Re: my future looping....PROCESS/Volume pedals

[KRosser414@aol.com]

First off, I get immediately suspicious when I hear a musician talk about 
how
much they don't like listening to other people's music.  I've never known 
(or
known of) a good musician with that attitude. 

Second, I think listening with the intent to somehow consume and digest the
information is not necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes I think we 
forget to
listen for no other reason than to just let ourselves be transported and
disengage the will completely.

And if you're going to stop and say, "This is great, I need to know what's
making this work", analyze it as completely and deeply as possible.  
Memorize
it, transpose it to all 12 keys, figure out what's making each different 
sound
and why it works together.  This way I think if you get past the surface 
and
get really into the nuts & bolts, you come out with something you can use
without imitating.

Lastly, it's always struck me as very ironic that the ones that seemed the
most fearful of sounding imitative are usually the ones that do sound the 
most
imitative.  I think if you go through a period of not being able to resist 
the
pull to sound like someone you love, accept it, identify it, enjoy it and 
let
it run its course, and know in the long run it's all part of the growth
process

> Eno (I think) had an interesting idea when he said that (paraphrasing
> here) "originality" was an overated concept in western music . . . I 
>don't
> always agree, but I think that it's worth considering.

I think it's justly rated when something original is something that has 
enough
resonance to work on many levels, that 'originality' is not the only thing
going for it.  IMHO something that only goes for 'original' is one-
dimensional, much in the same way some punk bands talked about getting 
across
with nothing but 'energy'.  Ultimately I've learned that trying to discuss 
the
concept of originality with musicians is a lot like the parable of the five
blind men trying to describe an elephant.

> Sort of what creativity is about: analysis (learning what others did) 
>into
> synthesis (doing what you're going to do with it). (I know that there's
> some sort of archetypal theory that has three steps  - - I think that
> these are two and three - - anybody help me out on number one?)

The achetype as I heard it had three steps - analysis, assimilation - a
'gestation period' during which time you didn't consciously attend to it 
but
let your subconscious ruminate on it while you did other things, and then
practice, where you were consciously able to put the ideas into action.

One more thing re: volume pedals - I use both an Ernie Ball and a Visual 
Sound
that sound like they go to absolute zero to me unless you're playing at 20
times the volume I do 

Ken R