Re: Question of the Week -- when do you NOT loop?

[Keenan Lawler <klaw@konstant.com>]

Hi everyone -I think this is a most important topic (i wanted to ask it
myself a while back ) 
I think the practice  of using it because its there is not what David had
in mind -after all (speaking  for myself)
I a musician who uses loops as a tool to get results not available
otherwise.Not a looper who tries to fit in with any context I'm placed in 
I've played many shows where i brought my loop gear  but  dint rely on it -
maybe that has a lot to do with density of the music -who I'm playing with
musical direction..etc  


a few things I've observed -

i have created some truly remarkable  music using looping  with only a
capable drummer 
someone who can get inside of the loop & circle  it at the same time 
interaction like that is beauty -beauty is a rare thing--

in a group situation :
if the other participants dont get what I'm  doing -the music will suffer 
any attempts to loop my way to success  wont work if theres no empathy 

looping is a tool -it isn't necessary  that i do it all the time -if the
music doesn't call for it 
there are things in music ,in sound -space, dynamics 
that looping cannot give me 
I'm not saying i cant have space in loops etc--
 
i like making an intelligent  de scion  when to  deploy or not  

as Tim pointed out,and i agree -how we approach the choice of not looping
says a lot about 
how we loop & our ideas toward creation of music 

great topic  K


At 06:44 PM 10/3/99 -0400, you wrote:
>I think you've misunderstood David Kirkdorffer's original question. He's
>not asking "Should one ever loop?", but rather, "As a musician who DOES
>take advantage of the available technology, under what specific
>circumstances does one make the CHOICE to refrain from looping?", a big
>difference. I think most, if not all, of us on this list would agree with
>you that we're better off looping, but recognizing that the looping
>community manifests a considerable range of approaches, David's question 
>is
>ideally suited to discussion in such a  forum. It is by comparing and
>contrasting our respective loop techniques, and by getting a feel for the
>role looping plays in the context of our overall musicianship that we 
>learn
>and grow. The proportion of looped and unlooped playing varies amongst us
>for a variety of reasons, and David felt that this warranted discussion.
>You're right, there is absolutely no reason not to loop, but sometimes
>there are very good reasons not to loop 100% of the time, and this is what
>David was addressing.
>
>BTW, Brian Eno's "Discreet Music" was recorded in 1975. Steve Reich and
>Terry Riley were looping more than a decade before that, and Stockhausen
>was heading in that direction with his layered and manipulated tape loops
>as long ago as  1956 (Gesang der Junglinge), so it's not really a question
>of whether one needs the latest technology. Looping's not new; the gear's
>just getting a lot better. But that wasn't what Mr. Kirkdorffer was 
>asking.
>
>Tim
>
>At 12:12 PM 10/3/99 -0700, you wrote:
>>if you wanna be in 1975 you don't loop but with technology today there's
>>absolutely no reason not to loop and use patterns created by your self
>through
>>your sequencer wether it's souned forge4.5 or cakewalk diffrent versions
>hgave
>>the number of patterns you =can sequence or loop with your  better of 
>using
>>l;oops asv your loop will always be on time will your guatrist?
>