today i performed a piece called Electric Bass Solo in the genre of shoegaze
unfortunately, I'm a little out of practice and did not ask one of yall to film the show or take pictures afterwards. i guess that performance art really is that ephemeral, ill have a video of a similar performance posted soon.
Electric Bass Solo in the Genre of Shoegaze (as interpreted by the Fluxus movement).
materials: electric bass guitar, chord, stompboxes (including either a delay loop pedal or a long decay reverb), strap, amplifier.
stand with an electric bass on a strap; plugged into various stop box effects then into an amplifier.
unplug the instrument cable from the bass.
use the metal jack on the cable to make music by applying it to the bass guitar. avoid building cohesive rhythm instead opting for a cacophony.
tweak the knobs of the pedals and the amplifier to your liking while playing.
ill explain the history of what I'm trying to emulate, my objectives for the piece, and the minutiae of why those particular pedals are important to the piece.
shoegaze is a subgenre genre of post-punk music (post punk was a group of musicians in the late 1970s (such as Joy Division, the Smiths, and Devo) who appreciated the energy of punk music but found its simplicity limiting - punk was successful in that it was easy to play but it needed to become more complicated to remain relevant ANYWAYS)
Shoegaze got its name from how lots of different guitar effect pedals were used in live shows. these stomp boxes needed to be manipulated multiple times throughout any given song. for this reason, guitarists often needed to stare at their feet to remain accurate or even kneel down with their guitars to tweak knobs. as a result, this genre is known for very interesting and colorful tones to the music diverging from the traditional heavier, distorted guitar riffs of rock and roll. Notable examples of shoegaze include artists like Sonic Youth, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Arctic Monkeys.
Specifically, what i set out to do with this piece is to create a sense of angst both in the sound of the music played as well as my actions becoming restrained and not addressing the audience as a result i seemed hard to read. the lack of structure and staccato nature of the piece is unsettling additionally some feedback was recorded into a loop and therefore the mood of the music went from Maccabe to physically-taxing.
I feel like its equally valid to explore what sounds strange and uncomfortable to us as it does to make music that sounds pleasing, I also want to explore the energy music can elicit and how energy in music can be transferred from player to audience.
I used the effect pedals to replicate or lengthen my signals allowing me to create something on my own that is equally chaotic to a piece where i instruct 5 different musicians were to play something arhytmic and atonal in nature without paying attention to the other musicians.
ill try and keep this guitar effect explanation not-so jargon heavy
i used a loop pedal for this performance it allows me to add a layer one part at a time where i can start and stop recording to create 'a soundscape' turning me into multiple musicians who are all repeating their playing until i click the footsqich twice deleting the collection of loops.
a delay pedal will reintroduce a sample of the playing at a set rate so i dont decide when to start and when to stop adding color it just will add on top of itself because it is repeating the signal. it will repeat for a set amount and then the sound will decay so i use it as a less involved loop pedal. a delay is similar to a cannon, a song where different groups of singers will sing the same part starting at different times. additionally, i can make very strange non rhythmic structures by playing at a different rate than the delay is repeating. in contrast other guitarists have used this effect to further add to the complexity of the rhythm of their rock and roll music while i would use it as a way to create a chaotic soundscape. (see *the intro to the verves sweet disposition* for someone playing staccato guitar notes matching the rate that the delay pedal is introducing more signals. )
reverb or reverberation is similar to an echo but not exactly. it is the effect of singing in a church or playing a guitar in an arena. that these spaces made of marble and steel lend themselves to the sound bouncing around them and that they are so large that the sound will be reaching the listeners' ear at perceptively different times. the effect is that the sound will seem like its lingering for much longer than the guitarist or singer was performing that note the longer it takes to fade away the larger the space seems to the ear. we would say that it gives the sound a longer decay. but it doesn't have sperate notes nessicarily or "a strong attack" like the delay or loop pedal. again i can continue to play while the last note is still reverberating adding layers to what im playing.
unfortunately, I'm a little out of practice and did not ask one of yall to film the show or take pictures afterwards. i guess that performance art really is that ephemeral, ill have a video of a similar performance posted soon.
