Looper Madness

FractalAudio said:
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Wow! Simply incredible. These folks definitely did their 10,000 hours. I'm about 20 minutes in and I haven't heard a mistake yet. All syncopations are spot on, and the barefoot tap dancing without missing a transition (not that I would necessarily hear it if they did). All while holding a 15 - 20 pound instrument. Pretty incredible stuff. Just remembering the arrangements blows my mind. I saw Beat a couple of months ago. I'm curious what Adrian Belew or Steve Vai would have have to say.

Blown Away Wow GIF by Aminé
 
There is a video out there somewhere where Steve Vai talks about the difficulties of learning early 80s King Crimson tunes for the Beat tour. Vai is such a master musician and amazing guitarist that it's interesting to hear him talk about the difficulties of learning such difficult material. The music in this video would be so much harder. At least I imagine that it would be. I can only imagine because I I wouldn't even know where to start learning it myself. And my chops are so feeble compared to what's happening . . . Wow! It's like climbing mount Everest in costume with a 200 pound pack, blind folded, barefoot, while debating the merits of Kant vs Schopenhauer and dancing the meringue, all at the same time. Or maybe that climb would be easier.
 
I ‘LOVE’ this jammin’!


It sounds like & reminds me of myself and my longtime childhood best friend's impromptu jammin' like this, which we did together for years.


The difference in our case is, I also used a huge bank of synths powered by my Synth-guitar along with various drum machines.
All recorded and done simply for the pure pleasure and enjoyment of making music!
 
lscottk said:
There is a video out there somewhere where Steve Vai talks about the difficulties of learning early 80s King Crimson tunes for the Beat tour. Vai is such a master musician and amazing guitarist that it's interesting to hear him talk about the difficulties of learning such difficult material. The music in this video would be so much harder. At least I imagine that it would be. I can only imagine because I I wouldn't even know where to start learning it myself. And my chops are so feeble compared to what's happening . . . Wow! It's like climbing mount Everest in costume with a 200 pound pack, blind folded, barefoot, while debating the merits of Kant vs Schopenhauer and dancing the meringue, all at the same time. Or maybe that climb would be easier.
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I don't think it's necessarily harder or more complex than king crimson but it's awesome. King Crimson has some very hard things to play and get around as well. Also Steve Vai said the same about Frank Zappa stuff back in the day and it's true too.
 
Bodde said:
ok good to know. Wish the Axe fx looper could sync to a click. It does quantise loops, but only the ending of a loop, not the start, also not sync to a click.
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If you’ve never tried a boss looper - it can be enlightening how much they’ve simplified the task of operating a looper so you can instead focus on your instruments and composition.
 
JOHNNYROCKIT said:
I ‘LOVE’ this jammin’!


It sounds like & reminds me of myself and my longtime childhood best friend's impromptu jammin' like this, which we did together for years.


The difference in our case is, I also used a huge bank of synths powered by my Synth-guitar along with various drum machines.
All recorded and done simply for the pure pleasure and enjoyment of making music!
Click to expand...
I'd love to hear something that you produced, if you've got anything you're open to sharing.

I have dabbled in guitar synths for a long time. I have a lot of guitar synth gear (anyone want to buy a GP-10, GR-55 or a VG-99?), both old and new gear, but I've never gotten anywhere meaningful with it. Too many life distractions. I still use it and enjoy it, but for my own satisfaction. I've also worked on my picking technique enough that I can play solos cleanly (for the most part). I'd love it if you PM me with examples if you prefer not to post here.
 
BROCKSTAR said:
I don't think it's necessarily harder or more complex than king crimson but it's awesome. King Crimson has some very hard things to play and get around as well. Also Steve Vai said the same about Frank Zappa stuff back in the day and it's true too.
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I agree the King Crimson polyrhythms are complex. But much of the lines used in the polyrhythms are repetitive with variations. I'm not meaning to diminish Vai. He's a guitar god if ever there was one. But neither Steve Vai nor Adrian Below were doing all the tap dancing and looping I saw in the video. Nor covering bass and guitar using microtones.

Given that I can't even approach playing either King Crimson or the video that started this thread, it's probably not legit for me to compare how difficult either is to play. Yes, Zappa is complex. I still remember reading an interview with Mike Keneally where he described sending FZ emails asking to audition when MK was a teenager. MK was invited to audition with FZ and, according to MK, he nailed any song FZ threw at him, enough so that FZ hired him to tour (Vai and Keneally were touring with FZ at the same time, if I remember correctly). I can imagine learning the FZ catalog (once again, if I had the chops to do so), but this video seems much harder to me. But what do I know . . ? All of the above is far above my skill level.
 
Almost as amusing as the music are the comments.

"This is one of the Frenchest things I've ever seen."

"This is definitely my favorite polka dot phallus band"

"This makes my amygdala wiggle."

"This efing slaps. It’s the sound of one hand slapping . . . everything that came before it."

"Chuck, it's Marvin. Your cousin, Marvin Berry. You know that new sound you're looking for? Well, listen to this!"
 
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Thanks @FractalAudio for posting this, very inspiring. It's like King Crimson meets Sonic Youth. Way outside my personal playing style but so incredibly exiting to still see people pushing at the boundaries of music exploration.
 
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