------------------------------
Content-Type: text/plain

Loopers-Delight-d Digest                                Volume 97 : Issue 11

Today's Topics:
  Re: creative isolation                [ vajra@dimensional.com (Robert Phelp ]
  Re: Creativity and Technique          [ PMimlitsch@aol.com ]
  Re: beyond:what, or whom? re-sent: f  [ Paolo Valladolid <pvallado@wayneswo ]
  Re: vortex adapter and manual - help  [ Stew Benedict <benedict@netcom.com> ]
  Re: Creative Isolation& Creativity a  [ patrick@his.com (Patrick Smith) ]
  Re: creative isolation                [ Dpcoffin@aol.com ]
  Re: Creativity and Technique          [ Dpcoffin@aol.com ]
  Re: creative isolation                [ pycraft@elec.gla.ac.uk (Dr M. P. Hu ]
  Re: creative isolation                [ pycraft@elec.gla.ac.uk (Dr M. P. Hu ]
  Re: creative isolation                [ pycraft@elec.gla.ac.uk (Dr M. P. Hu ]
  RE: vortex adapter and manual - help  [ "Hogan, Greg" <GHogan@lexicon.com> ]
  Re: slider & pedal for a vortex       [ "Hogan, Greg" <GHogan@lexicon.com> ]
  New Lex ad                            [ pycraft@elec.gla.ac.uk (Dr M. P. Hu ]
  Re: New Lex ad                        [ vajra@dimensional.com (Robert Phelp ]
  Loopers-Delight-d Digest V97 #9       [ "Jason N. Joseph" <73311.213@compus ]
  Creative doldrums and compressors     [ KRosser414@aol.com ]
  Re: Creative doldrums and compressor  [ angel@matisse.pet.upenn.edu (Emmanu ]

Administrivia:
Looper's Delight
****************

Please send posts to:

Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com

Don't send them to the digest!

To subscribe/unsubscribe to the Loopers-Delight digest version, send email
with "subscribe" (or "unsubscribe") in both the subject and the body, with no
signature files, to:

Loopers-Delight-d-request@annihilist.com


To subscribe/unsubscribe to the real Loopers-Delight list, send email
with "subscribe" (or "unsubscribe") in both the subject and the body, with no
signature files, to:

Loopers-Delight-request@annihilist.com


Check the web page for archives and lots of other goodies!

http://www.annihilist.com/loop/loop.html


Your humble list maintainer,

Kim Flint
kflint@annihilist.com

------------------------------
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 19:46:04 +0100
From: vajra@dimensional.com (Robert Phelps)
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: creative isolation
Message-Id: <v01520d00af0968e737ec@[208.206.177.171]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

 A question occurs. The areas of "taking a break from listening" etc. have
come up now and again (something I do myself) and I'm wondering if we're
still being a bit too narrow in our thought. Can we find more or "better"
(bad term) inspiration for our looping "dry spots" be had by turning our
ears to "other" instruments (esp. other than guitar), and ALSO towards
music that perhaps involves no looping at all? Not to merely "turn away",
but to refresh the "other side of the coin" so to speak so that the
"looping" side doesnt carry such a wearisome burden? The "two sides of a
coin" scenario is itself perhaps drawing an unnecessary boundary/dichotomy,
but perhaps you see the point. Another perhaps more important source of
"inspiration" I'm just reminded of how damned "musical" certain novels I've
read, people I've spoken to, or things that meandered into my visual field
have been. As I grow older it is with these that I find inspiration for my
composition, loops or otherwise, much more than I do with particular
artists or recordings. Perhaps going "outside the loop" once in awhile so
to speak can only help us fortify and enrich such tools.Thoughts? B.P.
       P.S.--One I suppose could have found much looping inspiration in the
last presidential campaign rhetoric for example. Is such diverse
inspiration perhaps passing us by every day and we just need to open up a
bit more to it? Here's hoping so !



