Looping "practice"?

[doveman]

I'd like to begin some serious practice on playing over various changes ... maybe some standards. Looking for some suggestions for the best way to tackle repeating phrases ... or even songs for practice. I have a few options already ... but interested in what others are doing. I have these options:

• Boss Dr 880 ... plays simple bass & drums against chord changes. The chords generally play the root I think ... sometimes the 3rd and 5th. Pretty hard to program but it has guitar sounds (like a Fender Twin) built in so you can get good sounds through the headphones. It does have some simple chord changes built in but not real jazzy stuff.
• Boss RC-50 ... pretty good looper with built in drums ... no bass. Could probably lay down chord progressions and play against those.
• Recording ... I do have the ability to record ... but it takes time to create.

I would also be interested in other things ... don't mind a little investment if it could allow fairly easy set up for real practice:

• Quality backing tracks?
• Real Books? (Note: I have a PC ... not a Mac)
• BIAB?

In the end, I think I need something easy to set up that let's me hear the chord changes. Any thoughts or suggestions?

[FatJeff]

If you are only doing this for personal practice (i.e. you won't be posting to YouTube or whatever), record yourself playing the changes, then play it back and jam over top of the recording. That way you get practice in the chords as well! I did this for the SuperChops program and it was quite helpful for my comping, and really helped me to learn several standards.

The benefits:

- Cheap, only requires a microphone and speakers for your computer
- The recording will be at exactly the speed you want
- It is very eye opening to hear yourself (be prepared to be shocked at how bad you sound)
- You will learn chord progressions to the songs you want to play on
- You can loop it as many times as you want

[doveman]

What you suggest makes sense ... spent the last hour or so trying this to get the same effect you suggested but it seems simpler:

Boss Dr 880 (seems to beat the sound of my guitar or pedalboard)

• Turn off the drums and bass
• Use the on-board guitar amp sims and effects for a bit of Fender Twin Reverb with (some nice reverb and touch of delay)

INTO Boss RC-50 Looper which has three loops and a bunch of drum tracks. So for example:

• Pick a drum beat
• Record 1st 4 measures of 12 bar minor blues (just chords)
• Record next 4 measures of 12 bar minor blues (just chords)
• Record last 4 measures of 12 bar minor blues (just chords)

INTO Headphones

This way I can play repeats of any 4 measures continuously. Or combine at the end of each loop. Can also change the endings 4 measures on the fly with a single undo. Like replacing the last 4 measures with either various endings with one UNDO then re-record.

I've always tried to use this looper by micing my rig and playing through a PA like set-up. It works pretty well ... and I can leave it set up for just this purpose. It can repeat for hours but not drive everyone else nuts. I haven't been using either of these devices separately but together this could work. Kinda' cool actually.

[FatJeff]

Forgot to mention that I do my comping over a metronome. Kind of sterile, but quite effective for improving timing.

Best of luck!

[keith]

I'd echo Jeff's post but not only chord comp to back yourself but also just lay down a bass line by itself with the changes written. The advantage here is it forces you to learn bass lines and keep time but also when you solo it is much easier to tell when you're getting thin harmonically which is important when there isn't another instrument ( piano, guitar ) comping behind you. This occurs in trio settings and is important when the solo is not staying with chord tones and the bassist starts to wander. It forces you to keep other elements in mind with soloing outside of just your solo line. It has helped me with this which I think is an important skill to have if wanting a coherent solo. My 2 cents!

[merritt stone]

I have a boss rc-3. Even though it doesn't have a lot of drums tracks to jam to, it's super simple operation combined with lots of headroom and feature list makes it perfect for simple jamming over progressions.

[doveman]

I have 3 loopers in the house.

• Digitech Hardwire DL-8 (about 20 seconds) right on the board. DL-8 is about the same as the RC-3 ... just put down a couple of short chords to play across. I use it that way occasionally but more often as a slight delay.
• Dr 880 that I mentioned ... doesn't record ... but loops
• RC-50 (high end of the Boss Loopers)

I think I have an answer to my question. The RC-50 does what I need for practice ... just never had a good sound I could listen too. Using the Dr 880 into it as a preamp gives it a good Fender Twin amp sound. This allows me to practice chord tones, scales & arpeggios in different chord situations that can loop continuously. The RC-50 drum tracks serve as a metronome, as well. When I want to tackle a full progression, take the time to lay down bass too since the Dr 880 has a few nice bass amp sims in it. I know I've used the Ampeg "Flip Top" and Fender Bassman sims before.

I do like to record ... so when I think I'm ready to tackle a full tune, I'll go to the recording software and give it a whirl. That just takes a lot of time and effort to do that whole process well. I needed something quicker for "on the fly" practice.

Thanks for the help everyone. I think I solved my problem and have a workable solution ... and at no additional cost.

[kamlapati]

As other threads have mentioned, RealBookB on iphone or Android is a heck of a practice tool. If possible, you should check it out.

[doveman]

I don't have a Mac, Iphone or Android. PC based stuff only. Sounds interesting though.