re: looping other instruments...

[Steve Lawson <steve@steve-lawson.co.uk>]

>>>i mostly play electric guitar, but since nothing new can be done
on the guitar (right steve lawson?)<<<

hehe, I guess you've been listening to the interview on KPIG... :o)

for the record, I didn't say NOTHING can be done new on guitar, just that
for bass, especially exploring the whole area of solo bass, there is little
or no set vocabulary, so the playing field is more open. All credit to guys
like Andre LaFosse who manage to take the guitar somewhere very new -
Andre's music seems to hardly lean at all on the standard guitar vocab, 
even
when he was playing with just a guitar into EDP into amp - no reliance on
heavy processing. I really don't have that kind of musical vision, or
leaning, so am in awe of people who do. For me, it seems that few people
have pursued bass along the path that I'm heading (with a few obvious and
notable exceptions - i'm not claiming any degree of trail blazing
originality...) so I have fewer cliches to either avoid or subvert. I feel
like i'm playing with sound on a much more base level. it doesn't feel like
i'm manipulating pre-ordained sounds.

I'd love to hear the take of some of the guitarists on list - DT, clearly 
as
far as experimental guitar, you wrote a large chunk of the first chapter -
do you feel that it gets harder to say something 'new', or is 'newness'
overrated when it's placed ahead of relavence and integrity? does the 
onward
march of technology mean that we will always have new things to do, cos we
are physically able to DO more TO sound?

am i making sense? as usual, probably not - someone verbose, rescue me! :o)

Steve 
www.steve-lawson.co.uk

BTW - there's currently a little discussion brewing about free improv that
some of you may find interesting in my 'ask the pros' forum over at
talkbass.com - feel free to sign in and contribute - you'll find it in the
'ask Steve Lawson' section under bass guitar forums...