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Looper's Delight
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Matthias Grob wrote: most original music grows out of playing. So the question "what music would I like to perform?" is useful but usually limiting to what we heard before or to the sounds and playing techniques we are used to. For me looping was much more a way to discover what comes out of myself than a tool to "construct" what I had imagined. Wow, you have really hit the nail on the head to describe what I personally love about live looping. I have played very arranged and composed music for most of my life and since around 1998 I have played almost entirely improvised music using live looping devices. I love that I don't know what's going to happen in a solo (or duet or trio) live looping gig. There is so much serendipity that it has really improved my musicianship to be able to respond in very musical and supportive ways to what come out. I've begun to realize that most musicians have a tendency to project what it is that they are playing on an ensemble situation.......................because we use our intellect and our physical and conceptual skills to play some sometimes very complex musical passages it becomes difficult to actually hear what you have played in an ensemble situation. When you loop, however, you get to listen back to EXACTLY what you have played............................not what you wish you had played but what you actually played. If you've been human and made minor mistakes in your execution and timing, your task, then, is to respond to exactly what you've played and make it sound more musical and coherent. With live looping, one can play a fairly 'lumpy' (or slightly inaccurate) loop and by what choices one makes in subsequent layers of overdubbing, one can actually recontextualize inaccurate playing into very, very musical pieces. We, therefore, have to respond to what we hear.......................NOT what we intended to play.....................what we ACTUALLY played. This is really profound and for me, it has greatly improved my ability to play with many different musicians, no matter what their level of competency. In the first 30 years of playing I tried really hard to play as perfectly as possible despite the level of competency or the quality of the 'feel' of a musician I was playing with. In the last 10 years, I have started to try and make every single person I play with sound better (including myself when I sometimes play less than accurate loops). In my own life, I could have never made this wonderful conceptual breakthrough if I hadn't done a hell of a lot of solo live looping concerts. My philosophy now, is PLAY WHAT IS, not what you want, or intend, or expect it to be.............whether you are layering on your own loops , playing with another syncrhonized or unsynchronized live looper or whether you are playing in a completey non-looping context. When I take this philosophy, I have learned so damned much more about the concept of timing.................stretched timing.............phrasing.......... and more about music. Okay, I just went to goth night and had a great time (and drank 3 strongish cosmopolitans) so I'll quit babbling. Nice thread. Thanks guys!