Re: Crisis!!!!!!

[John Pollock <johnpollock@delphi.com>]

Woehni wrote:
> 
>    Hi friends , I`ve got a major crisis on my hands. I`m gonna come 
>right out
> and say it:
> 
> I`ve begun to get doubts about looping.................and I need some 
>reassuring.
> 
> The thing is , when I loop it doesn`t seem to go anywhere. I always get 
>stuck in
> the same tracks and the music sounds  like.........looping. Sometimes my 
>Jamman
> can feel like a limitation , rather than a new colour on my (somewhat 
>limited) canvas.

Thomas,

Clearly, you're just not cut out for looping.  The only solution is for
you to box up your JamMan and send it to me. ;-)

Seriously, I'm frequently frustrated myself; perhaps even more so
because my only looper (Vortex) offers less than two seconds of looping.
Here are some things I do to relieve the frustration:

(a) Go to http://ott-outreach.engin.umich.edu/torn/ and listen to the
RealAudio excerpt of "each prince to his kingdom" for a reminder of how
powerful even a very short loop can be.

(b) Remember that I'm a human being first, a performer somewhat lower in
the hierarchy, and a player of a particular instrument still lower.  I
have a fairly elaborate rig, but these days most of my musical energy is
going into a beatup old flattop acoustic guitar, unplugged.  All the
other stuff can and will wait until I'm ready to get back to it.

(c) Remind myself that, even if I decide looping is a complete waste of
my time, _I've scratched the itch_.  I don't have to wonder-- I _know_,
because I've tried it.  That alone is worth the price of my Vortex/your
JamMan, even if they couldn't be resold at a handsome profit.

(d) Note that I've been playing guitar for 37 years, harmonica longer
than that, steel guitar for 25 years, synthesizers for more than ten--
and have just begun to scratch the surface of my own potential on any of
them.  Why should a looper be any different?  I do have the rest of my
life to try to get it right.

(e) Repeat to myself:  "It's the journey, not the destination... It's
the journey, not the destination... It's the journey, not the
destination... It's the journey, not the destination... It's the
journey... "

John
Troubador Tech (http://people.delphi.com/johnpollock/)