Re: Composition & Improvisation (was Re: Terje Rypdal was ECM guitarists)

[andy butler <akbutler@tiscali.co.uk>]

Warren Sirota wrote:

> trying to *re*-create a piece, I often lose the flow I might otherwise
> be in touch with - it's not a problem when playing familiar guitar
> songs, but once looping technology is involved, the price of mistakes
> seems to go up. So better to be in a context where mistakes are harder
> to make. 

oh, yes,
I noticed that :-)

looping devices need to be practiced on just as much
as the guitar,
...and the empty loop of silence is still a threat 


> Better, I think, to have a set of fallback *strategies* than pieces,
> in the vein of Eno's oblique strategies, but more looping specific;
> e.g. "throw 1 random sound into a very short loop and then go straight
> into multiply" (like the piece I posted here a couple of days ago). or
> "record a totally new loop, play over it for a short time, then undo".
>  or just "switch to a patch that might be more inspiring".
> 

I like to practise the pieces till I know what to do when they go wrong,
keeping in mind that sometimes the composed piece will be totally
lost.

..and the audience won't know it went wrong unless your body language
give it away, as long as you keep some sounds going.

andy butler