Teach Yourself about Time (Part One): Using live looping

[Rick Walker <looppool@cruzio.com>]

In a lot of interviews I've given about live looping I frequently
mention that I have learned more about the concept of time and
timing from playing with loops than even playing with multiple master
drummers from around the planet (with their very distinctive and 
idiosyncratic
approaches to 'feel' in timing) or to playing with click tracks,  drum 
machines
or synthesizer sequencers.

I'm fond of trying to teach myself and my students to really deeply listen
to what is being played, viz. a vis  timing.

Human beings naturally project onto reality.   We have a tendency to
hear what we really want to hear, intentionally, rather than hearing what
we've actually played.

It is also possible for us to hear someone who is playing 'behind the beat'
or 'ahead of the beat' and to think of it as a musical and valid approach.
To play too far behind the beat causes the music to 'drag' and be perceived
as a mistake.  Playing to much ahead of the beat, causes the music to 
'rush'
creating yet another kind of mistake.

There is, therefore, certain amount of perceptual leeway that we consider
musical even though it is quantized/metronomic-ally inaccurate

Looping provides us with a truly stellar way to start learning how to 
listen
and to 'hear' what is really being played, even if it is slightly 
inaccurate, viz. a vis
a quantized metronomic approach.

If you make a loop that is lumpy (say the downbeat of the bar is really 
awkwardly
played too late) it is a really good thing to listen deeply to your 
mistake and
then to learn how to play to it as if it WASN'T a mistake.

I showed this example at a PASIC clinic on live looping once,  where I 
purposefully
recorded a loop that had awful downbeat timing......enough to make a famous
studio drummer groan causing everyone to laugh. By overdubbing a few 
times and putting long envelope sounds over the 'mistake', however,  
suddenly this horrible loop sounded musical again.

In this case, the listeners were able to have a reasonable suspension of 
disbelief
in hearing the 'new' loop that I had created.   They bought the piece as 
musical
but only because I had 'learned' the mistake and made a conscious effort 
to obscure
it.

  Many kinds of regional rhythmic feels from around the world, are merely
slight deviations from what people would call 'quantized' metronomic 
time and, on some
levels,  also allow us to have a reasonable suspension of disbelief.

What this means is that it is possible by being able to stretch one's 
playing....allowing us to
play to what is actually a 'mistake' in our loop and do it in a way that 
is musical.

Here's a fun exercise to begin preparing to 'fix'  inaccurate loops 
whilst playing live:

1) create a single bar loop and purposefully slow down slight as you 
truncate your loop
on the downbeat.    Keep the loop running and sit down and really listen 
to it.

Now see if you can play another rhythmic part that purposefully aligns 
with the 'mistake' you've
created.

2) Do this several times (wonderful if your looper has an undo 
feature---make an overdub
that 'fit's musically with your lumpy loop and then undo it and try again).

Now see if you can freely solo over this new feel you have created.

3) Do the same exercise and see if you can speed up as you truncate your 
loop inaccurately.

4)  repeat step 2.


As you play these exercise get more outrageous with how lumpy your loop 
is.   Even if this sounds
highly un-musical (even comedic) keep pushing the boundaries of playing 
behind or ahead of the
downbeat as you make your purposefully inaccurate loop.

If you do this enough times,  then suddenly,  try making a normal loop.
You'll find that your accuracy is much greater for having practiced 
these exercises.

Be fearless!   Really learn how to listen to the inaccuracies in your 
loops.  If you can really
discern how they vary from the ideal of a quantized/metronomic time,  
you will
gain some mad skills at being able to play with anyone or any loop.

Just for fun,  listen to the amazing German drummer Marco Minnemann as 
he plays to random
cartoon dialogue that is looped.    He is playing to what is happening 
rhythmically.
I doesn't necessarily fit to any grid but you can impose a grid over the 
examples and come up with something that is musical.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHft4OR7Rus

Rick Walker