Video Guitar Lesson 17, part 2: Solo Acoustic Ideas - Using A Looper Pedal

In this lesson, Dan helps me out with my acoustic sound for a performance I have been asked to do for my sister-in-law’s wedding. I am performing several songs at the front of their service some of which they have chosen and some of which they have asked me to come up with. As there is a delay on publishing our episodes, this comes after I have actually done the performance and it went very well, particularly because of Dan’s excellent advice and suggestion to use a looper pedal which I followed. In the second part of this lesson, we take a look at how to arrange multiple parts for the looper pedal performance, particularly covering “Something” by the Beatles. In the end, the performance was of the following songs: 1) ‘Something’ by the Beatles: Played while the wedding party awaited the arrival of the bride 2) ‘Textbook’ by We Are Scientists: Played as my sister-in-law walked up the aisle 3) ‘Pretty Ugly Before’ by Elliott Smith: Played while the register was being signed 4) ‘I Don’t Want to Know’ by Fleetwood Mac: Played as everyone left Most songs were played using my Boss RC30 to create a long loop, then some layers added to this on the fly along with some melodic playing and improvisation. On ‘Textbook’ the Looper was not utilised but I used reverb, chorus and a bit of delay to build the atmosphere. The acoustic amp I use is the Marshall AS100D which is great and has an effects loop with the downside of being very heavy. Timings 00:01:05 Equipment which I have bought to the lesson: Gibson J45, Looper RC30, Marshall AS100D 00:01:51 Outlining the four songs I'm doing as part of this performance 00:03:11 Advantages and disadvantages to playing acoustic rather than electric 00:05:55 An experiment to discover what will happen when I push the AS100D a little harder 00:06:41 The low "A" note bass response feedback and how to solve using a soundhole cover 00:11:42 Alternative idea - you could use a volume pedal 00:12:47 Experimenting with the controls on the AS100D 00:17:49 Dan demonstrating 'digging in' on an acoustic 00:19:30 Another thing about the settings on your amp: you want the amp set so you can use "touch" to control the volume and response 00:21:11 Getting onto the songs with the looper 00:24:31 Dan's first go with the looper playing “Something” by the Beatles 00:25:56 Dan's second loop with correct start and end 00:29:23 Identifying the double stops which Dan was using 00:32:09 Dan's suggestion to layer the Am section 00:33:39 Overdubbing the Am section 00:37:47 Dan harmonising the melody of the singer using guitar loops overdubbed 00:44:02 Breakdown of the Am part 00:46:16 Quick discussion about the key change and whether to include it 00:48:04 Considering other equipment like amps, pedals and different types of guitar instruments to get used to in their own right 00:51:27 “Textbook” by We are Scientists 00:52:06 “Pretty Ugly Before” by Elliott Smith 00:56:11 Dan recording a generic chord progression and the value of double stops on acoustic 00:56:27 a) using single notes 00:56:52 b) up an octave 00:57:33 c) using sixths (interval) 00:58:00 d) using arpeggios 00:58:29 e) some more double stops 00:58:57 f) using arpeggiated triads 00:59:11 g) playing quicker - e.g. sweep picking 01:00:01 h) superimposing different chords 01:00:21 i) octaves played concurrently 01:05:51 I Don't Wanna Know Fleetwood Mac