re: density

["Rick Walker" <looppool@cruzio.com>]

Matthias Grob wrote:
most original music grows out of playing. So the question "what music
would I like to perform?" is useful but usually limiting to what we
heard before or to the sounds and playing techniques we are used to.
For me looping was much more a way to discover what comes out of
myself than a tool to "construct" what I had imagined.


Wow, you have really hit the nail on the head to describe what I 
personally 
love about live looping.

I have played very arranged and composed music for most of my life and 
since 
around 1998  I have played almost
entirely improvised music using live looping devices.

I love that I don't know what's going to happen in a solo (or duet or 
trio) 
live looping gig.

There is so much serendipity that it has really improved my musicianship 
to 
be able to respond in very musical
and supportive ways to what come out.

I've begun to realize that most musicians have a tendency to project what 
it 
is that they are playing on
an ensemble situation.......................because we use our intellect 
and 
our physical and conceptual skills
to play some sometimes very complex musical passages it becomes difficult 
to 
actually hear what you have
played in an ensemble situation.

When you loop, however,  you get to listen back to EXACTLY what you have 
played............................not what you wish
you had played but what you actually played.

If you've been human and made minor mistakes in your execution and timing, 
your task, then, is to respond to exactly what
you've played and make it sound more musical and coherent.

With live looping,  one can play a fairly 'lumpy' (or slightly inaccurate) 
loop and by what choices one makes in subsequent
layers of overdubbing,  one can actually recontextualize inaccurate 
playing 
into very, very musical pieces.

We, therefore,  have to respond to what we hear.......................NOT 
what we intended to play.....................what we ACTUALLY played.

This is really profound and for me,  it has greatly improved my ability to 
play with many different musicians,  no matter what their level
of competency.

In the first 30 years of playing I tried really hard to play as perfectly 
as 
possible despite the level of competency or the quality of the
'feel'  of a musician I was playing with.

In the last 10 years,  I have started to try and make every single person 
I 
play with sound better (including myself when I sometimes
play less than accurate loops).

In my own life,  I could have never made this wonderful conceptual 
breakthrough if I hadn't done a hell of a lot of solo live looping 
concerts.

My philosophy now, is PLAY WHAT IS,   not   what you want, or intend, or 
expect it to be.............whether you are layering on your own loops ,
playing with another syncrhonized or unsynchronized live looper or whether 
you are playing in a completey non-looping context.

When I take this philosophy,  I have learned so damned much more about the 
concept of timing.................stretched 
timing.............phrasing..........
and more about music.

Okay,  I just went to goth night and had a great time (and drank 3 
strongish 
cosmopolitans)  so I'll quit babbling.

Nice thread.  Thanks guys!