Re: Unidentified subject

["Rick Walker \(loop.pool\)" <GLOBAL@cruzio.com>]

mike asked:

"i was wondering what kinds of instruments are being looped by the users of
this group"

rick replies:

As I proudly told Michael Manring during our recent tour, "I'm fearless
about playing a lot of instruments that I don't know how to play in 
public".

I play a lot of invented and 'found' instruments, live:  The 'Mikeyphone'
was invented and given to me for my birthday by the brilliant Rhode Island
musician, Michael Haumesser (Not Noise).  It consists of 7 Scottish oatmeal
tins, suspended by heavy rubber bands with
different levels of water in each (for tuning purposes). When played with
the thumbs, lightly, the cans jiggle and the
pitch warbles, deliciously.  I used them on my latest CD on a piece called
'the Box', which was a commission for the Dr. Shaffer and Mr. Stern Dance
Ensemble.

I also collect metal, wooden and plastic bowls, plastic dishes & cups,
different sized spoons (incredible for ersatz gamelan) and various other
objects and use them as faux modal 'marimbas'.

On this last mini tour, I tried to take completely different instruments to
every show (except for my piece that uses only Dayglo Green Translucent
Plastic).  I played bowed crotales, malleted upturned chinese 'jhing'
cymbals, republic of tea tin 'marimba'
glass globes played with jazz brushes so that the pitch bends with every
note,alligator-clipped,capoed bass guitar, melodica, sonica (a wierd, rare,
touch sensitive diatonic, two octave
sine wavish generator), gas stove pipes,
corrugate straws (these last two are incredible overtone generators),
bluegels (sp?), liquid glass ghatam (a large glass flower vase with water 
in
it that allows radical pitch bending when played like an Udu drum, Martha
Stewart brass wastepaper basket (as close to a tabla as the metallic world
will ever get ;-), dumbec, 'sound o' god tambourine', hammered mandolin
(those ever present plastic tiki martini skewers again), Copper Spitton
(another
Udu-esque drum)--------which reminds me that I've been wanting to 
experiment
with putting water in it and I just dashed to the sink and tried
it--------AWESOME!!!!----brass candy dishes (stuck with the thumb and then
manipulating the overtones with my mouth and, speaking of mouths:  several
different extended vocal techniques (warble singing, trill
singing,hummm-whistling, overtone singing, gutteral overtone singing,finger
trilled singing, faux industrial beatbox,hip hop beat box and various and
sundry 'sssssses', shhhhhhhes' and 'chhhhhhhhhes'.

What I love about looping is that a seemingly incongruous or random sound 
or
even mistake becomes fascinating, frequently, once it has repeated over and
over.

loop and out,   Rick Walker (loop.pool)