Re: POLYRHYTHMIC COUNTERPOINT

[William Walker <billwalker@baymoon.com>]

  Per wrote:
Very interesting topic! :-)) Ten years ago I was only comfortable,  
playing (and imagining - "playing in the mind") the times 4/4 and  
6/8., I knew Dave Brubeck's classic Take Five and Paul McCartney's  
Bond, theme Live and Let Die with the riff in 5/4, but I had not  
played, hands-on in 5/4. Very much thanks to Rick's inspiration I  
started, learning 5/4 by tapping one hand's fingers, thumb indicating  
each, bar's downbeat, and thinking improvised melodies that fit in  
with that, groove. With that method it took a day to incorporate it  
with my usual, musical reactions so I could move on to using real  
instruments to play, in 5/4. The turning point is to get comfortable  
with the new groove, so you won't have to think about it when  
improvising., If looping with an EDP or with Mobius there is a good  
and fun exercise, you can do. Set the "8ths Per Cycle" to 5 or 10 and  
start doing, "Substitue Stuff" (replacing quantized slices of the loop  
with your
live audio input). I prefere 10 for playing in 5/4 because that makes,  
you substitute 8th notes - if one Cycle equals one bar, that is., In  
my looping setup I keep a bunch of fast commands to switch "8ths
Per Cycle" for the particular reason of moving between different time,  
measures when improvising. But I restrict my options to these five:, -  
"8ths Per Cycle = 16" for playing normal four-on-the-floor music., -  
"8ths Per Cycle = 10" for playing in 5/4., - "8ths Per Cycle = 12" for  
playing in 6/8., - "8ths Per Cycle = 14" for playing in 7/8 (this one  
I like very much)., - "8ths Per Cycle = 9" for playing in 9/8 (this is  
pretty new to me)., For each of these five alternatives I also have a  
special "fast
button" to set the grid to 64th note duration. This is for creating,  
glitchy granular loops that will nevertheless lock into the odd  
groove, as they evolve., 7/8 is a favorite of mine. This groove tends  
to give any noise you, play a mesmerizing rhythm. A simple but very  
rewarding trick. To learn, it quickly you can use the finger tapping  
method and imagine each bar, as "4 fingers + 3 fingers". A different  
approach to 7/8 would be "3
fingers + 4 fingers"
per



  Great points per,
  I have  been infatuated with what Quantize Replace on the  
Looperlative, the equivalant function the EDP's 8th per Cycle replace  
function, can do to create odd time groupings.  I have  set up my LP-1  
so that each track is preset to the following  Quantize Replace  
factors. trk 1 is a value of 16  , trk 2 is a value of 12 , trk3 is  
9,  trk 4 is 16 again, trk5 is 10, track 6 is 12 again, trk 7 is 7 and  
trk 8 is 16, once again.  Tracks 1,  4 and 8 are for doing 16th note  
replaces which I use the most for 4/4 based time signatures,  but I  
have been delving in to 9, 10 and 7 beat divisions as well as 12 beats  
which is one of my favorites for 3/4 6/8 and 12/8 grooves. Combing  
them can work as well, example: a 16 beat division against a 9 beat,  
but more than two beat divisions at athe same time can get cluttered  
really quickly. its also fun to have non synced loops of various  
lengths and time signature playing together but requires a higher  
degree of skill and awareness of the one whereas Quantize Replace can  
get even people without much odd meter experience taka taka taka  
takita -ing in no time.
  Realy fun stuff, and stimulating and challenging as well. its one  
thing to play melodically and fluidly over 4/4 and another thing to do  
the same thing over a 9/8 without sounding herky jerky.
Bill