INTRODUCTION

The looping craze has reached unthinkable heights over the past few years. Whereas once thought of as a bit of a novelty, looping pedals have become essential tools in many artists’ gear lockers. Videos featuring loopers simply litter YouTube—from Michael Jackson covers to funky one-man improvs. Several name artists as well, including Ed Sheeran, KT Tunstall, Reggie Watts, Andrew Bird, and David Torn, among others, have made loopers an integral part of their live show, enabling them to create rich, dynamic, sprawling textures all by their lonesome. And yet, with all this popularity, very little in the way of loop-specific arrangements is available. Enter the Looper Pedal Songbook. In this book, you’ll find 50 arrangements of songs in various styles that will put your looping skills to good use.

So, what is a looper anyway? In short, it’s a device that stores musical phrases and plays them back for you. Not only that, but it allows you to overdub (or layer) new phrases on top of your original phrase. For example, you could record a bass line first, and then overdub some chords on top of it. Then you could record a melody or solo on top of the bass and chords, and then add a harmony to your melody or solo, and so on! Looping pedals come in many different varieties, but all of them will have this basic functionality. If you’ve not messed around with one much before, you’re in for a world of musical fun! I hope you enjoy playing the arrangements in this book as much I did creating them.

ABOUT THE ARRANGEMENTS

Before we start laying down some grooves, we need to talk just a bit about equipment, conventions, and the terminology used in this book. After all, none of this has been standardized at this point, so I had to create a method of notating these concepts. After reading through this section, you should be well-equipped to understand anything you see in the following songs.

Assumptions

As each player’s rig will differ substantially, it’s important to clarify what’s assumed with these arrangements. We’ve tried to aim for the lowest common denominator here, ensuring that the vast majority of players will be able to perform many of these arrangements “right out of the box.” In other words, if you own a looper pedal, then you most likely own—or have access to—the rest of the gear mentioned. If not, however, there are still plenty of arrangements that can be performed with nothing but a guitar and a looper.

These arrangements have been designed to be performed on either an acoustic or electric guitar. Those designed for acoustic will say “Gtr. (acous.)” at the beginning of the song, and the electric ones will simply say “Gtr.” at the beginning and give a tonal description, such as “w/ clean tone” or “w/ dist.,” etc. The arrangements are therefore tailored to these instruments with regards to techniques. For example, many of the acoustic arrangements will feature percussive sounds that are often created by hitting various parts of the guitar’s body. The electric arrangements will sometimes feature effects (such as delay, etc.) that are commonly employed with the electric guitar.

There are dozens of loopers on the market, from extremely simple to extremely sophisticated. The arrangements in this book should be performable on even the most modest looper. The only requirements are that:

• It’s able to store loops of up to approximately 35 seconds—the longest loop called for is in the song “Sunny”

• It’s able to endlessly overdub parts on top

• The loop can be turned on and off

• You are able to play “live” guitar parts on top while the loop is playing

I’m not aware of any loopers on the market that don’t fit these criteria. In fact, most pedals will have many more features, such as multiple loops, an “undo” feature, etc. But the songs in this book have been arranged so that you won’t need any of these fancier features.

Terminology

Let’s take a look at the terms used in the book and what they mean.

Start Loop

This is usually the first direction you’ll see. It instructs you to start recording a loop. For example, in many songs, you’ll first start by laying down a bass line. Most of the arrangements only feature one loop during the song (though it may be turned off and turned back on later), so this direction will usually appear as “Start Loop 1.” However, a few songs do feature an additional loop. In this instance, you’d need to clear the first loop (see your looper’s manual) and start recording a new loop when you see “Start Loop 2.”

End Loop

This is usually the second direction you’ll see, and it tells you when to stop recording the loop. Once you do this, the loop should start playing back from the beginning. Again, you’ll usually see this description as “End Loop 1.”

Overdub on Loop

This tells you to start recording an overdub on top of your loop. In other words, if Loop 1 consists of a bass line, you may overdub some chords on top of it.

End Overdub

This tells you when to stop recording your overdub. The direction will usually coincide with the end of the looped phrase, but this is only because you’ll usually be playing something right up until that point. If you only needed to overdub one note in the middle of the loop, there’s no reason you couldn’t stop overdubbing immediately after that note.

w/ Loop

This direction simply tells you that the loop should be playing. It’s placed at the beginning of every new section of music in which the loop should be playing.