 .
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 20:27:50 -0500 (EST)
From: PMimlitsch@aol.com
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: Creativity and Technique
Message-ID: <970120202644_134824000@emout17.mail.aol.com>

<<Look at Neil Young.  "Technically", he's not a very good guitarist>>

What does "good" mean? If you're referring to adroitness then there is always
going to be somebody more physically adept than the next guy. I thought we
were talking music/art not sports. As long as the technique allows the art to
manifest itself to the artists specifications then that's all that matters. I
guess one could argue that if, in this case Neil Young , were to improve(?)
his physical guitaristic capabilities then maybe he could express more.
Maybe/Maybe not. What came first the chicken or the egg? Where does a light
go when it goes out? 8-)  --Paul

------------------------------
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 19:23:38 -0800 (PST)
From: Paolo Valladolid <pvallado@waynesworld.ucsd.edu>
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: beyond:what, or whom? re-sent: faulty slip.net
Message-Id: <199701210323.TAA24020@waynesworld.ucsd.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

> can we get beyond our *own* limitations in this chosen medium? even those
> limitations that seem fenced & barriered by what we (possibly: mistakenly)
> assume to be our heroes boundaries?
> can we aspire to something of more lasting value than feeding the harsh
> fecundity of a two-headed, two-dimensional societal beast with it's continual
> this-vs.-thatting?
> anyway.
> well.
> sorry if i blathered: i do that, now & again: i mean no harm.
> i promise i'll post w/something more concrete, sometime.
> best to all,
> david torn

I apologize in turn for not answering David's questions directly.
It's just that they remind me of a questionnaire my favorite college
professor George Lewis asked us the first day of the Introduction To
Music Making class.  From memory, the questions were something like these:

1. What kinds of music do you listen to?
2. How does the music reach your ears (radio/CD player/etc.)?
3. Who decides what music will reach your ears?
4. How much of a role does money play in the way music reaches your ears
(sorry, I probably phrased it wrong)?
5. How much of a role does money play in the decision-making involved in
what music reaches your ears?
6. What influences your music listening choices?
a. Parents (do they encourange/restrict)
b. Friends  (are their tastes influenced by fashion trends?)
c. Media

There were more questions than that of course.  This questionnaire and
George's playing of non-commercial music (some of it unlistenable to
me at the time) pissed off some students.  One of them was so pissed off
that for his performance project, he simply stood up in front of class and
said "This is bullshit. This is bullshit. This is..." (ad infinitum).

When I first got to know George, I felt similarly for a while.  If he
saw cassettes in my backpack, he would pull them out, pop them into his
stereo, listen to them and proceed to tellme I was listening to crap!
Imagine the damage to the psyche of a young man who believed the 
Rippingtons and Spyro Gyra actually played jazz! ^_^

Later, I finally understood my musical tastes had been dictated to me
by the radio and magazines.  The music I had listened to and liked were
definitely influenced by big money. I began to realize I had no appreciation
for truly creative music because I hadn't been exposed to it. Gradually,
I stopped listening to the radio.  Today, I only listen to the radio
for football games. ^_^


Paolo Valladolid
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Moderator of Digital Guitar Digest, an Internet mailing list   |\ 
|for Music Technology and Stringed Instruments                  | \
-----------------------------------------------------------------  |
\ finger pvallado@waynesworld.ucsd.edu for more info             \ |
 \ http://waynesworld.ucsd.edu/DigitalGuitar/home.html            \| 
  -----------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 20:28:06 -0500 (EST)
From: Stew Benedict <benedict@netcom.com>
To: James Reynolds <tritone@dsp.com>
cc: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: vortex adapter and manual - help?
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.91.970120202736.6776C-100000@moe.aysnet.com>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

I could scan this in if there aren't any other volunteers...

Stew

------------------------------
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 22:32:30 +0200
From: patrick@his.com (Patrick Smith)
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: Creative Isolation& Creativity and Technique
Message-Id: <v01520d01af098603242f@[205.177.25.43]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Very stimulating thought 's today.......and I suspect that everyone is
"right"......

Examining the creative spirit and how we reach it....or how the creative
spirit reaches us, through us......is sort of like an ant examining an
elephant....

We all have a glimpse.....seeing different pieces of the whole..........

