Re: Academic/musicological research on looping technique?

["Mark Showalter" <folkstone57@operamail.com>]

Hello All,

My only change here would be to use "improvise" instead of "compose" to 
avoid getting even more confused or complicated.
Otherwise, all good points.

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Matt Davignon <mattdavignon@gmail.com>
> To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
> Subject: Re: Academic/musicological research on looping technique?
> Date: Tue, 9 Nov 2010 14:43:25 -0800
> 
> 
> Hmmm... interesting.
> 
> I'm coming into this conversation late in the game. The following is
> just from what I've witnessed - there's no claim of expertise here. :)
> 
> To me, "Looping" is a technology, a technique, and could be called a
> compositional style.
> 
> Technology: You buy a looping and put it in your rig. You have looping.
> 
> Technique: You learn how to use the looping pedal, and to incorporate
> it into what you're doing. You learn a few tricks that can only be
> done with looping pedals.
> 
> Compositional Style: As you continue to work with looping technology,
> it affects the structure of your music. I find that even when the
> looping pedal is taken away, I often still imitate things that it
> does.
> Example 1: Except for relatively advanced players, the song structure
> of a looping performance is often "the ramp". That is, the player
> starts out with a single layer, and continues adding layers until
> he/she gets to a certain plateau, then solos over it. (I'm totally
> guilty of this!)
> Example 2: Except for relatively advanced players on relatively
> advanced equipment, music that depends on looping equipment often
> tends to focus on patterns that repeat for the entire song with little
> variation. For example, if there is a Verse/Chorus song structure, the
> Chorus often has additional loops on top of the existing chord
> progression, rather than a different chord progression.
> In some songs where there is a bridge, or a different chord
> progression before the chorus, sometimes those elements are performed
> and stored on the looping device before the song begins.
> Example 3: Compositions often use elements or "tricks" that are
> provided by the technology, that wouldn't be used otherwise. For
> example, since I've been using a DL-4, many of my "songs" have
> included point when everything switches to 1/2 speed. I also
> frequently use the reverse function to layer forward and backward
> material at the same time, to give a sense of disorientation.
> 
> Live Looping could arguably be called a genre, but in my brain, a
> genre called "looping" would not necessarily describe all music that
> involves live looping. In the same way that not all bands that jam fit
> in the genre name of "jam bands".
> 
> Perhaps it works better as a modifier to a genre, like "Post" or
> "Proto". In other words, there will be a definite genre like rock or
> hip-hop, but with the definite added aesthetic that's provided by
> repeating phrases of recorded musical material.
> 
> --
> Matt Davignon
> mattdavignon@gmail.com
> www.ribosomemusic.com
> Rigs! www.youtube.com/user/ribosomematt

>



Mark Showalter
Minden Jot!

myspace.com/folkstone57
http://www.last.fm/music/Mark+Showalter
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