Loop Off

Occasionally, there will be times when you’ll need to turn the loop off in a song. This is usually because the chord progression changes. Most times, this direction will appear at the end of the section immediately preceding the new one. For example, if the chord progression changes in the chorus, then you’ll see “Loop 1 off” at the very end of the verse. Occasionally, however, due to certain routings, this direction may appear at the very beginning of the new section. In very few instances, it will appear in the middle of a section (or measure), in which case the turn-off point should be clear if you simply listen to the original recording of the song.

Loop On

If the loop has been turned off, this direction tells you to turn it back on. It will appear at the beginning of the new section where the loop returns. Note that this direction will only appear if the loop has been previously turned off. Otherwise, the “w/ Loop” direction will appear at any new section in which the loop is used.

Rhy. Fig.

This indicates the beginning of a rhythm part that will later be recalled. This is only used for “live” parts—i.e., parts that you (not the looper) will be playing more than once in the song. Most songs will use only one recalled rhythm figure, in which case it will be labeled “Rhy. Fig. 1.” But a few songs will feature more than one.

End Rhy. Fig.

Working in conjuction with “Rhy. Fig.,” this indicates the end of a rhythm part that will later be recalled. It will usually appear as “End Rhy. Fig. 1.”

w/ Rhy. Fig.

This indicates that you should play the Rhy. Fig. that was identified earlier in the song. This is the “recall” of that figure. It’s simply a means of saving space on the page.

Routing Directions

The common routing directions used in this book are as follows:

•D.S. al Coda: When you see this, return to the D.S. symbol (d) and play until you see the “To Coda” indication. At that point, you jump to the Coda, which will be labeled with the (c) symbol, and continue on. Occasionally, a song will then reach a D.S.S. al Coda 2 direction. In this case, you’d go back to the D.S.S. sign (dd) and play until you see the “To Coda 2” indication. Then you’d jump to Coda 2 and continue on.

•Bracketed Endings: These are used with repeat signs. The first time you play through a section, you play through the first ending, which will be bracketed by a “1.” When you hit the closed repeat sign, you go back to the open repeat sign and start again. This time, you skip over the first bracket and go to the second ending, which will be bracketed by a “2.,” and continue on. Note that sometimes the first bracket should be played more than once, in which case it will bracketed with a “1., 2.” or “1., 2., 3.,” etc.

The music notated in this book uses rhythm slashes and/or rhythm tab. In the rhythm slash method, slashes are used to indicate the rhythms to be strummed. Whenever you see these slashes in a song, chord grids will appear at the beginning of the song to indicate which chord shapes/voicings to play. If you’re unfamiliar with the rhythm tab method, check out the Rhythm Tab Legend at the back of the book for a thorough explanation.

Setting Up the Loop

For the majority of songs in this book, the process will be as follows: The first phrase played will be “Loop 1.” This phrase will be surrounded by open and closed repeat signs, with “Start Loop 1” and “End Loop 1” appearing above these, respectively. This indicates that you will start recording on the looper, play the phrase—say, 4 bars long—stop recording on the looper, and then the looper will repeat the phrase for you. While the loop is playing, this gives you time to make any adjustments necessary (change effects/instrument settings, etc.) in order to get ready for the first overdub.

This process repeats as many times as necessary. In other words, the first overdubbed phrase will be surrounded by open and closed repeat signs, with “Overdub on Loop 1” and “End Overdub” appearing above these, respectively. Once the final overdub (for the time) has been completed, you’ll move on to the next section, and you’ll either see “w/ Loop 1,” indicating that you should keep the loop playing, or “Loop 1 off,” indicating that the loop should be turned off for the time being.

For many songs, such as “All Along the Watchtower,” you’ll create a fairly complete loop—maybe consisting of acoustic percussion (and/or bass) and chords—at the beginning and let it play through. This will allow you to focus on singing if you’d like, or adding fills if you prefer. If you’d rather play rhythm while you sing, then you can simply double the rhythm part or create your own complimentary part for a fuller sound. Often you’ll have parts to play “live” over the loop later on, as well.

In some songs, however, such as “With or Without You,” the loop will slowly build throughout the song. In other words, you’ll create a loop, sing and/or play for a while, then overdub a new part onto the loop, then sing and/ or play for another section, then overdub another new part onto the loop, and so on. Still in other songs, such as “Ain’t No Sunshine,” you’ll create a partial loop at first—maybe just the bass line—and then overdub the next layer of the loop (say, the chords) while singing the first verse.

