Re: What got ya to where you are...

["Bob Campbell" <astropulse@hotmail.com>]

"EH-16 user suffers mindrot, studies jazz, now back for more!"

- late 70's, saw demo of two 4-track decks looped in San Francisco 
  at an avant garde performance.

- Fripp solo/Revox tour in Student Union at U.C. Berkeley
  Fripp/Eno recordings... minimalist compositions by Glass/Reich

- met Mike Matthews at Winter NAMM 82, bought EH-16 
  (ElectroHarmonix "Fripp-in-a-box" delay)

- early 80's performed with two Teac 4-tracks to loop all the mics,
  plus EH-16 on guitar or synth. What a pile of noise :)

- 1982-1990 thousands of hours alone looping, looping, looping...
  very cosmic, very sublime, and finally... very boring!
  learned very little about music during this period.
  Not much theory, not much repetoire. 

  It was great fun, but it was almost like an educational blackout.
  I called myself an 'electronic guitarist', but I couldn't even
  play 'Autumn Leaves'. I never heard of melodic minor harmony!

- 1993 sold the EH-16 as a collectors item. Started working on 
  really learning the guitar, learning some jazz theory, learning 
  some tunes, including the melody (never bothered before).

- 1997 - bought a JamMan used, upgraded memory. I have used it 90%
  as a practice tool to work on improv over jazz changes.

- Listening to old tapes from 10-15 years ago, wow, pretty   
  interesting! So much of it was gear-based, those certain synths, 
  the EH-16, the weird little ethnic instruments. How did we make
  those sounds???  Start to use the JamMan for weird stuff...
  
So now, armed with much improved musical knowledge and skills,
I'm making some cosmic music again. I realize in retrospect
that looping was so seductively fun, I really lost my bearings as
a learner. I wish I hadn't ignored my 'conventional studies' for
so much time. My hours of looping served me not at all, when it was
time to take a solo on 'Round Midnight in a band situation.
So its great to be back doing loops, but what I'm looping is MUCH
more interesting now.

Bob
(Seattle)

 





  







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