As you’ve probably noticed, I’m a big fan of looper pedals…

Back in the old days, I literally used to sit with a cassette deck and play a groove into it for several minutes, then rewind the tape and practice soloing over it…

With a looper I can be jamming in just a few minutes.

But, you have to know what to play, so I’m going to give you some ideas using my basic 3 grooves that I always use. Of course, you can vary them, but this is a good place to start.


    10 replies to "Blues Grooves For Your Looper"

    • ChrisH

      Thanks Griff….super helpful video! I had never used a looper before, but decided recently to get one. I bought the basic Boss RC-1 Loop Station to keep things simple. I was recently on vacation in Hawaii and I noticed that a lot of the local artists that perform in the hotels are using loopers to create their own backing tracks. Some first created a percussion layer to give a 4 on the floor feel and then layered a chord progression on top of that, and then maybe added some instrumental fills and then finally sang over the whole thing. I really opened my eyes to some possibilities.

    • Stephen Whitmore

      Just a question re the looper itself…(newfangled tech to a geezer!) Do you start the loop directly on the 1 count? And then to end the phrase, do you stop the loop on the 4, or the and of 4 or directly on the 1?

      • Larry O

        Step on the pedal on the one count of a measure to start the loop and then agai on the one count of measure to end the loop. Easier to start playing and then start the loop of the next measure and make sure you keep playing until you hit the pedal the second time. You can typically play as many measures or bars as you want. If you are just practicing licks you could just play one measure of the 1 chord. Or you could loop a whole 12 bars if you are trying to practice complete solos.

    • Alan H

      As always handy good to know stuff Griff.

    • Greg

      Perfect timing for this lesson – Thanks for mentioning it in the All Access lesson yesterday.

    • Lloyd Pierce

      Here is a sweet little version of All Along the Watchtower, with a nice use of his looper. His voice takes some getting used to., as does his hair, LOL.

      • Lloyd Pierce

        Here is a sweet little version of All Along the Watchtower, with a nice use of his looper. His voice takes some getting used to., as does his hair, LOL.

        Google “Youve Never Heard it like this #10

    • Gary Hewitt

      Excellent lesson. There is a lot of useful and practical information here. Thank you. Gary

    • Richard

      Very clear and to the point.

    • Fred

      Nice one Griff. I have always left ALL of the strings open and wondered why it didn’t sound very good. I have not tried it yet but it does seem to make sense. Thank you.

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