All of these variations are possible, depending on several factors. These include:

• The arrangement of the original recording: Maybe the song starts with only drums and guitar, and the bass doesn’t enter until later.

• The logistics of equipment: Certain parts may require more or less preparation.

• The overall flow of the arrangement: If we’ve spent a lot of time setting up the first loop, let’s go ahead and get going with the verse, and overdub the last layer while the verse is being sung.

• The logistics of when the vocals enter: Do the vocals begin a few beats before the first verse?

• Variety: It’s simply nice to mix it up sometimes.

A Word on Effects

Different effects are occasionally called for in the arrangements, and, while they will certainly help the arrangement resemble the original recording more, they should all be considered optional. All of the arrangements are still playable if you have nothing but your looper and guitar. Having said that, the effects called for will greatly enhance the arrangements.

By far, the most important effect to have (if you could only pick one) for the arrangements in this book is an octaver, also called an octave pedal. This effect will allow you to transpose your guitar down an octave, thereby enabling you to play a convincing bass line. This effect is called for in dozens of songs. However, you’ll note that it’s always preceded with “optional,” indicating that you can still play the arrangement without it. It just won’t have quite the same effect. Keep in mind that, if you do use an octave effect, be sure to turn it off before overdubbing the next part! (This direction always appears in the music to remind you.)

The other effects, such as delay, wah-wah, tremolo, chorus, etc., are generally less critical. Sometimes they’re a bit more important than others—such as in “With or Without You,” in which some of the guitar parts won’t have the same sound without The Edge’s signature dotted eighth-note delays—but for the most part, they’re just enhancements to help you emulate the original recording.

Preparation

It’s a good idea to look over an arrangement before diving in, as you may be required to make several different effects adjustments within the song. In other words, you may start with a clean tone, add a delay for the verse, turn off the delay and add distortion for the chorus, etc. Therefore, it’s a good idea to know what’s coming up in this regard. If you have a multi-effects unit—which I would recommend when playing looper arrangements simply because of the versatility—then you can set up a batch of presets all dedicated to one song. By doing this, you could keep them in order and simply step through the presets as necessary as you progress through the song.

Experimentation and Malleability

Having said all of this, please realize that these arrangements should not be thought of as set in stone. You can feel free to experiment, especially if your rig allows for more options. For example, if you have a looper that’s able to store multiple loops, then you could assign the bass line to one loop, the percussion to another, and the chords to yet another. This way, even if you had to turn off the bass and chords loop and play some chords “live” for a new section, you could keep the percussion loop playing underneath.

Or maybe your rig includes a drum pad to trigger drum samples, or you have real percussion instruments—such as a shaker, cajon, etc.—that you can mic up. You may want to substitute those percussion sounds instead of using the ones notated here. And speaking of percussion sounds, keep in mind that I’ve notated acoustic guitar percussion sounds in a way that works for me, but if you want to simulate these sounds in another way, that’s great. I always indicated with a footnote what was being simulated, so feel free to use whichever method works best for you.

This book doesn’t cover the subject of using the looper with vocals (or with a mic, period) at all, but that’s certainly another option with regards to adding vocal harmonies, melodies, or percussion (produced either with your mouth or by miking a drum). This will certainly increase the possibilities in all regards.

Finally, you should feel free to mix and match instruments as your rig affords. For example, if you make it a habit to have an actual bass on stage with you in addition to your guitar, then feel free to use it instead of using an octaver on the guitar. Or if your rig includes both acoustic and electric guitars, then feel free to mix and match them as you see fit. A good example of this is “Wicked Game.” Although the rhythmic bed is provided by an acoustic guitar (and the arrangement here is therefore designed for acoustic), the song’s signature guitar riff, which appears after the chorus, is played on electric on the original recording, so you could switch to electric at that point if you desire.

Of course, guitars, basses, and percussion aren’t the only options either. If you have a banjo, violin, mandolin, trumpet, synth, etc. in your rig, and you aren’t afraid to use it, you could add one or all of them to any of the songs as you see fit. As mentioned earlier, this book assumes a lowest common denominator to make it as accessible as possible, but if you want to expand on these arrangements in any way, there’s plenty of room! Most of all, have fun with these arrangements.

Ok, that’s enough blabbering. Ladies and gentlemen … start your loopers!