Structure & Freedom (was 'more loops)

[Richard Sales <richard@glasswing.com>]

Hi Rick

Well what I want to do is a combo of the two - I think Zoe does this.  Where there's SOME PIECES that are very structured and pre saved (that you sing and play over) that have areas or loops that are open to free form improv. I think what I want to do is sort of a mini Grateful Dead thing where there's zones of total freedom surrounded by tight structure.  So you can do your 'song' and have jam zones within the song. 

I guess I got tired of the whole songster thing where you play 3-5 minute songs one after the other.  No ear candy for the audience!  No ecstatic break aways to give breathing room.  Lyrics can be like a sledge hammer.  So I guess I'm trying to give the sledge hammer some wings!

However, I also have a few instrumental pieces that are completely done on the fly.  This was inspired by YOU!  I want to perform at the Bay Area Loop thing you do and you said something to the effect of no pre recorded stuff.  So I did that and it's HUGE fun.  The problem I'm having with that is endings.  I do those kinds of pieces and float off into the Milky Way and can't figure out how to get back down to earth and pull off any kind of ending other than fade out. 

So many years of working in tight bands etc have made me sort of a trained bear that just doesn't know how to get off the trapeze without some kind of dramatic drum roll landing.   I know it's defective thinking! But fades seem to work okay.  They're just not satisfying to me - the trained bear. I need to work on it more.   Certainly with other musicians it would be a LOT easier!  But other musicians are expensive.  The band I tour with costs about a thousand dollars a day just to eat sleep travel and shower... and minimum pay.  Great when there's tour support from the label.   Impossible otherwise.

Now, I still don't know if I actually can perform at the event because I think I'll be touring with Hayley.  She's flying up the Canadian charts as we speak (16 with a bullet now) and is about to do the same in the UK (knock on wood) and then, if all goes as planned (en Shallah), the US.  I don't have any looping stuff with her yet but our drummer plays in a band with looped guitar so we've talked about it.  Maybe once we are gigging a lot we'll find time to try it out.  

Yeah... only if I could seduce someone like the fabulous Miles Ward (uber nerd genius Binary Shah and tuba king who's on this list) to help me suss out the Kid Beyond thing would I ever venture into that zone.  We ARE talking about it - doing a two man binary blitzkrieg.  Again, time (and it's good friend money) is the issue.  Being on an island makes even a simple visit a $100+ dollar event.  

In the kind time, the best I can do is improve my chops and their connection with my, for lack of a better name, heart.

> I just love free improvisation too much and want to be able to improvise on the fly.
> This frequently either precludes the kind of complexity and pre arranged signal processing that
> Andre (Kid Beyond) has programmed into his set   or it requires using several different styles
> of looping gear.       I have a ton of options with a line 6, a repeater, a looperlative and an edp (soon to have
> a Kaoss 3 pad as soon as I can reasonably afford one) so I have great flexibility in turning corners on
> a dime.   I also love to resample loops to manipulate them in the different ways that the looperlative, repeater, edp and line 6 do.
>
> I am, however, ambivalent about this approach too sometimes, and have been contemplating starting to
> add some arranged material into my live shows..............we'll see how far I get this summer before Y2K7

richard sales
glassWing farm and studio
vancouver island, b.c.
800.545.6846
250.752.4816
www.glassWing.com
www.richardsales.com
www.hayleysales.com
www.blueberryfieldsfarm.com
On 14-Jun-07, at 1:33 AM, RICK WALKER wrote: