LOOPING

Looping is a technique I have often used when composing. It involves repeating or “looping” musical materials, such as a melodic phrase, a texture, or a chord progression.

The term “loop” comes from early electronic composition where a piece of electromagnetic tape is physically spliced together to form a loop and is continuously fed across the play head of a tape player so you hear the same thing played endlessly.

This alone could be perceived as monotonous, but integrated into a piece with other loops of different lengths then you have a texture that has a feeling of sounding the same but as you listen it is always different.

ACOUSTIC INSTRUMENTS

Now if instead of using electronic materials to create the loops you were to use acoustic instruments played by musicians to generate the loops in real time you have a similar but very different effect. The effect plays on both listener and performer.

The listener is free to roam and explore the texture or to let it flow past them, like sitting by a river. For the musician the experience is different. It is no simple task to play the same thing repeatedly. Each repeat requires a great deal of focus because all the other parts are shifting in relation to what you are playing. So a musician experiences the constant change in texture while attempting to maintain his or her place in the composition.

VIDEO

Now consider adding to the shifting texture of musical loops a visual loop and you have a video called Aquarium.

Note: the music is meant to start twenty seconds after the video.

RECORDING THE GUITAR PART

Right hand fingers: thumb (p), index (i), middle (m).

I have a vivid memory of recording the guitar part for Aquarium, an eight minute song I composed for an album called Passing Time. It was at Grant Avenue Studio (Daniel Lanois’ studio) in Hamilton, and Bob Doidge was the engineer.

Playing the part was like doing a T’ai chi standing meditation. At first it’s a piece of cake until about two minutes in. Then legs start to shake, and perspiration glides down your back until you calm yourself and settle into the next phase of meditation.

Playing guitar without any string noise is next to impossible, especially when you’re recording a 4-bar part that loops thirty times. You’re under a microscope, and you don’t want to have to do it again.

HOW TO PLAY THE GUITAR PART

My guitar students often ask how they can improve their technique and develop their “strength”.

Here is a way to greatly improve your playing on many levels

• learn the guitar part for Aquarium
• play the guitar part for the entire video

To build up your stamina

• memorize the part, it’s 4 bars long
• strive for clean sound with even articulation and a flow to the rhythm

Try This

Using a metronome, set at 60 bpm

• play the part twice
• play it four times
• then eight times
• then sixteen
• then thirty-two

The part is played thirty times. To prepare for the recording I played it forty to fifty times without stopping, but instead of counting repeats I used a clock. I would play it for at least 10 minutes without stopping. Then I’d take a short break and do it again.

Endurance

When doing it on your own it’s an exercise in endurance.
When playing along with the recording you have to focus on your part relating to the rhythm of the different parts while maintaining your 4-bar phrase.

I love the concentration, endurance and focus that’s required in playing a part like this. There are eight pieces on Passing Time, and they all employ looping techniques.

Song purchase

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