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
