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RE: Intro and question



Hi Jeff,

 

>I've been lurking in the background for a few months now, soaking up information and determining how to incorporate looping into my repertoire.  I am a fingerstyle acoustic guitarist and >technophile, and always trying to find ways to combine interests without falling into a "technique for the sake of technique" trap.

 

Lurkers Delight syndrome has served me and I’m sure many others very well. Welcome! Oddly, I haven’t heard all that many high profile fingerstyle guitarists utilize looping technology. A couple that come to mind are Richard Thompson (he uses looping quite a bit live, or at least has in the past – you might be able to find some stuff on youtube), and Chet Atkins, who apparently did an album called Jamman, named after his looper of choice. I haven’t heard that one though. I really liked Kris Hartung’s first album “Places” which is experimental improv/jazz stuff done all on acoustic guitar, reverb processing and a Boomerang looper. He uses an advanced fingerstyle jazz chord/melody approach, but with a more abstract language and vocabulary. He could probably tell you about his approach better than I.

 

It’s not exactly clear to me what you mean by “technique for the sake of technique”. Are you referring to the general playing of an individual (as in wanking), or technique in the looping sense, as in using all the hip-sounding looping features just because they are available and can impress people? I personally don’t necessarily avoid either as long as the music sounds organic to me, feels good, and has the capability of moving myself and potentially others.

 

My personal approach is more of a compositional one, in a kind of post-minimalist-Steve Reich-meets-Jimmy Page and Mike Oldfield with some world music and psychedelia thrown in. I use both fingerstyle playing and plectrum playing in most pieces, constructing little interlocking parts, groove riffs and bass lines, and “golpe” percussion parts (in a bad imitation of John Bonham, and some polyrhythmic West African grooves), and then solo over it modally. Modal not in the Coltrane sense (as if I could!), but more in the Allman Brothers sense. I also like to transform the pieces very gradually by reducing feedback and doing not-so-clever stuff with pedal tones and modal harmony and modulations. Some things work better compositionally with looping than others. It’s a challenge!

 

I play a custom cedar-top OM style steel string with a L.R. Baggs I-Beam pickup (no microphones, all direct).  I’ve used a setup with delays (not for looping), reverb, compression, and two EDPs in stereo for a while now. I also use a Radial Switchbone A/B/Y/ box in order to “assign” my parts to different sides of the stereo image, my choices being left, right, or both. I run that into a Mackie mixer, and “unpan” the two channels a little so that left and right are more like 9 o’clock and 3 o’clock. Since I have a lot of polyphony going on, the stereo separation really helps with the clarity of the separate musical lines. I also use an ebow for sustained musical lines, which a lot of electric guitarists use. My mom thinks it sounds like whale song – she’s a dear old California hippie, bless her beads. I’m experimenting now with a Looperlative and some additional processing after being inspired by other fine musicians on this list. New gear takes me a while to learn to use intuitively, so I’m in woodshed mode at the moment.

 

>Lately, I've been mesmerized by the recordings of cello-looper Zoe Keating.

 

Zoe is really cool. She did a performance is Sacramento a while back at a cello festival (Ted is saying to himself right now, “man, we don’t get any cello festivals in Southern Oregon…”, and she really impressed a lot of more traditional classical players and cello enthusiasts. Check out Todd Reynolds. He’s a violinist who uses looping in really interesting and musical ways and contributes to the LD list here as well.

 

Hope all this helps. I’d love to hear your stuff man. Get crackin!

 

Yours,

~Greg Williams

www.myspace.com/gregwilliamsguitarist

 

 

 

 

 


From: Jeffrey Dunning [mailto:acoustik@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 9:52 AM
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: Intro and question

 

Greetings Loopers!  I've been lurking in the background for a few months now, soaking up information and determining how to incorporate looping into my repertoire.  I am a fingerstle acoustic guitarist and technophile, and always trying to find ways to combine interests without falling into a "technique for the sake of technique" trap.

Lately, I've been mesmerized by the recordings of cello-looper Zoe Keating.

Are there any other fingerstyle acoustic guitarists here who can share their experiences and approach?  Are there any recorded examples available to study?

I appologize in advance if this is a re-run thread.  I've searched through the forum archives and have not found
 any specific discussions.


Thanks,
Jeff