Maybe..

Patrick

:-:_-:-:_-:-:_-:-:_-:-:_-:-:_-:-:_-:-:_-:-:_-:-:_-:-:_-:-:_-:-:_-:-:_-:-:_-

:-:-:_-:-:-:_-:-:-:_-:-:-:_-:-:-:_-:-:-:_-:-:-:_-:-:-:_-:-:-:_-:-:-:_-:-:-:_

             Patrick Smith   .....   Patrick@his.com    ....     ...    ..   .

 ***  ***    ** Fingerpaint http://www.his.com/~patrick/FNGP.html  ***  **

   ^ ^ ^  ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^^

Solaris Guitar Trio   .. .. . .. .http://www.xdc.com/solaris/


                                   ...            ..                 .

------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 00:27:17 -0500 (EST)
From: Dpcoffin@aol.com
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: creative isolation
Message-ID: <970121002715_1419926098@emout08.mail.aol.com>

-dave wrote:

<<channelling music from another world...>>
THIS, for me, is the entire reason for doing what I do with my guitar (and
Vortex, vg-8, etc, etc,...and how amazingly similar it sounds to what others
on this list do--as a process, of course; I've no idea about other's
results-and, incidently, NO idea what rfripp sounds like these days! {nor do
I even have a looper!}[[can i still come along??huh??huh??]]). For me,
practicing, noodling, composing, excercising, sound designing, whatever,
they're all really just what I need to do while waiting for the angel to
appear behind me, the spirit to descend, the clouds to part, the present to
unfold itself into an infinite NOW of no possible wrong notes, when every
gesture is appropriate, and every influence is revealed to have simply been a
reminder of an all-ready heard and longed for beauty. When this DOES happen,
only then does all the everyday work make sense...so I keep it up, no matter
how it feels, as much as possible, trying not to judge it, or myself for
failing. (And thus the recordings, when I'm lucky enough to have a tape
available, seem to improve, as artifacts, at least. NOTHING can improve on
the experience.)
After all, if you're not out standing in the road how will you know when the
bus comes by?
...I seem to remember somebody saying "...in art the most important thing is
to just show up."
...may the unseen world send blessings upon us all!
david

------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 00:42:46 -0500 (EST)
From: Dpcoffin@aol.com
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: Creativity and Technique
Message-ID: <970121004245_1759060217@emout05.mail.aol.com>

-again, dave wrote:

<<Technique must be sufficient
for expression, but excessive technique is unnecessary.  And the
temptation to use excessive technique detracts us from expression.  
>>
I think you can go further and assert that technical limitations are never a
barrier to expression. If the need to express, or the content, is demanding
enough, it finds a way. When technical freedom is met with great inspiration,
it makes for a sublimely entertaining experience, but not necessarily more a
compelling one, merely because of its brilliance. We'd love to have
everything, but it's not really necessary.

------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 10:45:09 GMT
From: pycraft@elec.gla.ac.uk (Dr M. P. Hughes)
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: creative isolation
Message-Id: <14385.199701211045@rank-serv.elec.gla.ac.uk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Paolo:
>I recently went through a stage where I felt Pat Metheny, the King
>Crimson players, Allan Holdsworth, John McLaughlin and Fred Frith (please
>don't be offended if I left out the name of your favorite guitarist) pretty 
>much said everything I ever wanted to say on guitar so I stopped playing the 
>guitar. I haven't played it seriously in almost a year now.

That's a shame - just because one hears an eloguent speaker, who expresses
your views exactly, it doesn't require one to shut up or learn another
language because one feels one has nothing to say.  There is a romantic
"artistic merit"* in this (anyone seen The Piano"?) but I'm unsure as to
whether it actually benefits either the player or the audience.

Michael
*According to my wife anyway.  This film inspired much debate!

