I’ve posted a new video of my version of the Irish fiddle tune Drowsy Maggie: http://youtu.be/6z2UI1o4gkY. It’s a well-known piece, even used at one point in the movie Titanic.

This entire piece is a single pass-through, created live only on an acoustic violin. The violin parts are performed live, recorded and played back (similar to looping), but I’ve programmed the foot pedals to give me complete control over each track, up to 16 simultaneously. This enables me to create and improvise musical form and orchestration, which I find more satisfying than the typical looping.

Nothing is pre-recorded before I begin. I create the bass drum part by tapping on the bridge and electronically transposing it down 2 octaves, and the bass line by plucking in the normal range, and transposing the part down 2 octaves. The snare-like effects come from “chops” with the bow. It’s satisfying to watch live and know that everything is real-time. Most of the piece is improvisation, and every performance is quite different. You get a quite different sense of what is happening musically when you can see everything happen in real time.

My wife Melissa did the camera work, with a colorful setup with the lights. I edited the video. I hope you like it!