Practice Space and "Legit"

We've been having the basement finished over the past month, and as the work has progressed, I've been getting more and more excited at the thought of having a dedicated space (a corner of the basement) where I could set up my gear and keep my guitars and amps, and a place where I could hopefully practice without bothering anyone else in the house.

Late last week, the work was completed with the installation of the carpet, and I had a guitar and an amp down there just as soon as I could. So far it's exceeded all my hopes and expectations.

The first thing I did was turn my amp up louder than I would normally play and played for five minutes. Darling Wife said she could barely hear me, and didn't even have to turn up the volume on the TV. Both girls were studying upstairs in their bedrooms, and also said they could barely hear me - that it might disturb them if they were trying to sleep, but it wouldn't disturb them from studying.

I'm not even close to fully set up - I have one guitar and one amp down there, and no furniture. But I can turn on my amp, start up the looper, play a chord progression, and practice improvising over it to my heart's content. And I've been doing a lot of it, and already feel like I'm much more comfortable with extended improvising. More on exactly what I'm working on in my next post.

I was down there playing on Thursday night, and Sarah came down to look at my setup. Her first reaction was that it looked sad for me to be playing all alone in one corner of a huge space. I understand that - but we'll work on filling in that big space over the coming months. But her next reaction, after listening to me play for a minute, was that I sound "legit". I'll take that as the compliment I think it was meant to be, as my interests more often than not get eye rolls from the teenagers in my house.

"Legit"? I'll take it.

Loop Station Review

Two week ago, I wrote about winning an eBay auction for a looper pedal, and promised a review once I received it. I've now been using the looper for a week, and here's my review - it's the greatest practice tool ever.

If you're learning how to solo or improvise, I don't see how you can do without a looper. You tap the pedal with your foot, play a few bars or a chord progression, then tap it again, and what you just played loops continually (until you double-tap the pedal to stop the loop.) While it's looping, you have a background track to practice improvising over.

It took me a little while to learn how to use it properly. I couldn't sync the timing of the loop, and finally realized that I was coming in on an off beat. I now pay attention to coming in right on the beat, and it works like a charm.

My looper (the Boss RC-2 Loop Station) has many features that I haven't yet used - I've only recorded a loop, then played it back. I could save eleven loops to play back later - but I'm doing very simple chord progressions - nothing so complicated that I can't just play it again next time. There are also drum tracks that can sync with your loop - I've played with that a little, but it's not necessary, and I've been fine practicing to just my simple loop.

Zepparella and Gretchen Menn

I got an e-mail from a band-mate saying "Do a YouTube search on 'Zepparella, When the Levee Breaks'! I think I'm in love". That was easily done (YouTube link here and below.)

At first glance, I was blown away. Four women who look like models playing Zeppelin (and doing a great job)? Sure, what's not to like. Then I got skeptical. Really? They all just happen to be smoking hot? Are they really playing those instruments?

I can't answer that question, but a little web research shows the the guitar player, Gretchen Menn, is a very real guitar player (and yeah, smoking hot.) YouTube interview is here.

As recommended, "When the Levee Breaks." Fantastic version of one of my favorite Led Zeppelin songs.

Boss RC-2 Loop Station Auction

Well, that was fast. eBay is pretty amazing. I was looking at the current generation Boss RC-3 Loop Station, and thought that it had way more features than I would want, and cost more than I wanted to pay. One of the comments I saw on the RC-3 compared it to the superseded RC-2, so I went searching for that on eBay. There were plenty of  RC-2's up for auction, either lightly used or "new in the box".

I put a few of the RC-2 auctions in my "follow" list. Yesterday, as time was expiring on a "new in the box" RC-2, I put in a bid, and won it. So hopefully in the next week or so, I'll have a looper to practice with. I'm quite excited.

Stay tuned for a full review.

Looper Pedal

From the "there are always more fun toys necessities" file. Twice in the last few weeks I've seen what a cool thing a looper pedal is.

A couple of Saturdays ago, Darling Wife and I went to a local bar where they advertised live acoustic music. There was a guy with a guitar playing, and at one point we realized we heard two guitars at once - he would take a solo, but the chords of the songs were still playing. In between songs, he addressed that, saying that he wasn't playing to a recorded backing track, that he was using a looper and playing over himself.

I knew how that worked - it's a foot pedal, and you tap it once to start the loop, then tap it again to stop, then the loop repeats until you stop it. So if you set a loop of 8 or 12 or 16 bars of a song, it will keep repeating until you stop it, and you can play a solo over the looped chords.

Then on Tuesday night we went to an open mic, and a very talented guitarist also used a looper. He played a few bars of a chord progression to set the loop, then soloed over top of himself.

I have *no* intention of playing out as a one-man band, but the possibilities for using a looper to practice seem endless. It would be very cool to set up a loop of a chord progression and practice soloing over it.

Looking online, even the basic looper pedals are more expensive than I'm comfortable with - and they also have *way* more features than I want. I just want a very simple pedal that will store a few minutes of a chord progression to let me practice soloing and improvising. Some research shows that older-generation loopers are still readily available on eBay.

Let's just say that I'm monitoring the situation closely.

Where to Focus?

I've been giving some thought recently to what I want to concentrate on in my playing. I've done some playing with the aikido band on both guitar and bass, and have also enjoyed the monthly acoustic jams. I'd like to do more playing with people, either in a formal band or in jam sessions. It's both a lot of fun and the quickest way to learn and improve.

Here are the options I see:

Bass: while I'm spending just about all of my practice time on the guitar, it's a fact right now that I'm a better bass player. I can play rhythm guitar in a band or a jam session, but I'm not good enough yet to be in a gigging band. As a bass player, I think I am good enough to step into a gigging band and play out. That would be fun in the right situation, and I'd be open to it...but it's not what I really want.

Electric guitar: this is my main focus, and I'm having a blast. I can feel the improvement I've made, and I intend to keep progressing. I'm not *good*, and I don't know if I ever will be, but it's just a whole lot of fun. I'm going to keep playing with the guys, and hope to find other folks to play with. I *love* the gear I have, and have no big desires right now (yes, I'll qualify that with "right now", as Darling Wife rolls her eyes.)

Acoustic guitar: this obviously isn't that separate a thing, as improved playing skills on the electric will carry over to the acoustic. But sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't focus more on the acoustic. So many of the issues of tone and gear issues that you spend time on with the electric just go away when you pick up the acoustic. The sound of the instrument is all there is - and I adore the feel and the sound of my Canadian beauty. Maybe I should focus on acoustic playing, and look for opportunities to play with acoustic folks. Maybe even look to form a group to play folk/acoustic/soft rock songs. I think I could do that with more confidence that I could in an electric situation.

I'll continue to think about it, and we'll see how things develop.