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Looper's Delight
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Along the lines of what Daryl describes I'd like to add the strategy I employ often, which is the creation of a neutral melodic part that can also be of a rhythmic nature but uses intervals other than the 3rd so I have the luxury of going major or minor with what ever chords I lay on top with another loop or overdub. For an example, lets say I confined my note choice to two pitches, a major 2nd apart. Now those two notes could imply several keys, and depending on which octave you play them in, they don't necessarily have to imply a root point either. I tend to start with these simple parts in high or mixed registers. They can be of a rhythmic or drone nature depending on your approach. So lets look at the notes C and D as and example. They could imply a Root C to major 2nd D in the key of C, The IV C to V D in the Key of G, The minor 3rd to 4th in the keys A natural (Aeolian minor), A harmonic minor, and A melodic minor (ascending). The V to VI in the key of F major, etc. So now comes the point where I lay a chord progression down over the top or in my case on a separate track. I usually will work in one two bar progression but you don't have to. Then I will move to a new key or imply a modulation by replacing that information with a new chord progression rather than put it on a new track, I just use the replace function which also allows be to replace just a portion of the track, if I so desire. Some might think this method cumbersome but it works for me, and the cool byproduct is you keep replacing tracks so even though you might use this technique in a simple A/B chord progression, it tends to keep loops sounding fresh because you keep replacing them, rather than toggling back an forth between loops you had created at the beginning of the piece. I guess there is more risk involved that you play your parts slightly differently each time but I also find this a more forgiving method if I do make a mistake is I can always stay in replace mode until I get it right. Replace is one of my favorite functions for taking a left turn musically. I have a foot controller preset dedicated to replace. I have one preset dedicated to replace + track speed toggle, and one preset for those two functions + reverse. Another cool strategy is to build up a few layers of very sparse loops that aren't implying too much harmonically, and then create a loop that is a very long progression, perhaps and entire AB or ABC form , and then start to play melodically on top of that as you start to fade the progression away using feedback manipulation. Another cool trick is to play a long progression and only record the second half of it so the loop keeps tagging the last few bars until you decide to replace that content with something new. Some of these approaches may be idiosyncratic to the Looperlative and software based loop programs, but the concept of making the first loops minimal and harmonically neutral can apply to any looper to minimize the static nature of a chord progression looping over and over as well as give you more key modulation options. The more I blog on this list the more worried I am that I keep repeating myself...but is that not the looping way?? Bill -----Original Message----- From: Daryl Shawn [mailto:highhorse@mhorse.com] Sent: Friday, December 26, 2008 10:10 AM To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com Subject: Re: Fwd: here and now / evolving loops This is an interesting discussion. It's true, Fabio, many looping artists tend to stay fixed on a tonal center. One simple trick I've found is to make a sudden or gradual change to a different chord in the same key. The most obvious is to go to the relative major or minor, so if it's been a heavy E minor groove, I'll start feeding in G major triads. It can create some real drama, while allowing an established loop to continue. It's not hard to switch back and forth, especially if you replace the lowest part of your loops (whatever serves as your "bass"). More dramatically, I'll lay groundwork for an actual key change by inserting bits of very nontonal, undefined stuff, slowly obliterating the previous key center. When the previous key has disappeared in a nontonal mess, I'll start a new one, replacing the nontonal stuff with inside material. Coming from chaos to a defined key center can work really nicely. Daryl Shawn www.swanwelder.com www.chinapaintingmusic.com > What remains unsolved in my mind is: what do you mean about "changing > direction" ? > > Referring to tonality, it seems that a lot of people in this list play > on a "tonal centre" (you know what i mean....: playing and looping in > E minor, for example) This is no the case of Kris et alteri....I know, > but most of people here (including myself) play mostly "on" or > "around" the same chord. > > It's rare to hear someone changing chords, when looping (i mean having > and evolving an harmonic structure, like: A minor/D minor/G major/D > major and back to the beginning ...just for example) and evolving that > chords change into a new one while looping. > > So, sometimes i feel like live looping miss something about "harmony". > You can change rhythm, melodies, but it's difficult to build in short > time chords structures that evolve "while" looping.