Re: Re: Loopist

[PMimlitsch@aol.com]

Bryan wrote<< I would  also add that Paul Mimlitsch's recent suggestion to
allow audience members to join you on stage and "in loop" , as to improve
your
 relationship with the crowd, is in my experience a very bad tact to
 take, and will only serve to lessen any  respect as a performer you
 may have managed to establish (assuming it's your gig and not
 "open stage-loop jam night").>>

This suggestion was by way of providing an educational experience and not
some kind of "free for all whoever wants to come up on stage can" type of
thing. The specific scenario where this took place was as follows.-- I
sometimes go to a small local coffeehouse during slow times, such as a 
Sunday
afternoon, and do the ambient fly on the wall type thing for prcatice
purposes and to try out new things. This particular establishment, being 
in a
shopping mall, has more of a transient crowd, than say a place where people
specifically go to see a "performance".  Between doing some loops a kid and
his mother came up and inquired about the Chapman Stick I was playing. The
discussion progressed to looping and the inevitable "how do you get those
sounds?" questions. After some explanation I let her son initiate the tap
function on the Jman and took it from there. During my
explanation/demonstration to the mother/son about 15 people who had just
stopped by to pick up coffee between shopping forays had gathered and 
instead
of getting back to their shopping decided to hang out for another 45 
minutes
or so and listen/ask questions. So what had started as a simple practice
session turned out to be a quite satisfying experience for both "the
performer" and the "audience". You could say that initially neither I nor
they had planned on taking on the role of performer or audience had it not
been for "the kid".
You're correct though.. this would not be a good idea in a true 
"performance"
setting for the reasons you mention.--Paul