ABOUT  LOOPING

A loop is a repeating section of sound material and can be created using a wide range of music technologies including turntables, digital samplers, synthesizers, sequencers, drum machines, tape machines, delay units, or computer music software.

Looping music today typically employs tape delay/feedback systems, digital delay devices, or computers to create repetitions of sounds. these repetitions can either remain limited to simple repeated phrases, or they can be extended to add up to a complex sound texture which either stands for itself or is used as an atmospheric or rhythmic background for soloing or other musical expression.

Repetition has always been part of music in all cultures. only in the 20th century, it became a style, a musical form of its own. inspired by the meeting of world cultures, aided by technology, pioneered by visionary composers, looping music was born.(watch klaus gesing explaining live looping)

LOOP HISTORY AND ORIGINS

( BY MATTHIAS GROB )

Repetitive patterns such as rhythm, recurring harmony, repeated melodies, chorus etc. are common to most music traditions. The "hypnotic" effect of repeating sound has been used for traditional practices in various cultures for a long time. In african religions, each pattern stands for one spirit and is repeated until the dancers fall into a trance. indian and related cultures use mantras for spiritual growth, sometimes sacred melodies or the widely known “om” are sung over and over again. 

Only a few decades ago, "tape loop Art" and "minimal music" appeared and emphasized the repetitive side of contemporary music. tape recorders and midi technology have been supporting the emergence of "loop Music".

“Control yourself and react to yourself, flow from one idea to another, travel through different climates and feelings of yourself, and you can always listen to your own mood and search deeper into yourself to find the next thought and (corresponding) musical idea.”

LIVE LOOPING

Live looping is a playing technique that is based on loops directly recorded during the performance. it is a way of composing in real time or “near real time” since the loops are recorded seconds or minutes before they are heard. 

Live-looping suggests new structures and sounds. for listeners who are used to electronic music, the most interesting aspect of live-looping might not be the way the music is built, but the instruments that are used during the performance. 

Live-looping is challenging, anyone can quite easily create loops, but it takes skill to create a good sounding loop. a looping tool does not play by itself, it only goes on playing what is provided by the musician´s impulse.

A live looping musician needs to study his looping tools and develop specific skills in order to handle the devices and it takes time, sometimes up to a few years of practice to handle looping with precision and without getting distracted during the musical performance.

RISE AND FALL OF REPETITION

Repeating melodies, monophonic or based on simple harmonies and repeating song structures became popular in all cultures.not only because their patterns were easy to memorize, but because performing them in combination with repeating rhythms had strong psychological effects and was sometimes meditative or potentially trance-inducing. Rhythmic, repetitive musical structures eventually reached high levels of sophistication in a number of world cultures, e.g. javanese gamelan, ghanaese drumming, indian tabla, pygmy songs, to name but a few. Some of the early medieval European music also employed repetition as a basic formal element, but at some point in the middle ages, music in Europe began developing into a different direction. The discovery and elaboration of the laws of harmony in the renaissance pushed rhythm and repetition into the musical background. In the early 18th century, the well-tempered 12-tone equal temperament became the dominant tuning system which it still is. The great works of classical music were complex harmonic structures which needed rhythm and repetition primarily as a means to give them a form. Rhythmic, repetitive, modal music as practised elsewhere on the planet was not known or considered primitive. Since the creation of the tape machine in 1951, Pierre Schäffer started to create loops with tape machines and since that time, the looping technique has continuosly developed up to the present and looping is, since the 1970's,  a fixed part of modern music from hip hop to jazz music.