Dr Michael Pycraft Hughes      Bioelectronic Research Centre, Rankine Bldg,
Tel: (+44) 141 330 5979        University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, U.K.
    "Wha's like us?  Damn few, and they're a' deid!" - Scottish proverb

------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 10:39:38 GMT
From: pycraft@elec.gla.ac.uk (Dr M. P. Hughes)
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: creative isolation
Message-Id: <14228.199701211039@rank-serv.elec.gla.ac.uk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Emmanuel:
>Dr Michael Pycraft Hughes wrote:
>
>>Finally, Andre recommended listening to completely different avenues of
>>music in order to overcome copying other musicians.  Matthias (got the tape
>>yet?) went one step further in suggesting listening to _no_ other
>>musicians.  I'll go the whole hog and say _give up your instrument_!  OK
>>it's a bit extreme.
>
>This, to me, sounds like a means toward overcoming one's musical conditioning.
>But might not it be closer to the *learning* of something new.  Can we change
>the way we organize our thoughts, perhaps even our personalities, by taking
>up a new language?  Perhaps.  But might this be an indirect means, somewhat
>haphazard, and eliminative of the stuff that has worked for us.

To an extent, for me, it wasn't so much a case of learning something new as
unlearning something old.  The muscle memory cleared; I could still move my
fingers as before (after a couple of weeks of exercises anyway!), but I'd
lost many of the old blues licks that I'd previously tended to drop into my
playing at any opportunity.  Rather than learn the instrument in the
"traditional" sense of learning simple stuff, them mor complex stuff and so
on, I was able to start straight into a musical environment closer to what
I percieve is "the music I'd like to sound like".  By starting to re-learn
my vocabulary, I was able to clear out all the influences (many just picked
up from the radio) that I'd never felt should be there, and structure my
music from the ground up.

>In Gestalt psychology, there is the duality of figure and ground.  Have
>you ever seen those plates (line drawings) that can been seen as either
>an old woman or a pretty young woman.  We are often jumping back and forth,
>altering our own perspective on what we see, on what we hear.  Maybe in one
>moment I will hear my striving to express an ideal as played by one of my
>heros, as played by one of my influences.  In the next moment, I will hear
>that the voice has become me, that I am making the statement now, and
>that I have appropriated the music as my own.   It is amazing when this
>happens, joyful.  All of a sudden, my whole is greater than the sum of
>its parts, of its influences.  It is like catching that great proverbial
>wave and going for it.  Thought and striving almost seem to stop as we
>are witness to our own creativity, our own ability to make a statement
>that is in ways like others, but yet like no other.  Figure and ground.
>Figure and ground.  Go figure!

I've read about this a lot, and have experienced it a few times - that
rapture when you're no longer playing your fingers, they're playing
themselves whilst you listen to exactly the kind of music you always wanted
to play.  I find myself thinking "I never realised my voice would sound so
much like _____ or ____", but knowing that it _is_ my voice, without a
doubt. 

Unfortunately, this doesn't happen very often for me.  How about everyone else?

Michael 

Dr Michael Pycraft Hughes      Bioelectronic Research Centre, Rankine Bldg,
Tel: (+44) 141 330 5979        University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, U.K.
    "Wha's like us?  Damn few, and they're a' deid!" - Scottish proverb

------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 11:41:47 GMT
From: pycraft@elec.gla.ac.uk (Dr M. P. Hughes)
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: creative isolation
Message-Id: <15957.199701211141@rank-serv.elec.gla.ac.uk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Jason, after Matthias:
> I believed, when I first
>got into the recording business, that each musical "stage" I went through
>was a process of sloughing off my influences, one by one... and by 
>continuing this process, and also by making every effort *not* to try to
>imitate any other musician in terms of technique or compositional
>style, I would eventually arrive at some sort of "pure" form of my own
>musical voice.

Does this lead to a musical "inbreeding" at all?  I have tried to follow a
link from my earliest recordings to the present day and can see one, but
I've absorbed a lot of stuff since then - the Renaissance style is a large
part of my playing, and I'd never heard any of that kind of music for many
years after I started playing.  When has one absorbed enough influences to
stop?

