Why You NEED a Looper Pedal Video Lecture | Guitar: Become a Pro (English) - Music

some things should never be repeated
like the impassioned speech I gave to my
first-grade classmates about the
leadership qualities of Rainbow Brite
but if you're trying to learn guitar
having a way to repeat or loop yourself
is in my opinion the most invaluable
tool you can have so we're going to talk
about looper pedals and maybe some
exercises on first of all how to use
them and then different exercises you
can do to kind of make a practice
routine for yourself right so first of
all most looper petals work in the exact
same way now I'm using a pig Tronics
infinity you don't have to have one
that's nice this has a lot of features
it's really cool and it sounds great but
there's a ton of them that are way
cheaper they get the job done and they
all essentially work in the same way you
hit a button while you're playing and
when you hit it again
whatever you've played between those two
moments is captured recorded essentially
and then looped over and over again
right so I'm just going to play it any
major chord I'm going to open up the
looper and then I'm going to close all
right so now that's going on the
background maybe if I wonder practice
like a solo thing I can do that right
and then you can stop it and do whatever
right now the important thing to think
about when you're first starting out
with loopers is that you want to kind of
capture it while you're playing it takes
a lot of practice just to come in cold
and when I say coming cold like open up
the loop the second you start playing
like if you're going to play like a
progression
and enable Dwight have that be like a
perfect loop at first it's kind of is
kind of like an art form to really loop
things well and that's why I think
counting is so important right so if you
just got a looper the first thing you
want to do is just take like a like a
really easy for no like an a minor chord
right and we're going to count it out
loud and then hit a downbeat to open and
close that loop right so we're just
gonna go 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 so if
you've captured it correctly you won't
hear a variation in the loop now I
remember when I first started with
Luther pedal it would sound something
like this I'd be like and then I'd like
the turn around it sound like that just
because I wasn't good looping so really
counting is a very important part of
looping right so once you've got that
down some exercises you can do to kind
of make things more interesting at first
is to develop your relationship between
chords and scales and this is something
I really like to hammer home in these
videos is just really kind of seeing
chords and scales as the same thing is
just kind of like notes working together
to achieve some kind of comical alright
so we're going to do is we're going to
loop four chords a minor C major G major
and E minor and then over each of those
chords we're going to put like a piece
of a scale or a mode however you want to
look at it right so let's get the loop
first we're going to make it really easy
and another tip about looping like the
the tendency it might be to play full
volume on the backing track that you're
looping but then let's try to solo over
it you've got nowhere to go there's no
headroom left so you're kind of fighting
your own loop so one thing to do is
either back off on your volume when
you're making your original loop that
you're practicing over or palm mute it
so whatever the loop is going to be is
actually going to be less or it's going
to be more quiet than what you're trying
to play over it now some pedals you can
do is on itself but it's a good idea
just kind of like start working your
volume knob just to kind of get some of
this down right so again let's say let's
make a really quick loop of just those
four chords and we'll do four beats of
each chord so like 1 2 3 4 a minor
1 3 4 2 C major to G major D minor
starting again right so we've got these
four chords and then what we're going to
do is red tape here and I'll stop it so
what we're going to do is we're going to
take the major scale notes this is in
the key of C major we're thinking of it
so the a minor we have these eighth
notes
five seven eight five seven eight five
seven you probably already know the a
minor scale and we're going to practice
that scale over the a minor chord and
then when the C comes around we're going
to go to C majors position right eight
ten seven eight ten seven nine ten and
then when G major comes along we're
gonna play the G mixolydian scale so
we're gonna go 3 5 2 3 5 2 3 5 and then
when a minor comes along we're gonna
play the E minor scale we're gonna start
on 7 a which is the e here right so 7 9
10 7 9 times 7 right so when I start the
loop I'm gonna go right into E minor to
C major to G mixolydian it's an E minor
so again that's not the most musical
exercises you can do but it's a really
great way to make the connections in
your hands and in your brain as far as
like what notes what positions what
forms am i playing over what chord
things like that now in my opinion the
absolute most important way you can use
this as a tool is for having your ear
improve and I think the best way to do
that is to maybe loop the chords to a
song that you've heard an insane amount
of times like one of the all-time like
an all-time popular song that you can
still stand because your ear is so
accustomed to how the melody works so
we're gonna pick everybody's favorite
rock arena song we're just gonna lay the
chords down first
okay so it's going to start in the key
of ye okay so there's our loop you may
have heard the song before it's by
journey and what we're gonna do here is
we're gonna play not the solo we're
gonna play the lyrical melody like what
the vocals are doing and since you
already know how this song sounds so
well it's a great way to kind of get
inside of a scale shape and kind of
learn or teach your ear to find the
notes that you're looking for within a
shape right so again we said this was in
the key of E major which I think most
people are more accustomed playing in
the minor scale shape so we're going to
go to c-sharp minor which is the natural
minor of e okay and now here so I'll
just kind of I'll jump to the vocal
melody here right so we're gonna start
on the g string 9 or use 9 and 11 and
then the B string 9 and 12 right like
you've already play through the whole
scale
it look like that but I'm really just
kind of interested in these bottom few
strings because I'm going to try to
attach the melody of the song okay so
since I know that so well it's easy for
me to kind of find the note that I'm
looking for and the beautiful thing
about trying to mimic a vocal melody as
compared to a guitar solo is this a good
way to really train your ears because
the range of pitch is not going to be
what it could be in a guitar solo like
you taisto could start up here and then
really kind of get high all of a sudden
whereas the human voice can only go so
dynamically I mean even the greatest
singers don't have like huge intervals
between the spaces of their notes so
something like this is a great way to
learn just how to move around inside of
a scale instead of reading a tab thing
because there is kind of like a danger
in just trying to like memorize a tab
and just looking at a tab while you're
playing it it's really going to be much
more beneficial to you in the long term
to get inside of a scale shape and to
learn where those notes are in a scale
right so even if I was playing along and
I was hitting wrong notes I like
eventually your brain is going to make
the connections where you know if it
sounds higher or lower the next note and
more often than not you're going to
start guessing right and then you can
kind of more organically find your way
inside of a shape and to me that is the
number one helpful way that you can use
a loop pedal