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Using a track from Gigi and Loopy Pro for frictionless jamming of a new idea

I was playing along to the track Tew Ante Sew from Gigi and was just inspired by the simple arrangement and orchestration that integrates Ethiopian music and electronic production. I was listening to the track because of this article from Hearing Things about what tracks inspire the artist Lyra Pramuk. Then I just wanted to pick up my Epiphone Dot Studio guitar. I realized I should be recording–something I want to do more often when I find myself picking up an instrument and noodling. So I quickly got my iPad and iRig Pro out of my bag. (The gears was […]

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Workshop (PAST): Practice Creativity and Produce Music with More Ease

Workshop was held on August 12th, 2025 at the Recreational Psychoacoustics Lab in Seattle, WA Description Let’s explore how you relate to your creative work, not just how you organize it and technically produce it. This workshop is both a facilitated conversation about creativity and an introduction to practical frameworks for making music with greater ease and authenticity. The emphasis will be on creating music authentically and effortlessly – understanding how to relate to your unique creativity rather than force it (to be like someone else’s practice). We’ll start by sharing our creative stories and current challenges, then dive into

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My first attempt at live looping

Here’s a video I put together of my first attempt at live looping. I’m curious to learn live looping both as a way of creating ideas and as a way of performing live (in person or online). It was really fun. But the process is also intimidating for me because of being “put on the spot” to improvise and the manage the array of gear. Obviously both things will get easier with practice, which I’m looking forward to doing! Obviously I’ll post those videos as I make them. Hopefully soon I’ll figure out a way of performing live looping, um,

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Live mixing to kickstart arrangements

I’m working on my second album as Big Stitch. (Regretfulnot is my first.) I’m following a general approach that I’ve outlined here and here, which is inspired by (and personally coached under) Alex Joyal’s approach. Over the past several weeks, I’ve been jamming out ideas — brainstorming possible elements for future album tracks. As I documented, I used Loopy Pro to jam ideas. It was the first time using Loopy Pro. I really enjoyed the software (really, really). I discovered that live looping is a highly fruitful way for me to generate and develop ideas. Possibly too fruitful. Alex coaches

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Developing a forgotten idea into a possible track

Recently, I have been going through mandolin (and octave mandolin) recordings I made while living in Halifax between July 2023 and July 2024. At this point, I’ve forgotten all of the ideas in those recordings–no idea if there’s some gold in there or just coal. These recordings happened in two ways. The first was quick, ad hoc recordings I did when I had an extra moment, and I picked up one of my instruments. The idea being that if I’m going to noodle on the mandolin, I might as well record it because it might wind up being a useful

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Lovin’ Loopy Pro

Discovering Loopy Pro has been a game-changer for my workflow, at least for brainstorming musical ideas. I’ve wanted to learn looping, which is when you record short clips of audio over other short clips of audio you just previously recorded. But I have had so much else to learn and still do. I love how Loopy Pro encourages getting into a flow state, boosting my creativity (or at least capturing my creativity). But I also aspire to do live looping—performing with loops in front of an audience, which is an art form all its own (and so even more to

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Got Loopy Pro running on Mac

As you know, I’m really digging Loopy Pro, an iOS app that is somewhere between a looper pedal, full-blown DAW, and rapid user-interface builder. Overall, I’ve enjoyed using an iPad to brainstorm musical ideas. It reduces friction and makes it so you can always have a tool for recording ideas wherever you are. The challenge with Loopy Pro on iOS is reorganizing a messy brainstorming session, whether that’s moving clips around or renaming clips (rather than the default Clip 1, Clip 2, Clip 3, etc.). And unlike some iOS apps, it’s not possible to install Loopy Pro on a Mac

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Live Looping: The Fight is the Trap

I’m pretty sure I’ll be making a habit of posting my live looping experiments as I hopefully get good enough to do them live in front of folks (online or in person). At the very least, I hope this approach to creating is a fruitful way of generating ideas and engaging folks in the creation process. It’s a challenge for me to keep track of everything for sure. It’s also a challenge for me to develop ideas on the spot quickly. It certainly results in lots of flubs–fingers getting out of position, forgetting what key/mode I was playing in etc.

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Stand out. Someone has to.

This live loop, well, isn’t live because I forgot to press record. So I recorded a live mix, which is apparently almost as challenging for my brain to keep track of as when I’m playing an instrument at the same time. This idea was based on a sample from John Lithgow’s reading of Timothy Snyder’s twenty lessons on fighting tyranny. Those lessons are from Snyder’s 2017 book; each chapter expands on the twenty lessons. I read the book back in 2021. Studying nationalism, fascism, and terrorism (particularly US-based domestic) has been a thing for me for many years, both because

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Stopping the hostile takeover

Are you a United States federal employee? Were you one? Were you recently terminated? This looping session is for you. What Trump and Musk are doing to so many federal employees and the service they provide is not just concerning; it’s cruel. I composed this session around samples I took from a talk by Everett Kelley during the recent Federal Unionist Network “Save Our Service” mass call. It was an inspiring call. Kelley’s words are incredibly motivating. His words apply generally too: We can resist the takeover of the country and government by billionaires and oligarchs if we organize and

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