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Looper's Delight
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>"[Snip]... Only most musicians are hardly able to play like that and
>claim that the public wants some ABACA... structure... probably a
>reminder of old dance styles and polite forms... and simply a help for
>the memory... easy composing... ?"
>
>Probably true, though it strikes me as odd based on how my brain works
>with music. I actually find it easier to compose or perform
>non-repetitive free improv, rather than music with some structure.
>Building structure based on rules seems like a lot of work!
maybe you got me wrong here:
a repetitive base certainly makes improvisation easier because you
know beforehand what will happen, to some degree.
in Brasil and probably other "hot" cultures, also rock bands, a huge
part of the performances are just in between composition and
improvisation: the musicians know the basic melody and rhythm of a
song and improvise its structure. This could hardly work without the
ABA... kind of tradition.
to create a composition, repetition also helps. sure its more work
than an improvisation, but try to remember a composition that never
repeats!
>The structure usually becomes a psychological inhibitor for me, stifling
>creativity and freedom of expression. In fact, I feel more at ease with
>myself as a musician and in tune with the flow of things when I pick up
>my guitar, randomly pick a note on the fret board, and start playing as
>if I were having a conversation or telling a story to someone....nothing
>really repeats...mostly notes... maybe an occasional dyad or triad to
>make a point, etc. It all depends on what you want to say. I like that
>looping that sort of thing for about 2 minutes, then having a
>conversation with myself in parallel....complementing the first version
>of the story with a parallel version, which ends up creating a whole new
>story.
yes, thats of the kind I am talking about. It seems to me that for
most musicians this is somehow "to easy" to do, so they dont see any
value.
but its what a huge part of the TV watchers are looking for: talk
shows where they can see any kind of people improvise express
spontaneously. So why would they not be able to follow your talking?
it becomes a lot more interesting if two or more musicians talk
together and sometimes coincide marvelously and sometimes have to
deal with clashes.
As Keith Jarret is a genious in interpretation, he also filled the
operas with his free improvisations, but if somebody only plays such
impros, he has a hard time to get jobs, right?
Music producers say there is no public for this. When we play for
them, they are fascinated. But they want to have granted what they
buy and sell: a song that people can remember and a demo that
contains exactly what you are going to do. The "what if you have a
bad day?" thing.
(but what do they do if a talk show master has a bad day?)
I think they just did not grab it yet... once musicians give more
value to their instrumental conversation ability and the public
realizes what music can be about, producers will hire us. (not that
this would be the aim of this mail...)
>Moreover, it doesn't surprise me that many people have an affinity
>toward repetition. I don't think we can blame the human kind for this
>sort of behavior. After all, nature is based on repetition (waves,
>cycles, seasons, bio-rhythms, vibrations, predictability, etc), and we
>are a part of nature...it makes sense to me that when we evolve in a
>system that exhibits a tremendous amount of repetition that we (the
>majority that is) will naturally evolve to be attracted to repetition.
oh sure, I kept talking about those needs for years!
Then I started to seek for the balance between the certain and the new.
if you keep talking through your instrument and sometimes loop a bit
of it, you easily find such a balanced sound. People like it and
producers are scared.
there is work to do!
and yes, this is not to be against ABABCA kind of music, just to get
atention for our kind - to celebrate as you put it:
>Hence, we should really celebrate this diversity rather than
>prescribing that the middle of the bell curve join us on one end of the
>spectrum....
--
---> http://Matthias.Grob.org