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Re: Critique of Critique of Feedback at Max



Afternoon, Stig!

"Liebig, Steuart A." wrote:

> ** hmmm. to me it comes down to: how do you use the looper? maybe that 
>has more to do with the need to have feedback or not.

Agree completely.  The EDP recordings of mine I feel proudest of, both
musically and technically, don't use feedback at all (except for one
fade-out at the end of a 43-minute improv).  

> ** i think the key here is great music. i would ask why is it 
>"important"? if people are making good/great music with the tools at 
>hand, why must they be taught something different? (i say this in all 
>respect, just interested in the philosophy here.)

I gotcha.  For me, it's analagous to this: if someone's already making
good music with major and minor chords/scales, then why should they
learn about seventh chords or modes?  Or, if someone's digging 4/4, then
why should they learn odd meter?  If someone likes swing, why should
they check out be-bop?  

In all cases (including the looping angle), the issue I'm concerned with
is for a musician to have a good sense of the current (and potential)
scope of the tools they're using.  And to have a sense of what they can
potentially explore, if they're so inclined, and how these different
possibilities could potentially steer their music making in different 
directions.

If someone really likes harmony, and is curious about moving beyond
major and minor triads, then I'd recommend that they play around with
some seventh chords, get a sense of how those types of chords are
sometimes employed in a functional sense, and then let them decide
whether or not this new technique is something they want to implement
into their own music.

Likewise, if somebody really likes rhythm, but is looking for different
kinds of grooves and feels beyond 4/4, I'd suggest that they try playing
in 7 or 5, get comfortable with the way those meters feel, and see if
they're inspired to make those sorts of areas a regular part of their work.

Nobody HAS to learn how to use feedback, but for people who are
interested in finding different ways of dealing with looping, it's a
very big and very powerful foundation of that particular technique. 
Particularly for those folks who are interested in smooth, rounded
sounds, and the idea of gradually morphing a texture into something else
within the same basic loop, it's a very powerful tool.  

And historically, it's something that's been used in delay lines and tape
loops in various ways for at least 30-some years.  If we were talking
about pitch-shifting or time-stretching or SUS-Unrounded Multiply or
some other relatively new and specialized looping technique, that'd be
one thing.  But feedback is sort of like the power chord of looping, so
to speak - it's a very basic, but very powerful tool with a serious
historical pedigree.

> I agree that it's important to encourage people to do their thing.  But
> I also adamently feel that it's JUST as important to approach an art
> form from a respectfully critical point of view. <
> 
> ** ah, so it's looping as discrete art form, not as means to an end. at 
>least that's how i read this?

For me, it's looping as a real-time performative approach - something
people can engage, sculpt, steer, shape, etc.  I'm not speaking of it as
an "art form" in the sense of a distinct style, but in the sense of a
particular form of performative musical technique - a la the "art form"
of playing the bass, or painting with watercolors, or what have you.

It's sort of like how I'd recommend a guitarist to try a hollow-body
"jazz box," as well as a telecaster, as well as a seven-string, Floyd
Rose-equipped, two-humbucker Ibanex.  All three of them are designed
from different points of view.  An aspiring jazz player probably won't
need the Ibanez shred machine... but what if the "aspiring jazzer"
really wants to do those humbucker-driven whammy-bar dive-bombs, and
just hasn't been properly exposed to the right tools?

> ** well, i guess that rick did in a way. he challenged the supposition 
>that one *had* to have feedback ;-)

Very true!  :)

C ya,

--Andre LaFosse
http://www.altruistmusic.com