>As time wears on I become increasingly cynical about this, perhaps
>agreeing with Brian Eno that there is *no way* to be freed of one's
>influences, and thus the task at hand is not to find your own "pure
>voice", which I take it he does not believe to exist, but instead to 
>come up with the most interesting and unique combinations of such
>influences... "Composting" he calls it.

Thinking about this, we can almost see how, in the absence of hearing _any_
kind of music before, our instruments still tie us to playing in certain
ways.  At the piano you're tied to the chromatic scale but very much
encouraged to play in C major.  Guitar is a bit better, in that all notes
are given equal weighting, but you have to go to the classical strings, or
maybe the trombone, before you're freed up from the influence of the scale
via the instrument.  This is dealing with Western isnstruments only, of
course.

Michael

Dr Michael Pycraft Hughes      Bioelectronic Research Centre, Rankine Bldg,
Tel: (+44) 141 330 5979        University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, U.K.
    "Wha's like us?  Damn few, and they're a' deid!" - Scottish proverb

------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 09:38:00 -0500
From: "Hogan, Greg" <GHogan@lexicon.com>
To: Loopers-Delight <Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com>
Subject: RE: vortex adapter and manual - help?
Message-Id: <9701211453.AA19789@beryllium.lexicon.com>

 ----------
From: Loopers-Delight
To: Loopers-Delight
Subject: vortex adapter and manual - help?
Date: Tuesday, January 21, 1997 6:46AM

hi folks,

as mentioned in my previous post, i just got a vortex w/out manual or
accessories.  my jamman sits silent and cold as its 9VAC lifesblood is
sucked up by its new friend.

i called lexicon to order the adapter today, got patched to the marketing
guy's answering machine, and was told he would be at NAMM 'til thursday
(which means i probably wouldn't get the goods for a couple weeks).  i want
to play with my toys!!!  does anyone know of anywhere (besides lexicon) one
can buy a 9V, 1 amp AC wall wart?  why did they have to use 9V AC, anyway?
so people would have no choice but to buy their special adapter?  (there
were some 9V, 780ma AC adapters at radio shack.  anyone know if that's
enough juice?)

also, being manual-less is rather unpleasant.  if someone, out of the sheer
generosity of their heart, could take a couple minutes to scan it and email
me some JPEGs (or 2-color GIFs, compressed TIFFs, whatever) i would be your
slave forever.  or, better idea:  they could be posted on the looper's
delight vortex page for others in a similar situation, or for people curious
about what this thing does.

also, if anyone has the vortex "application notes", i'm sure there are many
vortex users who would love to see these posted on the page.  no need for
OCR or transcription, any legible scans will do.

thanks in advance,

james

Dear James,

Please provide me with the serial number of the Vortex and what items were 
missing from your purchase and I will get you what you are missing as well 
as your application notes.

We recently have hired a new receptionist which woul explain why your call 
was transfered to the wrong extension.  In the future you can contact me 
directly.

Best regards,

Greg Hogan
Lexicon Customer Service
Phone 617-280-0372
FAX 617-280-0499
email: ghogan@lexicon.com

------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 09:34:00 -0500
From: "Hogan, Greg" <GHogan@lexicon.com>
To: Loopers-Delight <Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com>
Subject: Re: slider & pedal for a vortex
Message-Id: <9701211454.AA19832@beryllium.lexicon.com>

 ----------
From: Loopers-Delight
To: Loopers-Delight
Subject: Re: slider & pedal for a vortex
Date: Tuesday, January 21, 1997 6:46AM


>hi all ! i also wonder about my vortex/expression issue. I just got (one of
>the last) guitar center ones - no problems, it seems - tho' it arrived sans
>"footpedal" or booklet !! are the instructions on line somewhere ?? also - 
i
>have a roland EV-10 expression ped. - what do i have to do to set it up -
>other than plug it in ?? any settings??

i'm in just about the exact same situation as you - snagged the last bay
area guitar center vortex, no manual or accessories.  i also got a roland
ev-5 pedal (the one used by John Durant), but it doesn't seem to do anything
by just plugging it in.  what's the trick?

i'll address the manual/adapter issues in another post...

james

Dear James,

The EV-5 requires no modification in order to use it with the Vortex.  Set 
the knob on the left of the EV-5 to "0" and you will have full range control 
of all of the parameters in the Vortex.

