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Looper's Delight
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I don't think it has to be one or the other. For me its 2 things: situation, and purpose. I often am in the position where I have to "win over" an audience in my allotted 30 minutes (and often in the 1st 2 minutes!). That means, every minute is composed. I play the best versions of my best songs. The songs I play in those situations are ones that I have composed and have rehearsed for maybe a 100 hours or more. If I'm playing my own concerts, for my own audience (i.e. NOT as opening act), I will make sure my program has a couple structured improvs that I might have mapped out vaguely before and at least one who-the-heck-knows-where-this-is-going improvisation. (I did it in April with Charles Rus from the San Francisco symphony...the 1st time he'd improvised in public!) When I improvise though, I'm still really careful to never go over 7 minutes. I like to keep things short and end decisively. Also...its worth noting that both Immi and I are classically trained. In the classical world, um, everything is composed beforehand! We don't tend to think that is weird. I don't play classical that often right now but I can play the same piece over and over and over again, classical or my own or a rock song... and the emotions feel new every time. If it didn't feel that "something", uniquely, every time I play the same song, then I would not play it... because I'd be cheating the audience. So in the classical world, not only is it normal to have everything pre-composed, but one must rehearse over and over and over and over....something I'm a strong believer in. So Rick, don't worry about it! You'll still be yourself. You should do both. On Jul 7, 2009, at 5:29 PM, Rick Walker wrote: > In another thread, Matt Davignon wrote: > "On the other hand, many of the acts I've seen left me feeling like > the performers are locked > into a scripted grid, with fewer opportunities to take the material > in a direction other than a > previously-drawn, forward-pointing arrow from start to finish." > > > Honestly, I have had the same reaction. Granted, there are > artists who pull it off > with panache and a sense of spontaneity's (I think , specifically, > of Zoe Keating, Imogen Heap, Juana Molina and > Kid Beyond) but in general, pre-rehearsed and already thought out > pieces of music > using live looping feel as sterile to me as people push playing on > DATs, I-pods, CDs, DVDS > or computers. > > I actually really and truly loved sculptured recordings but to me, > the live sphere is a different thing. > > And maybe this is just because I lack the discipline to go to all > the work of pre arranging > pieces of music when I play, but the last ten years or so of my life > have been all improvisational. > > Of course, one (and specifically, me) run the risk of not having a > cogent enough performance > or , worst yet in live looping, taking too long to create a piece > of music and letting it go > on for longer than it is musically interesting for the audience. > It's a constant worry for me and > I frequently blow it live. > > I've noticed that a lot of loopers in our community seem to fail to > realize that the what feels good > to play; what seems like a certain length of time in developing a > piece of music is completely > different for the audience. > > Personally, just because I teach a lot of live looping in my > hometown, I tell newbies to set > up a clock and to force themselves to start, develop and cogentally > end a piece of music > every five minutes so that they have six pieces of music in a > festival set of thirty minutes. > > It's a tough discipline to do that. I purposefully write set lists > with 6 to 7 tableaus in it. > I don't know what I'm going to play, but I do take 6 or 8 'sets' of > instruments to each gig > so that I can keep a found sound performance intriguing. > > I've discovered is someone has the discipline to play 6 five minute > songs in order five times a week > that after a month, they are ready to perform a pretty interesting > set as a newbie at the festival. > > ****** > Also, and pardon this rambling post, but I"m in a 'waxing > philosophic' mode today: > > I'm writing some new material that is more song oriented and even > (damn this is scary to admit in public) > singer/songwriter oriented, so I know that I need to figure out a > way that I can compromise my > desire for spontaneity and improvisation with composed (if not > arranged) material. > > It's a really challenging thing for me. Frankly, it really scares > me because it's so different from the freedom > I've had for ten years, but I also am really hearing some new > things with my new foray into stringed > instruments. > > > SOOOOO, pros and cons..................what do y'all like and/or > dislike about pre arranged live looping shows > and what do you like or dislike about pure improvisational shows. >