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Looper's Delight
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OK, I know this thread's winding down but I've been away for a couple of days, and wanted to set the record straight, especially on a couple of points. To make this post relevant to the group aim, the word LOOPER will appear in capital letters. Dave: >On Tue, 12 Aug 1997, Michael Pycraft Hughes, PhD wrote: >> Yes, but a guitarst on his own is pretty imited. There aren't many solo >> electric guitar peices worth listening to. A DJ can tale the sounds of >an >> orchestra, a funk band and NY art-scronk and come up with something >> huge-sounding. People playing musical instruments will always need to >use >> other players to fill out the sound - drummers, bassists, >thumb-pianists... >> which is almost what the DJ is doing. >I don't think the point of playing with other musicians is to fill out >MY sound. Although I'm sure it wasn't your intent, it does come close >to another branch of guitar arrogance... the idea that the "rhythm >section" is there to provide a beat for the guitarist to jack off >over. No, indeed, that wasn't my intention. All I was saying is that musicians play together to create a rich, complex sound. A DJ produces sounds with incredibly rich sources as a basic material. Of course, people playing guitars/keyboards/thumb-pianos can use LOOPERS to create those richer textures. > Think about the amazing amount of attention that guitarists pay to > solos--why is that? In pop music, a solo may only occupy 10% of a song. > > 90% of the time a guitarist is playing rhythm--why so much energy spent > on considering solos? Reason (1) - unless you're a creative genius with an eye for texture (think Torn, Summers, or Anyone Here), most rhythm is there to provide a tonal setting to the singer. Most of the time the guitarist can bang away on chords or do something really intricate - but the attention is supposed to be on the singer, so most don't make the effort. During the solo, the audience focuses on YOU and you have the entire responsibility to carry the song. Reason (2) ME! ME! LOOK AT ME!!! Everyone said: >At 08:20 PM 8/12/97 +0100, Michael Hughes wrote: >> Why is it that in rock music, there's an acute shortage of "keyboard >> heroes", in the same sense that say, Jeff Beck is a guitar hero? I DID NOT SAY THAT!! i think >Kim: >> because I'd hate to see the rock band with John Tesh in it. Dan: >whilst tesh and company traded jump-ropes, exercise bikes, and massages in >order to "get psyched for the show". tesh himself cranked up a few enya >discs and even enigma (he started up tubular bells II and >then decided after about five seconds that it wasn't good enough). TBII not good enough? I know not who John Tesh is, but the man's a turnip! BTW Mike Oldfield's music is viertual LOOPage from 1973-on... all playeed by him, layered, repetetive patterns. It's also gorgeous. Dave again: > Electric guitars just gave us fusion. No, that was an electric trumpeter... Can you imagine Miles with a LOOPER? Whooo!!! >Here's an experiment for all of you who think the guitar is such a >be-all solo intrument... try tuning to EADGCF for a few weeks. >Straight fourths across the fretboard. Stick with >it, and you'll soon learn the harmonic advantages of this tuning, >advantages the much-maligned keyboardists have always enjoyed. He's not wrong. I've been using this for 4 years. Someone: >> > There's no "Eruption", that I know of, in the keyboard world--a >recorded >> > moment which changed the way the instrument, and the role of the >> > instrument would be viewed for the next decade. OK let's put it this way - what peice of music made you say "I wanna keyboard?" For that matter, what made you say "I wanna LOOPER?" For me, Fripp's "Easter Sunday" flexidisk in GP. >I too hope a keyboardist will speak up because none of the keyboard >players >I have met were particularly interested in soloing in a pop context. I've met Rick Wakeman. Listen to a RW solo album - especially a more recent one - to hear psycho rock keyboard soloing. Try and hear "Suicide Shuffle" - so called because the intention was to drive his drummer to suicide by changing time sig. every bar.... Randy: >Wow! >Whats happening? >Can we stop all this opinion B.S. >Who cares what instrument you play/like. >Who cares who your favorite artists are. >Who cares which albums you buy. >Who cares what you think is/isn't music. >Who cares what you think about sampler, syths, djs, music theory, music >philosophy or someones elses opinion on the above. Bloody hell! Could someone set that to music??? :) Stephen: >> Yes, but a guitarst on his own is pretty imited. >But I had to rebut that comment at least. Ah, but is a solo performer with a LOOPER a solo performer? Debate. Paolo responded to someone: >> In non-fusion Jazz, the guitarist is usually denied the option of >> distortion, the primary method of imparting sustain upon a sustain-poor >I don't know how things are in Austin but from what I've seen the >guitarist himself chooses not to use distortion; he is not barred from >using it by the other band members. Perhaps it's me, but as soon as a guitarist uses any significant amount of distortion (beyond, say, some of Burrell's live stuff I've heard) it gets called fusion. Dave: >Besides, maybe I'm just funny this way, but I *listen* to >musicians, and could generally give a fuck about how they look when >playing... We're all funny 'round here... after all, how many musicians have LOOPERS? John: > but my Casio VZs are capable of both very strange and very expressive >sounds. Heh, I had a VZ1 for years... Michael PS Van Halen was never big in Britain BTW - most guitarists over here have never heard of Eruption... or would deny it if you asked them... /-------------------------------------------------------------------\ |Dr Michael Pycraft Hughes | Tel:0141 330 5979 | Fax: 0141 330 4907 | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |Bioelectronics, Rankine Bldg, Glasgow University, Glasgow, G12 8QQ | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| | http://www.elec.gla.ac.uk/groups/bio/Electrokinetics/main.html | \-------------------------------------------------------------------/