Re: ON TOPIC - Was: Re: Phil Keaggy -- looping in general - nothing ventured, nothing expressed

[Mark Sottilaro <sine@zerocrossing.net>]

Yeah, I agree with Pedro.  Keep on keep'n on.  You probably reach that 
"sweet spot" at home because you're relaxed.  Easy to slip into that zen 
like state.  Live gigs are always a bit of stress out for me, but less 
so after I've been playing them for a while.  I find that I can deal 
with a highly complex setup at home, but am baffled by the same setup 
live.  Both the playing of and set up.  Brain tends to seize up, as does 
gear.  (Like why did my JamMan stop taking MIDI from my Yamaha MIDI 
pedal when I jammed at a friends house last weekend?  Who knows?)

Anyway, the good news is that I find when I keep things simple, and a 
play out more and more, I find that sweet spot comes easier and easier.  
I also find it helps to start off with a cover before you go into 
straight loop improv.  Warms you up a bit.  Good luck.

Mark

On Sunday, December 23, 2001, at 04:12  AM, Pedro Felix wrote:

> snips
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steve Sandberg <stevesandberg@earthlink.net>
>> I've been looping for about a year now, and find that I absolutely 
>> love it
>> at home.  I can get lost in loops, I can play and hit wonderful zones 
>> where
>> I feel that I can go on forever, I sometimes create loops that I can 
>> listen
>> to for a long long time and go to some wonderful emotional places with.
>> However, sometimes it's just dry -- and not really happening -- and 
>> this
>> seems pretty much out of my control.
>> And this makes it kind of scary for live performances.  I like the 
>> freedom
>> of looping.  I don't really like planning things in advance -- but it 
>> seems
>> out of my control whether anything is going to work live or not.
>> Another thing that seems to make things work or not is, the levels of
>> overdubbed sounds in a loop really contribute to making something 
>> ordinary
>> or magical -- and this seems hard to control, too.
>> I recently did a half hour of live looped music in Williamsburg
> accompanying
>> modern dance.  We recorded two nights of videos -- and the first night
>> (which, oddly, I thought was the better one) made me cringe.  The 
>> second
>> night was pretty good.
>> I'm wondering if my looping experience is par for the course, or if 
>> there's
>> something I'm missing -- anyone have any thoughts on this?
>>
>>
> GET OUT! Keep doing it. It makes sense because it touches a part of you 
> that
> your average self only gets the chance to glimpse into the infinite 
> nothing
> (ya lucky stiff!) and let's be honest now. It's scary in an 
> exhilaratingly
> scary kind of way. So go and play and record and share it and find the 
> space
> where live performance is an extension of your life as much as you let 
> the
> loop run it's course through your life. Keep going from home and record 
> and
> write around in the pure bliss that can be captured in this way. This 
> moving
> canvas is for all of us to use. Throw up some paint, the canvas is 
> moving
> again and there is plenty of room for many. So get to it bro!
> best regards, Pedro Felix - NYC 2001
> Post Script - i'm sleepy many days and nights with music and a 
> hyper-aware
> state forces the above good fun!
>
>