Part 1, detailing the gear in my looping rig, is here.

I’ve recently been working on becoming more self-sufficient as a performer. One of the great things about The Exited Door was how many brilliant musicians I got to contribute, but the flip side of that is that it can be difficult to perform the material without them!  Generally speaking, I’ve always had the intention of performing with a huge-ass group, giving the tunes a literal reinterpretation of what’s on the record, but that kind of show is A) logistically hard to pull off and B) financially unsustainable.  So, my plan had always been to come up with a way to perform solo or in small group settings – the trick was figuring out how.

Enter my loop pedal. Well, actually, Nervo’s loop pedal that he loaned me, but same difference. Using it, I’ve put together a pretty cool one-man band setup, as I detailed in a post a few weeks ago. It’s been a blast coming up with little “mini-melodies” and working out how to perform them. It didn’t take long to realize that, in addition to playing loop-specific songs, I could use the pedal to creatively add the flavor of the orchestration on the record.

However, as I began to implement this idea, I noticed a few things.  For starters, my setup was taking up too much space – I had all my wind instruments laid out with my percussion on a separate chair, and four pedals in front of the amp… it was just a little too busy.

Another thing I realized was that while it would actually be possible to play a good number of the tunes from the record solo or with another guitarist, I’d need to get creative with triggering loops that I recorded using the melodica.  What’s more, there wouldn’t be time for me to reach over and grab the melodica every time I needed to play a solo (like, say, the trumpet melody on “No Crow, Scarecrow”), so I’d need to figure out a way to have quick access to the instrument while playing guitar.

I’d been thinking about designing an arm-mount for my melodica for a little while – it always seemed like a natural fit for the instrument.  That said, I’m kind of shocked that I actually pulled it off!  All it took was one trip to the haight, where I picked up two matching big thick leather belts and some heavy-duty velcro.

After initially attaching the upper-arm band and the wrist band to my arm and threading the wrist-band through the handle on the back of the melodica, I attached velcro to the outside of the upper-arm band, as well as the underside of the melodica.  It worked great for a bit, but after I started practicing with it, it became clear that I’d need a second strap around the top to hold the instrument in place.  I was initially using string, but that was pretty flimsy; another trip to the hardware store and I found a 24″ velcro strap that was perfect.  I attached another strip of velcro to the top of the melodica, wrapped the strap around, and voila!  The thing wouldn’t fall off if I was chased by an angry mob.  And, taking into account how awful it sounds when I screw up one of these loops, the possibility of that happening isn’t quite as remote as it may sound. Heh.

To detail how it was put together, I took a few pictures (a few used my mirror, so they’re inverted):

But enough pictures, time to show this thing in action! Without further ado, I give you the YouTube debut of my looping mini-composition “Happy Pants.”

This week, I got to do something fun and different – my sister is getting her masters’ in counseling at the California Institute for Integral Studies (CIIS), which is a very groovy counseling/therapy institute located south of Market.  I heard through her that a group of CIIS students were looking for a musician to accompany them during a drama therapy performance, and, with no idea what exactly would be involved, or indeed even what Drama Therapy was, I said “what the hell” and decided to go for it.

I spoke with a group member, Jessica, on the phone and she explained what exactly they were doing, and what they’d need from me. The method they use is called “Playback Theatre” and in it a troupe of actors solicits stories from the lives of the folks in the audience and then plays those stories back to them.  It’s all improvised, and pretty abstract – men can play women, women can play men, scarves are involved…

My gig would involve improvising a soundtrack to the various scenes.  I’d been wanting to get my loop station together for some time, so I thought this would be a good excuse to go for it, so I ordered a couple of missing components and got to work getting ‘er set up and working.

After rehearsing with the actors, we did our performance today. It was really cool!  Listening to the stories while simultaneously thinking of what to play is a unique challenge – “Okay, she’s talking about the circus, what do I know that’ll work… and where do I start the loop… what key will this be in?”  It’s fast and really enjoyable to do, you gotta think on your feet! My only complaint was that we didn’t perform for longer, though I have a feeling that today will not be the last time I join an improv group onstage.