Electric Bass Solo in the Genre of Shoegaze (as interpreted by the Fluxus movement).
materials: electric bass guitar, chord, stompboxes (including either a delay loop pedal or a long decay reverb), strap, amplifier.
stand with an electric bass on a strap; plugged into various stop box effects then into an amplifier.
unplug the instrument cable from the bass.
use the metal jack on the cable to make music by applying it to the bass guitar. avoid building cohesive rhythm instead opting for a cacophony.
tweak the knobs of the pedals and the amplifier to your liking while playing.
ill explain the history of what I'm trying to emulate, my objectives for the piece, and the minutiae of why those particular pedals are important to the piece.
shoegaze is a subgenre genre of post-punk music (post punk was a group of musicians in the late 1970s (such as Joy Division, the Smiths, and Devo) who appreciated the energy of punk music but found its simplicity limiting - punk was successful in that it was easy to play but it needed to become more complicated to remain relevant ANYWAYS)
Shoegaze got its name from how lots of different guitar effect pedals were used in live shows. these stomp boxes needed to be manipulated multiple times throughout any given song. for this reason, guitarists often needed to stare at their feet to remain accurate or even kneel down with their guitars to tweak knobs. as a result, this genre is known for very interesting and colorful tones to the music diverging from the traditional heavier, distorted guitar riffs of rock and roll. Notable examples of shoegaze include artists like Sonic Youth, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Arctic Monkeys.
Specifically, what i set out to do with this piece is to create a sense of angst both in the sound of the music played as well as my actions becoming restrained and not addressing the audience as a result i seemed hard to read. the lack of structure and staccato nature of the piece is unsettling additionally some feedback was recorded into a loop and therefore the mood of the music went from Maccabe to physically-taxing.
I feel like its equally valid to explore what sounds strange and uncomfortable to us as it does to make music that sounds pleasing, I also want to explore the energy music can elicit and how energy in music can be transferred from player to audience.
I used the effect pedals to replicate or lengthen my signals allowing me to create something on my own that is equally chaotic to a piece where i instruct 5 different musicians were to play something arhytmic and atonal in nature without paying attention to the other musicians.
ill try and keep this guitar effect explanation not-so jargon heavy
i used a loop pedal for this performance it allows me to add a layer one part at a time where i can start and stop recording to create 'a soundscape' turning me into multiple musicians who are all repeating their playing until i click the footsqich twice deleting the collection of loops.
a delay pedal will reintroduce a sample of the playing at a set rate so i dont decide when to start and when to stop adding color it just will add on top of itself because it is repeating the signal. it will repeat for a set amount and then the sound will decay so i use it as a less involved loop pedal. a delay is similar to a cannon, a song where different groups of singers will sing the same part starting at different times. additionally, i can make very strange non rhythmic structures by playing at a different rate than the delay is repeating. in contrast other guitarists have used this effect to further add to the complexity of the rhythm of their rock and roll music while i would use it as a way to create a chaotic soundscape. (see *the intro to the verves sweet disposition* for someone playing staccato guitar notes matching the rate that the delay pedal is introducing more signals. )
reverb or reverberation is similar to an echo but not exactly. it is the effect of singing in a church or playing a guitar in an arena. that these spaces made of marble and steel lend themselves to the sound bouncing around them and that they are so large that the sound will be reaching the listeners' ear at perceptively different times. the effect is that the sound will seem like its lingering for much longer than the guitarist or singer was performing that note the longer it takes to fade away the larger the space seems to the ear. we would say that it gives the sound a longer decay. but it doesn't have sperate notes nessicarily or "a strong attack" like the delay or loop pedal. again i can continue to play while the last note is still reverberating adding layers to what im playing.
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