Live Looping workshops all week long
Fifty people got together for a week during the Swedish summer to improve in music. I was one of seven teachers and my focus at the camp was live looping. On the first day students were organized into six ensembles as to provide a varied instrumentation within each group. I did one mandatory live looping workshop with each ensemble plus a couple of opt-in open classes. Click the player below and listen to this five minute medley what exciting music the students came up with!
[audio:http://www.perboysen.com/audio/BJWM2009_looping_medley.mp3|titles=Live Looping Workshops Medley|artists=Deltagare vid Blekinge Jazz World Music 2009]
Workshop details:
After a short demonstration – where I explained a few basic commands like record, overdub, multiply and reverse – the ensemble sat down with instruments around a microphone and control MIDI pedal. One person created the first loop and then the next person in turn was to add something. I gave no musical directives – what you are hearing in this recording is just the music that was spontaneously improvised during the collective looping process.
Technical details:
We were using the freeware live looping software Mobius as an AU plug-in hosted by Apple’s Mainstage on a laptop. The MIDI control pedal board was a Behringer FCB1010. When a looping piece felt finished and no one wished to add more playing, I saved all loops by the Save Project command in Mobius. After the camp week I imported all those loops into Logic to mix and create this medley.
Listen to the final concert!
At the end of the week the students performed a public concert in front of an audience. Since I had a laptop I decided to record the concert with two stereo crossed microphones. Click the media player below to start the one hour concert stream:
[audio:http://www.perboysen.com/audio/01_stenristarna.mp3,http://www.perboysen.com/audio/02_emigrantvisa.mp3,http://www.perboysen.com/audio/04_woman.mp3,http://www.perboysen.com/audio/05_there_wont.mp3,http://www.perboysen.com/audio/06_spelmannen.mp3,http://www.perboysen.com/audio/07_allofme.mp3,http://www.perboysen.com/audio/08_malaika.mp3,http://www.perboysen.com/audio/09_lisbet.mp3,http://www.perboysen.com/audio/10_tango.mp3,http://www.perboysen.com/audio/11_katarinas.mp3,http://www.perboysen.com/audio/12_theherd.mp3,http://www.perboysen.com/audio/13_varldensfralsare.mp3,http://www.perboysen.com/audio/14_arabisk.mp3,http://www.perboysen.com/audio/15_hurduvander.mp3|titles=Stenristarna,Emigrantvisa,Woman On Vidda,There Won’t Be Another You,Spelmannen,All of Me,Malaika,Lisbet and The Hobyz Medley,Tango,Katarinas Humpa,The Herd, Världens Frälsare,Arabisk sjuåtta,Hur du än vänder|artists=BJWM2k9 Students and Anders Hagberg,BJWM2k9 Students,BJWM2k9 Students,BJWM2k9 Students,BJWM2k9 Students,BJWM2k9 Students,BJWM2k9 Students,BJWM2k9 Students,BJWM2k9 Students,BJWM2k9 Students,BJWM2k9 Students,BJWM2k9 Students,BJWM2k9 Students,BJWM2k9 Students,BJWM2k9 Students]While you are listening to the concert you may like to check out my pictures from the camp week!
If you have additional picture or video links to share, please post them here in the comment section!
During the week I had one hour off and decided to use the free time to attend Kristofer’s workshop Percussion As Second Instrument:
And here’s the slow version, for all of us thick-heads… Please follow the master: