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Re: PrePrepared vs. Improvisational Live Looping Performances
I don't think it has to be one or the other.
For me its 2 things: situation, and purpose.
I often am in the position where I have to "win over" an audience in
my allotted 30 minutes (and often in the 1st 2 minutes!). That means,
every minute is composed. I play the best versions of my best songs.
The songs I play in those situations are ones that I have composed and
have rehearsed for maybe a 100 hours or more.
If I'm playing my own concerts, for my own audience (i.e. NOT as
opening act), I will make sure my program has a couple structured
improvs that I might have mapped out vaguely before and at least one
who-the-heck-knows-where-this-is-going improvisation. (I did it in
April with Charles Rus from the San Francisco symphony...the 1st time
he'd improvised in public!)
When I improvise though, I'm still really careful to never go over 7
minutes. I like to keep things short and end decisively.
Also...its worth noting that both Immi and I are classically trained.
In the classical world, um, everything is composed beforehand! We
don't tend to think that is weird.
I don't play classical that often right now but I can play the same
piece over and over and over again, classical or my own or a rock
song... and the emotions feel new every time. If it didn't feel that
"something", uniquely, every time I play the same song, then I would
not play it... because I'd be cheating the audience.
So in the classical world, not only is it normal to have everything
pre-composed, but one must rehearse over and over and over and
over....something I'm a strong believer in.
So Rick, don't worry about it! You'll still be yourself. You should do
both.
On Jul 7, 2009, at 5:29 PM, Rick Walker wrote:
> In another thread, Matt Davignon wrote:
> "On the other hand, many of the acts I've seen left me feeling like
> the performers are locked
> into a scripted grid, with fewer opportunities to take the material
> in a direction other than a
> previously-drawn, forward-pointing arrow from start to finish."
>
>
> Honestly, I have had the same reaction. Granted, there are
> artists who pull it off
> with panache and a sense of spontaneity's (I think , specifically,
> of Zoe Keating, Imogen Heap, Juana Molina and
> Kid Beyond) but in general, pre-rehearsed and already thought out
> pieces of music
> using live looping feel as sterile to me as people push playing on
> DATs, I-pods, CDs, DVDS
> or computers.
>
> I actually really and truly loved sculptured recordings but to me,
> the live sphere is a different thing.
>
> And maybe this is just because I lack the discipline to go to all
> the work of pre arranging
> pieces of music when I play, but the last ten years or so of my life
> have been all improvisational.
>
> Of course, one (and specifically, me) run the risk of not having a
> cogent enough performance
> or , worst yet in live looping, taking too long to create a piece
> of music and letting it go
> on for longer than it is musically interesting for the audience.
> It's a constant worry for me and
> I frequently blow it live.
>
> I've noticed that a lot of loopers in our community seem to fail to
> realize that the what feels good
> to play; what seems like a certain length of time in developing a
> piece of music is completely
> different for the audience.
>
> Personally, just because I teach a lot of live looping in my
> hometown, I tell newbies to set
> up a clock and to force themselves to start, develop and cogentally
> end a piece of music
> every five minutes so that they have six pieces of music in a
> festival set of thirty minutes.
>
> It's a tough discipline to do that. I purposefully write set lists
> with 6 to 7 tableaus in it.
> I don't know what I'm going to play, but I do take 6 or 8 'sets' of
> instruments to each gig
> so that I can keep a found sound performance intriguing.
>
> I've discovered is someone has the discipline to play 6 five minute
> songs in order five times a week
> that after a month, they are ready to perform a pretty interesting
> set as a newbie at the festival.
>
> ******
> Also, and pardon this rambling post, but I"m in a 'waxing
> philosophic' mode today:
>
> I'm writing some new material that is more song oriented and even
> (damn this is scary to admit in public)
> singer/songwriter oriented, so I know that I need to figure out a
> way that I can compromise my
> desire for spontaneity and improvisation with composed (if not
> arranged) material.
>
> It's a really challenging thing for me. Frankly, it really scares
> me because it's so different from the freedom
> I've had for ten years, but I also am really hearing some new
> things with my new foray into stringed
> instruments.
>
>
> SOOOOO, pros and cons..................what do y'all like and/or
> dislike about pre arranged live looping shows
> and what do you like or dislike about pure improvisational shows.
>