Live looping is a juggling act.
Become conscious of the loop (for more then 1 repetition or so) and it becomes stagnant and/or self-indulgent. And the balls drop.
Slight of hand can extend the trick, but only so far. And yet...
> He didn't play a single fill or vary his tempo, one perceptible iota
I suspect it's because it was live, and a repeated recording of the first 4 or 8 bars would have fallen flat without some sort of live variation.
Obviously the exception here is classical minimalism, only changing slowly after many repetitions, but again that is best stomached live and has (had) a very limited shelf life.
Live looping is all about what makes the repetition not just a repetition.
On Sep 10, 2012, at 1:14 PM, Rick Walker wrote: When the human brain is presented with too little information, it will start to project
information; really, a form of hallucination.
I've posted a famous psychology experiment that I was lucky enough to participate in
a few times to this forum so I won't reiterate it, but the gist is that
presented with a tape loop of the non-word 'COGITAE' 25 scientists and artists
each generated a list of 25-35 words that they had 'heard' the speaker say
in 20 minutes of constant repetition.
This of course, is a psycho-acoustic phenomenon, but I think it is one of the most
interesting aspects of why repetitive music is fascinating to a lot of human beings.
We are intrinsically pattern oriented due to the nature of our neurophysiology.
Because of this, I always demonstrate by playing one minute of 'shredding' drumming to students,
utilizing every single chop and conceivable time signature and tempi in a randomly
spit out order............no repetition if I can help it................after 30 seconds, it's
almost completely unlistenable, despite the years of technique and creativity I've put
into trying to achieve some mastery of my instrument.
I then play the kick on 1 and 3, the snare on 2 and 4 and the hi hats on 8ths notes
for another minute. The response is palpable.
It is always my first demonstration when trying to teach a young drummer how to 'groove'.
Steve Gadd played this exact exercise for five straight minutes when he did his
first ever solo drum clinic on the west coast (and every drummer worth their salt was in attendance,
many having flown up from LA just to see this rare thing).
He got a standing ovation when he finished. He didn't play a single fill or vary his tempo, one perceptible
iota.
It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever witnessed musically. Every drummer I know who saw it raced home
to play for hours to try and get that 'feel'.
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