Here are the loop jams I captured from the first half of the month of November.
Loop 1
I watched a video on “shell chords” and then wanted to go make some stuff up with a bunch of sevenths and a jazzy feel. I don’t bring my tiny organ keyboard out enough, but it felt like the right tone for this.
Loop 2
I was supposed to learn “Lifeboy,” a song with a finger picking style. I started with learning the chords, but instead of learning the rest I took those chords abstractly out of context and built a loop on that. All acoustic, because that’s fun; gotta bring in the bouzouki! Although I didn’t keep that layer for the loop. It was taking up too much sonic space for the lead on top of it. This is a great example of where a many channel looper would be helpful so I could turn on and off many things independently.
Loop 3
Slow patient tremolo chords, the bass emphasizing a beat, all of this is a safe place for me at this point. I added some delay and crunchy for the top layer of noodles. I’m not sad about it.
Loop 4
This is such a loop. By which I mean it’s exactly the sort thing happens when you have an idea, you throw it in, and see if it all sticks. It’s kind of a goofy one. Hard to explain why I feel that. I do like when the lead layer gets a bit saucy towards the end.
Loop 5
It’s hard to make loops that involve delay and rhythm. You can get a delay repeat pace that you like, but syncing it up with the rhythm (even with tap tempo) doesn’t always retain the thing about the repeats that was working for you. But I’m working on it. There’s an emotion in this core loop that I really like. And it created a very pleasant groove to play over. It’s a slow burn to get there, but it’s a good pocket.
Loop 6
I remember being stuck in a loop on top of this loop, working out a melody that I liked over the base. That base is so moody and modulated, kind of floaty.
Loop 7
I was in a contemplative place and wanted to slap on the big atmospheric reverb and do something outside of rhythm. And just lean into imperfection.
Loop 8
I’ve been trying out something where I take a song and reenvision it into a loop with a different arrangement, rhythm, whatever. Not trying to do a cover, but use it as a seed and see where it takes me. In this case it was “Slow Burn” by Kacey Musgraves. Which features an acoustic guitar and a wispy strumming pattern. It’s all beautiful, really. I wanted different, so you get this warbletron electric version of the core chords. Instead of singing I wanted to bring in that excellent melodic hook into a guitar voice. The source of inspiration here is better of course, but this was fun.
Here are the loop jams I captured from the month of October.
Loop 1
A riff based start, where has no grounding until the chords come in. It’s not quite a pedal tone because it’s not static, but has that feeling of one line providing all of the color for the other. In this case made it a bit hard to provide a lead line on top of the riff.
Loop 2
This starting riff feels like a pretty standard noodle for me. What next? The next layer, which chorus, is slightly overlapping the measure which is easy on the looper but was way more awkward to chop in the video. Regardless, the end result, funky. But once we get to the lead layer I was really feeling the swagger on this one.
Loop 3
Let’s not overthink the chord progression. Sometimes we don’t need complicated. Standard progression, tremolo go. I like how it keeps it interesting at the end of the loop, creating a bit of tension before it repeats. And that was enough to create a framework for what felt like a pretty fun jam.
Loop 4
I get full up on electric and need to go back to all acoustic. I play differently. The start here is very loopy to me. Just an idea, throw it into a loop and see what happens. The extra layer is where it can have some emotion and something to say.
Loop 5
A simple chord progression with tremolo. The bass line created the real foundation, that’s where most of the motion comes from. That foundation was what the lead parted needed to echo off of. I was happy with the vocal/emotive playing on top of this one, and how long it held up exploring that simple idea.
Loop 6
This one didn’t really come through until the lead section. The chord progression I think was from a song someone asked me to learn, but then I wanted to take it in a different direction. I no longer know what the song was. Anyway, what I started with here is fine; unremarkable. But I felt like the soul really only came in with the solo on top. I’m always trying to play melodically and not just “noodle,” and this one felt like it was saying something.
Loop 7
I had no idea where I wanted to take this loop. But I wanted moody distortion. So that’s what I did on top. No solo, just noise.
Loop 8
That’s a Q-tron envelope filter. Then some western-sounding big tremolo chords on top. Sure, why not?
Loop 9
I started with a more opinionated base layer. That means whatever is played on top as a “lead” layer needs to fit, and be a little more spacious. When it works well it works, this one is… reasonable.
Here are the loop jams I captured from the month of September.
The embedded clips below all show the same thumbnails, but I assure you they are each set to jump the right unique moment. Full video here.
Loop 1
A crunchy notadumble tone for the chord progression, a bass line that paces the drum kick in a nice way (I’ve been working on that). Listening back to it, the fuzzy lead tone on top is a bit shrill. But I like the distorted-plus-octaves released section in there. That part practically sounds like a song.
Loop 2
I really like the chord progression I noodled out that is the foundation of this loop. It uses a mix of single notes and some not standard chords and also not just a straight rhythm. I’ve found myself coming back to it after. The bass line isn’t fancy but was intentionally set in the loop to create some contrasting motion with different repeats. Using vibrato can be touchy with a lead tone because it can sound like you’re a bit out of tune (and technically, you are?), so I’m second guessing whether that was the right tonal choice here. I was going for a more laid back low fi vibe. Somewhat got there. This one sounds happy and relaxed to me.
Loop 3
This one so clearly was just me noodling out something weird on bass and then going “sure, yeah, hit record I guess.” Good to bring the tiny keyboard in though; I don’t do that enough. And then the jam on top is acoustic (pickup, not mic’d) with a fairly notably strong delay. It’s all, fine? Chill.
Loop 4
Swimmy phaser tone on that central riff. The bass is simple but emphasizes that double beat. And then for the lead I went a bit heavy on tone but was trying to lean into leaving lots of space.
Loop 5
This one is a repeat of sorts. I was listening back to some older loops and remembered this one I liked. So I decided to use the raw idea behind it again and see what happened. And what happened is one new idea on top of that led to so many more different ideas. There’s a pulse to this one that has me bobbing my head, started with the second guitar layer and then emphasized with the bass. I also like how the second bass layer (why not!) really adds something. And then for the lead section I laid something remarkably similar to the original but it ends up feeling very very different. Music is cool like that.
Loop 6
This one is so moody, and it’s not just the lighting. Such a non-assuming start with the tremolo open chords. I’m feeling better about locking it in on the bass, and this one gets there. It also represents the moment of me finally cracking a tone from the Dark Star that I liked (or more accurately, liked in a mix). I had also been playing a bit of slide (which I’m still not great at) before this and it really shows in the playing style.
Loop 7
So I messed up the original recording of this. Turns out I didn’t reselect the audio from the mixer and was getting it from the microphone (unhelpful due to having monitors off and headphones on). But I liked it so I went back and did a quick recreation the next day. The lead section here is over the original loop. I’m happy with how emotive the playing is.