Here are the loop jams I captured from the month of August. This was a crazy busy month so I’m really proud of the fact that I kept the practice going.
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
I have a trombone. I don’t particularly know how to play the trombone other than the basics. But it’s a fun instrument. And in this moment it felt like the right thing to bring out. Why is there a weird stain on my Hollow Knight shirt? No clue, but I can’t stop looking at it. Just like I couldn’t stop getting into a cycle of playing that melody over this loop.
Loop 2
I love playing with my pedalboard and an electric guitar. But… sometimes it’s great to set up a mic and keep it to acoustic instruments. First the nylon guitar that I learned on as a kid. Then the acoustic bass I got from a used shop in college. And then the bouzouki I got this past summer in Greece. It’s not often that I use the bouzouki for the final lead layer, but I think this jam slaps.
Loop 3
An example of where the interplay between the rhythm guitar and bass was essential to the jam having any character. I really liked how the slow bends sounded over this, combined with some delay so you get blend between the dissonant tones.
Loop 4
I was looking for something simple with simple slow movement. Thus a simple distorted line and then… nothing else? Yeah I guess no other layers. Various warbly tones played on top of that.
Loop 5
This may be the loop I had the most fun with in this set. Super simple crunchy guitar as the start, then some percussive organ from my tiny keyboard. The bass emphasizes the funkiest. After which I reached for the trumpet. In trying to put a couple different horn layers to harmonize, at some point I messed up the undo and committed something… not quite right. At that point, with 4+ other layers underneath it across various instruments… there’s no going back.
Loop 6
I recently got a Dark Star Stereo, and I’ve been trying to make it work for me. So far, if I’m honest… I might actually prefer the (less expensive) Afterneath. But I’m trying to figure this pedal out. This loop is an example of trying to lean into its dreamy overwhelming reverb. Most of the structure comes from the bass.
Loop 7
My loop pedal can do an A section / B section (e.g. verse/chorus), but I skip over it for most of my quick and dirty loops. The downside is that I don’t end up practicing transitions as much if I stick to one endless drone. This one… it’s fine.
Loop 8
I really like this one. Tremolo chord sequence, but then the bass gives it a lot more motion. And of course a bit of organ is always nice and lush. I could play over this one on loop for a very long time (and I’m pretty sure I did).
Loop 9
Time to cycle back to the acoustic. A bit of electric bass, but that’s all good (I have an acoustic bass, but my electric is new and I’m really bonding with it). Recording-wise I’m trying to get both the mic off the guitar and mix with the line in so I get a more full sound. Tricker to get right than it sounds.
Loop 10
Whether I start with the bass or the guitar changes the feel of the loop to me, but if I recall I did at least try the layers together before hitting record. But I think the section I sampled for the final play over didn’t quite capture the fun I was having with some long analog delay. A far cry from that The Edge style delay timing, but that’s what I was trying to play around with.
Here are the loop jams I captured from the month of July. Overall this month didn’t come as naturally as some. A lot of loops were a struggle, and I didn’t get as much time with the guitar as I’d like. But I soldiered through regardless, because… that’s what practice looks like.
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
Using the “bit crush” mode on my new Dark Star Stereo to get that low bitrate gargle that makes me think of Disasterpeace on the FEZ soundtrack. There are al of chiptune-like tracks that use that I like. I’m still trying to figure out how to harness it.
Loop 2
Leaning into starting with the bass and also vibing with the bass drum rhythm. For a rhythm layer on top… hyper reverb warble tones? Again playing with the Dark Star trying to have a bit crush follow the lead. I’m not sure it works.
Loop 3
This one didn’t come together until I plugged in that rhythm on the bass. Arguably I still didn’t know what to do with it, but it definitely had a beat to it.
Loop 4
Again, trying to make sure my bass rhythm locks in with the kick drum. I really like taking the two harmonizing bass lines together. That gave it the sense of self enough to then let the final guitar melody on top be… sweet? It sounds sweet to me.
Loop 5
An exercise in what happens when you have something “stationary” and then put chord motion on top of it. I think I had been listening to some Pumpkins recently, because this is really going for wailing and sentimental distorted guitars. My daughter actually came in while I was playing to give me a hug, which was super sweet, but then mid-hug she remembered I was recording and sheepishly exited very quickly. I cut that out of the recording, but that’s what I’m smiling about.
Loop 6
The core part reeks of “random noodling I would do when sitting down to a guitar”. There’s just a type of thing I’ll probably default to playing, and it’s pretty much always something like this. I do dig the large delay with the single note slides.
Here are the loop jams I captured from the month of June. So many new developments this month. A new bass! A new couch! Also some music was made.
Some time ago I filled the 100 memory slots of my Boss loop pedal, and lately I’ve been going through overwriting the old with new recordings but not changing the rhythm from whatever was there. So pretty much every one of these loops started as “here’s some preexisting rhythm, figure something out”.
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
I wanted to get something low-fi and mellow, and one way to get that is with some vibrato (like via my Julia) and then to EQ down to a narrow range. I used my Pitch Fork for a quick and dirty bass without having to swap instruments. And of course some tremolo (via the Monument). From there it’s slow jam town.
Loop 2
I love playing with my pedalboard and an electric guitar. But… sometimes it’s great to set up a mic and keep it to acoustic instruments. First the nylon guitar that I learned on as a kid. Then the acoustic bass I got from a used shop in college. And then the bouzouki I got this past summer in Greece. It’s not often that I use the bouzouki for the final lead layer, but I think this jam slaps.
Loop 3
This is my friend’s song “Dance with Me” that I wanted to practice a bit before she and I performed it later. I created both the verse and chorus in my loop pedal so I could particularly practice playing through the transitions. Since the original song doesn’t have any drums, I used the loop pedal without any rhythm track.
Loop 4
I wanted to do something with more of a distorted and fuzzy core, using the Wave Cannon. Wild response swing from the acoustic jams? I don’t use the Q-Tron often (because it’s a very particular flavor), but that’s what’s giving the wah-like envelope filter on the first half of the lead section.
Loop 5
This one started with me noodling something simple out on the keyboard, a locked chord with a descending root note sequence. Just some slow simple chords with tremolo on top of that. Behind me you’ll see the new couch we got for my music space; something wider than a chair so that I can play while in it, or someone can visit while I play.
Loop 6
The acoustic bass seen above in loop 2 has been my only bass guitar for over twenty years. As a birthday gift to myself this year I bought an electric bass guitar, a Squire Precision. So obviously this loop needed to start with the bassline. I put a strong chorus effect to the chords over top (via the Julia), an effect I generally don’t use much of but it felt right here. The best part of this loop is the slide down and pause that breaks up the flow.
Loop 7
Still getting into my new bass, so I had to start another loop with a bass focus. Bass harmonies! Since the bass was doing more work, the chords are minimal (but with an aggressive amount of tremolo). The halting rhythm of this one took me longer to figure out, meaning my daughter had to pop in and tell me it was late and to turn it down. So I didn’t get as much time to jam on this one as I often do. A good reminder to break out the headphones for late night.
