Re: another survey (wasRe: OT, but getting close to not-OT: guitar/sax improv sessions)

["Travis Hartnett" <travishartnett@gmail.com>]

On 10/6/07, Paul Mimlitsch <pmimlitsch@mac.com> wrote:
>
>
> Which brings me to a topic I've been wondering about lately:
>
> 1) how many people on the list do solo non looping gigs?

 Never.
>
> 2) "the beauty of the single not line" - how many guitar players/
> players of multitimbral instruments can do an improv. gig using only
> single note lines and hold an audiences attention? for how long?

Never tried it.  It certainly get dull for me pretty quickly (as a player).

>
> 3) if you're not comfortable doing this, is that because of
> preference (ie: vertical vs. linear hearing)?  Being raised on a
> particular instrument?  Or did you gravitate towards your preferred
> instrument due to how you hear things?

Personally, the percussive note envelope of the guitar (the sound is
dying off almost as soon as its sounded) does not lend itself well to
unaccompanied single lines.  I so envy the bowed instruments or horns
that can make a note get louder after the initial attack, and for
years used a compressor, volume pedal and reverb/delay to cop some of
that ability.

>
> 4) if you play a mono timbral instrument (horns etc) is the desire to
> "loop" a means of filling up vertical space to compliment your single
> note line play?

Yep.  I like harmony, and the amount of effort required to learn how
to do it all at once via advanced fingerpicking (a la Kottke or
Bensusan) is beyond me at this point in life.  There's only so much
time in the day and so many days left on my calendar.