Published by Joseph on 23 Jun 2008 at 11:50 am
Using Loops to learn Lead Guitar
I recently began meeting with student who had been studying with a couple of other teachers, but wasn’t getting what he wanted out of lessons. He’s a fellow with a real passion for blues and rock guitar, as well as dedication, and good musical instincts - a natural sense of rhythm and phrasing. But although he’d been introduced to a lot of scales and riffs, he wasn’t really able to jam on songs.
The problem turned out to be a common one among students learning lead guitar. He simply wasn’t practicing in a musical context. Practicing scales up and down the guitar, or repeating a riff, or experimenting with making your own melodies is going to produce limited results unless you do these in the context of actual music. The pitch of each note you play gains meaning from its relation to the chords and key centers you are playing with. And the rhythm of your melodies has to lock in with the rhythm of the music.
One way to practice this is with a partner. You can take turns as rhythm guitarists, supporting one another practicing leads. But what about when you are practicing alone? The solution is to practice with loops.
Several looping pedals are available on the market. Generally, a loop pedal goes in line between your guitar and amp, and works as follows. Suppose you want to practice with a repeating 4-bar section of music. You begin playing the rhythm guitar part, and on the first beat of the first bar you press the record button on your pedal. When you get to the first beat of the first repeat of those four bars, you press another pedal which ends the recording and turns the 4 bars you have recorded into a continuously playing loop. Voila, now while you practice your scales, or riffs, or improvised melodies along with the loop, you are working on your timing, rhythm, and feel as you play.
One of the simplest and most affordable loop pedals is the Boss Loop Station (there are two models). For a comprehensive list of looping devices available, as well as a wealth of looping tips and tricks, check out the website Looper’s Delight.
Looping can also be done on your computer in Garageband on your Mac, or with higher-end audio programs. On your PC (and on your Mac if you don’t have Garageband) try the free software Audacity, or a higher end program. One advantage to hard-drive based looping is that you can store your loops and keep them as a practice library. For instance, you can record loops in all keys, with a variety of grooves, and open them whenever you like for practice.
You can also loop sections of songs on your hard drive, and many programs will allow you to slow down your music files without changing pitch. So if you are having trouble figuring out that Charlie Parker or Eddie Van Halen solo, and playing them up to speed, use your loop to isolate and repeat sections of the solos and slow them down for transcription and practice.
