I have something called
Ataxia, a relatively unknown neurological condition. Fortunately for me, mine
is progressing slowly. Basically, all my
coordination is starting to deteriorate, and sadly that includes my ability to
play guitar the way I want. However, I have started to experiment with live
looping. I have attached a guitar synth to my guitar, and play bass, piano,
synth, guitar, etc... live from the guitar synth and then loop them to create a
full band. I run everything through a delay pedal, a phase shifter, and I have
at least one other pedal, and I manipulate the sounds live, so I get to be a
composer, musician, and audio engineer all at the same time, and not a lot of
people get to do that, so I am lucky. I am not thrilled about having Ataxia,
but I am happy to be forging my own path, and am the first person, that I know
of, to be doing what I'm doing. People do live looping, but not like this.
Examples of what I am currently doing can be viewed at: http://www.loopytunes.nyc/looping-videos.html
I also have two more CDs
that I am planning for release although they are slow going. Fortunately, all
the guitar parts were recorded while I could still play the way I wanted before
my Ataxia progressed to where it is now. Because of my Ataxia, playing with a
band is out of the question, which is why I'm working on the live looping, it
allows me to create, and perform live, but as they say, necessity is the mother
of invention, so maybe that's why I'm the first to do what I do, no one else
has had to do it!
What is Ataxia?
The word "ataxia", comes
from the Greek word, " a taxis" meaning "without order or
incoordination". The word Ataxia means without coordination. People with Ataxia
have problems with coordination because parts of the nervous system that
control movement and balance are affected. Ataxia may affect the fingers,
hands, arms, legs, body, speech, and eye movements.
What are Common Symptoms?
Symptoms and time of onset vary
according to the type of Ataxia. In fact there are often variations even within
the same family with the same type of Ataxia. Recessive disorders commonly
cause symptoms to begin in childhood rather than adulthood. However, in recent
years since genetic testing became available, it is now known that ataxia often
begins in the 20s or 30s or even later in life.
Typically balance and coordination are affected first. Lack
of coordination of hands, arms, and legs, and slurring of speech are other
common symptoms. Walking becomes difficult and is characterized by walking with
feet placed further apart to compensate for poor balance. Impaired coordination
of the arms and hands affect a person's ability to perform tasks requiring fine
motor control such as writing and eating. Slow eye movements can be seen in
some forms of Ataxia. As time goes on, Ataxia can affect speech and swallowing.
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