Please let me know if you have any questions or if there is anything that I 
can do for you.

Best regards,

Greg Hogan
Lexicon Customer Service
Phone 617-280-0372
FAX 617-280-0499
email ghogan@lexicon.com

------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 15:03:17 GMT
From: pycraft@elec.gla.ac.uk (Dr M. P. Hughes)
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: New Lex ad
Message-Id: <20691.199701211503@rank-serv.elec.gla.ac.uk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

The new Lex processor - the MPX? - ad slogan is wonderful.

"The MPX - it does everything you expect"

Is this an attempt to distance the company from the unexpected Vortex, Greg?

BTW, on a similar subject, is Lex going to expand its Web pages, Greg? 
It's a bit sparse at the moment (though I can understand if you're busy,
with the move and all).  I was hoping to check the stats on the Reflex
(assuming you haven't dropped that as well).

Finally, Matthias said:

> A friend even told me, that he keeps practicing while driving, by
> imaginating the sound and the fingering, and really, it helps!

I read that, when he was a pilot, Steve Morse would practive while driving
to/from work - put the car on cruise control, and play whilst steering with
his knees....

Michael

 

Dr Michael Pycraft Hughes      Bioelectronic Research Centre, Rankine Bldg,
Tel: (+44) 141 330 5979        University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, U.K.
    "Wha's like us?  Damn few, and they're a' deid!" - Scottish proverb

------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 10:00:32 +0100
From: vajra@dimensional.com (Robert Phelps)
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re: New Lex ad
Message-Id: <v01520d02af0a35afbed4@[208.206.177.91]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Michael>   I read that, when he was a pilot, Steve Morse would practive
while driving
to/from work - put the car on cruise control, and play whilst steering with
his knees....


Expains a bit perhaps about Los Angeles Freeways. Dont try this at home
kids! :-)

------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 10:55:23 -0500
From: "Jason N. Joseph" <73311.213@compuserve.com>
To: Loopers-Delight <Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com>
Subject: Loopers-Delight-d Digest V97 #9
Message-ID: <199701211055_MC2-FAD-E1F2@compuserve.com>

Message text written by INTERNET:Loopers-Delight-d-request@annihilist.com
>I don't think 
technique is a trap within itself or a trade off from creativity. 
I know what you mean by relying on stock licks or riffs being  a trap, 
 but I believe to express yourself as a musician you need to practice
technique 
and develop skill. Only when you have mastered your instrument
can you play from your inspiration.<

I'm going to *completely* disagree with you here... I think this varies 
person by person. I look back to the music I wrote (& recorded on first
album) way back when I first picked up the guitar and made a
variety of very intentional efforts NOT to learn it in the *established*
manner -- which I found in other instruments I had learned to be VERY 
confining. I was listening to a lot of Indian classical music at the time, 
and thus had a much different approach to tuning and technique, which 
resulted in some compositions which, although possibly naive,
had a kind of purity and creativity to them that I *cannot* regain.
Over the last however many years I have become a much 
better guitar player, but my compositions particularly for acoustic
guitar have as a result become more and more conventional
to my ears. Sometimes I yearn for the days when I knew 
virtually *nothing* about the guitar and randomly abused the
instrument to make beautiful noise.

This is just *my* experience. I don't want us to get into some 
kind of useless "technique vs. creativity" argument (which in of
itself is the wrong conceptualization of the issue), particularly
since we all lie at different points along that continuum.

jj

P.S. Hey, all of you, please accept my warmest thanks for your
thoughts on all of these issues. I personally love to philosophize
anyway, but especially when it's a topic that's either close to my
heart or is troubling me in some way. Your thoughts have been
both helpful and inspirational. I feel like I'm "home". Hugs to
you all. 

