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 in my bag because I had taken them to the open studio day at Recreational Psychoacoustics Lab, which is such a cool event and space…and people!). I plugged in, glanced at the levels, and pressed record, trusting I’d get something worthwhile. I wasn’t monitoring the guitar because I was listening to Gigi’s track on headphones connected to my Macbook. I was really impressed with the low friction of getting Loopy Pro going, getting the time signature set, and tapping in the tempo. And off I went.

I think coming up with ideas while playing to other musician’s tracks is great thing to do, both generative and honor the music of other artists. Using reference tracks to start a new idea is common in electronic music. For example, it’s a practice really advocated by Jason Timothy in his book The Mental Game of Electronic Music Production.

What I came up with wasn’t the guitar lick in Gigi’s track. Honestly, I don’t even remember if it was a guitar, but probably. And all I jammed was this repetitive guitar riff I was inspired to play. If this turns into a track, it will be wholly different from Gigi’s track, yet also has her artistry embedded in it. Oh, and I did listen back to the jam session recording and it turn out just fine — perhaps even directly usable for the maybe-new-track — even though I didn’t put much effort into setting things up. The the relative frictionless you want for jamming.

Here’s a snippet of what I recorded. Yeah, it’s nothing earth shattering. That’s the point really. And who knows if it’ll turn into something. But I captured the moment and the energy that Gigi’s track gave me. So I honored her and I honored my own creativity. And maybe I came up with the seed of a new track.