Incedental to that performance, I got my loop station complete and MUNI-transportable, and I worked out a couple of fun little ditties that I can recreate pretty consistently and cleanly.  I thought it’d be fun to post them here on Murfins. So, first I’ve written a breakdown of what I’m using and where, and then a posted few examples of some loops I did. The examples are far from perfect, since they were recorded live and on-the-fly, with no overdubbing or tweaking after-the-fact. That said, I’m pretty happy with them!

Without further ado:

Gear Breakdown

1. Tambourine (gotta have it!)
2. Flute
3. Avocado Shaker (which I dearly love)
4. Clarinet
5. Melodica (my new favorite instrument)
6. Microphone Stand (the hardest thing in the whole unit to transport)
7. Shure Beta-58, the mic to end all mics
8. Boss GigaDelay, Mic only
9. Boss NS-2, mutes the mic, supplies power to the pedals
10. Boss RC-20 looper, on loan from Dan Nervo. The heart of the beast.
11. Volume Pedal
12. Ovation Celebrity
13. Tuner
14. Crate Taxi 15-watt amp (rechargeable, portable, and LOUD)

To make a loop, I usually start with some sort of set pattern, and the challenge for me has been to speed up my transitions between instruments.  It’s quite fun to jam out with a looper, but in the interest of making something that’s actually enjoyable for people to watch and listen to, going in with a very specific gameplan (and instrument choreography) is very important.

A Few Examples
(Links go to downloadable MP3s.)

1. Dancing Pants

I really enjoy this first loop – the loop length is very short, and I think that might be why it works so well. I call it “Dancing Pants.” Got off to a good start, added things quickly, and got a pretty mean groove going by the end.  I’ve been in the habit of starting loops off with the guitar, and it’s nice to start it elsewhere (in this case, on the clarinet).

2. Forlorn Pants

Second loop is a down-tempo, so I guess I’ll call it “Forlorn Pants.”  The pants are forlorn, people. Pretty easy, with nice volume swells, though there are some pitch problems going on with the guitar that become evident later on – the big trick with this one is that it takes a little while to cycle around, so the whole thing moves quite a bit slower.  Using the delay on my flute to add ambient texture is really fun, and something I want to experiment with more.

3. Happy Pants

Third is a longer loop which is quite happy – it’s called, you guessed it, “Happy Pants.”  I’m a big fan of this little melody – I came up with it recently, and plan on working it into a larger show with a full band.  It’s very stroll-in-the-park-y.  Also, some rhythmic issues crop up, but whaddya gonna do?  Go with it, that’s what.  It’s still tough for me to get this groove settled without hearing the melody, for whatever reason.

4. Lemon’s Loop

Here’s an alliteration for ya: Last but not least is a little loop I made out of the Liz Lemon-y lick I noticed last week while re-watching last year’s 30 Rock episode “Greenzo.” It is one of the main reasons that I want to be Jeff Richmond, the guy who wrote it. I love it so much that I wanted to play it, so I did – it’s called “Lemon’s Loop.”  My apologies, Jeff Richmond, if you’re reading this.  And also, if you’re reading this, hi, Jeff! You are the man! I hope you like my blog!

…um, anyway. So, yeah, more timing issues come up in this one, there’s this effing late note that comes around every time, but once stuff gets going, it’s not that noticeable.  I’ve played this one better, but I’m happy with the clarinet solo, so, yeah!

To conclude – looping is really fun. I’d say these four examples show where I’m at after working on it for a couple of weeks. It’s an unforgiving medium – one fuckup sends you back to square one, you know?  I’m very interested in picking up an Electro Harmonix 2880 once I have some spare cash lying around – the idea of recording onto separate tracks (woodwinds on one, percussion on one, guitar on one) is immensely appealing.  But ’till then, the RC-20 does everything I need.

Oh yeah – and perhaps the coolest thing of all is how portable this setup is!  For all that’s going on, all of the sounds I’ve got access to, it is entirely battery-powered, collapses into three pieces, and fits onto MUNI like a breeze. Which means that it’s great for busking, and that’s the plan!