------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 11:03:10 -0500 (EST)
From: KRosser414@aol.com
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Creative doldrums and compressors
Message-ID: <970121105246_1344758129@emout13.mail.aol.com>

Re: Creative doldrums

I've read a lot of these entries with a great deal of interest.  Personally,
I'm not sure why a lover of music would want to be 'influence-less'.  It
seems to me that that would create more doldrums than it would remedy.  I
play professionally so giving it up for a year ain't an option, but as far as
listening I think there can be too much emphasis placed on 1) why you listen
to certain things and 2) what, specifically, you are to take from them for
your own music. I thinks it's important to think of other music as something
you love to hear and make no other demands on it.  Let it work its magic on
you.  If it starts coming out heavily in your own work, let it.  I think it's
healthier to work through it than deny it.   If you obsess about not sounding
like Fripp, he's still got the grip on you, see?  The key is to love but not
yearn to possess.  In music as in life, an important thing to try to learn...

Personally, I would much rather hear someone play the 12-bar blues on
acoustic guitar that really loves it rather than some guy with an arsenal of
gear and all the looping savvy in the world who sounds like he doesn't love
anything but himself.

I think self-examination s very important for anyone, but it's very easy to
fall into a trap of self-obsession.   In many ways, I think it's a fallacy to
"look" for your individuality.  You already have it, just as you have a sense
of community also.  I think the key is to get out of the way and allow them
both to do what they need to do.  And what do we "do" in the meantime?  I
dunno...maybe, try to appreciate what we love and forgive what we don't.

Just MHO, of course.  There are as many answers to this as there are
individuals.

On a completely unrelated technical note, for seekers of the oft-sought TC
Electronics Sustain/Para EQ pedal that have been unable to find one, I have
some potentially encouraging news.  I visited the TC booth at NAMM over the
weekend and was introduced to another Danish company they've become
affiliated with (exactly how the affiliation extends, I'm not sure, i.e., it
might be just for marketing purposes) called Carl Martin.  CM makes a
compressor/Limiter pedal that is apparently modeled *somewhat* upon the old
TC pedal.  I didn't get to play it myself, so I don't want it to sound like
too informed an endorsement, but I did listen to them demo it and I think
it's definitely worth trying out when they start appearing at retailers (NAMM
was their American debut - they said they should be out and around "very
soon").

Cheers,
Ken R

------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 97 11:36:40 EST
From: angel@matisse.pet.upenn.edu (Emmanuel Angel)
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject: Re:  Creative doldrums and compressors
Message-Id: <9701211636.AA17167@matisse.pet.upenn.edu.noname>

>Re: Creative doldrums
>
>Personally, I would much rather hear someone play the 12-bar blues on
>acoustic guitar that really loves it rather than some guy with an arsenal of
>gear and all the looping savvy in the world who sounds like he doesn't love
>anything but himself.

Amen.


>I think self-examination s very important for anyone, but it's very easy to
>fall into a trap of self-obsession.   In many ways, I think it's a fallacy to
>"look" for your individuality.  You already have it, just as you have a sense
>of community also.  I think the key is to get out of the way and allow them
>both to do what they need to do.  And what do we "do" in the meantime?  I
>dunno...maybe, try to appreciate what we love and forgive what we don't.

Kind of sounds like the "wanting to go home" dilemma played out so clearly
in the Wizard of Oz.  Ultimately, we have the power to go where we need to.
If we can stop running from ourselves, we can cultivate the Wizard Within,
so to speak.  We can see the parlor tricks (e.g. "arsenal of gear") for what
they are, and discover our own ... well, I don't need to take the metaphor
any further: you get the idea.

Nice insights Ken, ringing true to me.  Check out "Care of the Soul" by
Thomas Moore.  Ironically, paradoxically, it is the narcissist who is
stuck on the external (e.g. "obsess about not sounding like Fripp") who
cannot get enough of themselves.  We've all seen it, and most of us
musician types, I would wager, have more than our share of those
narcissist/obsessive qualities.

Some good wisdom emerging from this dialogue ... enjoying this forum.

Mickey

____________________________________________________________________________

Emmanuel Angel
Nuclear Medicine Physics and Instrumentation Group
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA
19104

angel@matisse.pet.upenn.edu

--------------------------------