I bought a Boss RC-30 secondhand and am using it to help with learning. As a side project I would like to try and mess with some songs but am lacking suggestions which would lend themselves to this.
Any ideas?
I bought a Boss RC-30 secondhand and am using it to help with learning. As a side project I would like to try and mess with some songs but am lacking suggestions which would lend themselves to this.
Any ideas?
I’d just find some common progressions and start with those without necessarily worrying about them being really songs.
There’s the classic “Axis of Awesome” progression :
I V vi IV
So in the key of C that would be:
C G Am F
Or you could start even simpler with a classic I IV V I, such as:
C F G C
I second what was said above. Practice playing a simple chord progression, then practice recording it into the looper.
It’s not as easy as they make it look on all those YouTube videos. It will take awhile to get used to stomping on the pedal at the right time without messing up your playing, but it’s the fist step towards true guitar stardom ![]()
Looping is a skill you need to work at. I always advise building in steps. The shorter and simpler the better.
Try looping two bars of a single chord with a simple rhythm where the quarter beats are obvious.
Try looping two bars with a chord change and a simlle rhythm.
A → D
E → A
G → C
Try looping four bars with two chords, hold each chord for two full bars.
A → A → D → D etc
If you can reach a point of successfully being able to loop these, no mistimed moments, timme after time after time then you will be ready to progress to four bar loops with more chords. And from there, longer loops.
Have fun.
Remember… it is all about catching beat 1.
As others have suggested, the best place to start is with a simple chord progression and then play over that. I found this pdf to be a good source of ideas - I’m currently playing around with No.12 The Andalusian.
The Boss RC -30 is quite a powerful unit. It has built in drums that will sync to your loop so you don’t have to be quite as precise with your first loop start and end.
You could also get an octave pedal and put down a bass line.
When you say songs, do you mean you want to play songs like Ed Sheeran? I’m not a singer so can’t help you there, but Justin has a Shape of You video.
Not exactly beginner level, but an awesome example of how to use a looper.
Hi Graham
Also not what you’re asking for, but maybe there’s something nice here… you can find another one here using the search term “most common chord”… I really enjoyed that myself… especially coming up with chord progressions myself… It’s important to keep the tempo constant, so add it to the looper while you here a metronome …and catch that First Beat ![]()
https://www.justinguitar.com/guitar-lessons/5-common-chord-progressions-bg-1011
Greetings ,Rogier
Thanks all for your replies. I have reviewed and tried the suggestions but I now realise I didn’t give enough information as to what I was after.
I think I’m reasonably good at getting the timing of a single loop. Not spot on every time but can get it within a couple of goes. I’m not a complete beginner - I can play quite a number of chord based songs and a couple of finger picked tracks. What I’m after is tracks with 2 or 3 guitar layers so I can lay down one then another and the whole thing sounds good. I also have a newly acquired mic plugged into the RC-30 and so could add vocal effects and maybe one day actual vocals but my real emphasis is on the guitar parts. I could also do acoustic guitar parts via the mic.
Now, I started way out of my depth and tried KT Tunstall Black horse and the cherry tree. No-one but me is ever hearing the result!!
I’m after recognisable tracks which are much simpler, perhaps with more advanced parts to add later. Just to be clear, this is for my own enjoyment and isn’t going in front of an audience any time soon or likely, ever.
Also, I have searched for material all over the web, giving step by step instruction on learning how to use loopers and play multiple guitar parts and have found very little. I have checked out Justin’s looper lesson but its very much a 1st step. Is there more out there I haven’t found?
TIA
I’m not sure if we are allowed to recommend other courses on this forum, so mods can remove this if it breaks the rules. Check out a certain popular YouTube guitar personality who has a magnificent beard. He has a course that has completely changed the way I think about looping. Oh, and this is a very inspirational video from a player (with a magnificent beard). If you watch closely you can maybe work out how to play these songs.
This guy does several loop videos on his channel.
No but in this case Justin has almost nothing on looping, I think I remember one video on the basics but that was it.
I presented a Vintage Club on guitar layers, loops etc.