Re: livelooping articles for a guitar magazine

[Daniel Thomas <danielthomas4@mac.com>]

Some of my favorite (famous) looping guitarists:

Adrian Belew
Robert Fripp
David Torn
Bill Walker (growing fame-- A loopers looper.  IMO, He ought to be 
mentioned as a looping innovator who is widely known among looping 
guitarists and technology manufacturers as a critical pioneer in the 
genre)  Can I get an AMEN?
Bob Brozman (authentic roots acoustic guitarist who loops "acoustronica" 
with a collaborator / musician)
Bill Frizzle
Phil Keaggy

Many more are coming to mind..   But there are others on this list who 
will weigh in too...


:)

Daniel 


On May 28, 2011, at 4:09 AM, Michael Peters wrote:

> hi all,
> 
> The largest German guitar magazine (Gitarre und Bass) has expressed 
>interest
> that I write something for them about livelooping. They have never 
>written
> anything about it so far and they realize that the topic has become
> interesting enough for many guitarists to be presented in the magazine. 
> 
> I won't be able to start writing until mid-July because I'm busy with 
>other
> things now. Because it is such a complex subject, it looks like it might
> turn into a series of articles rather than just one. I haven't really
> started to think about the specifics but they want me to send them a 
>rough
> outline. 
> 
> I think it would make sense to write about 
> 
> 1) what livelooping is - a general introduction and overview, including a
> paragraph about the difference between livelooping and using prerecorded
> loops; this introduction would already contain some of what the later
> articles would look at in more detail, such as a bit of history, 
>guitarists
> and other musicians who use livelooping, different styles and approaches,
> and a look at the technology;
> 
> 2) the history of livelooping in some detail (something I already wrote
> about 15 years ago - the article is still online at Looper's Delight);
> 
> 3) livelooping styles, approaches and strategies and musical 
>possibilities,
> with examples of livelooping musicians, ideally guitarists, ideally world
> famous guitarists, including a discography + list of online resources; 
> 
> 4) something about the technology, hardware/software (enough material 
>for at
> least two articles), maybe including a comparison chart of the tools that
> are currently available;
> 
> 5) I could also imagine articles about how to play rock tunes with
> livelooping (something that has recently been discussed here), complete 
>with
> scores, step-by-step-how-tos, and all. That would be something I would
> possibly leave to one of you (with credits etc. of course) because some 
>of
> you are real specialists on this, and I am not. Please contact me 
>offline if
> you feel you could do that well.  Too bad that the magazine doesn't allow
> for included videos, but I could at least point to them - such as the 
>truly
> glorious cover versions that Randolf Arriola did recently. Randolf do you
> feel you could analyze them and write about them?
> 
> So again, I'd be grateful for any suggestions (structure/topics). 
> 
> There are a gazillion livelooping guitarists but at the moment I really
> wonder which of them are famous enough to be known to the majority of
> magazine readers (apart from Robert Fripp of course, who would certainly 
>be
> the #1 example, if you like him or not). Of course there is a lot that I
> could write about us, the crowd of incredibly talented Looper's Delight
> guitarists, and I hope there will be room for that ... but I feel it 
>would
> be good to introduce the topic in a way that would make it seem not too
> esoteric and more mainstream (as the magazine is a mainstream guitar
> magazine), like the next big thing, or at least like something that many
> guitarists do already, guitarists that the readers can easily identify 
>with.
> I don't know any world famous guitarists, other than Fripp, employing
> livelooping in an extensive way (please correct me), but many of them 
>might
> employ livelooping techniques here and there - I'd be grateful for 
>concrete
> examples, such as the Jaco Pastorius solo with Weatherreport, or was it 
>Joni
> Mitchell, where he used a delay pedal to create a rhythmical backdrop.
> 
> -Michael Peters
>