, 2004, at 1:42 PM, 
Loopers-Delight-d-request@loopers-delight.com wrote:

> Want to know the secret to playing loops with groups?   I contend that 
> its all in your state of mind!  To many times I hear people ask how 
> they can get the bass player or drummer to follow their guitar loops.  
>  WRONG.  If you want to make loops while playing with other musicians, 
> you have to find a way to be able to **follow the other musicians**.  
> There is a subtle balance between musicians when everyone is "in the 
> groove."  No one person is determining it, and everyone is working 
> together to create it.  IMHO, Its just plain selfish to interupt that 
> balance with your forced mechanized looped groove and ask the other 
> musicians to blindly follow you.