When most people think of using loops with their band they don’t think about the fact that there are different “types”/ “styles” of loops that they can use. Before you begin using loops we need to “start with the end in mind”. Look 5 months down the road and visualize how you see loops being used in your band. How do you want to see them added to your band? What do you want them to add? What do you want to accomplish with loops? We will look at a few different options available and give a few tips and suggestions of what type of loops you should look at. As we go into this post it would be great to get caught up on our previous posts in the series. You can find them here and we will be referencing this post frequently so make sure to read through it before you dive in!
1) You want to make your band sound “bigger”
Your probably in a smaller band, and most likely in a mobile environment. You’ve got a Drummer, Bassist, and your probably the Worship Leader and play guitar. You’ve got a solid band already but there are some songs that you feel like could sound bigger. There’s only so much you can do with a three or four piece band. Before you get irritated because your band isn’t good enough musicians to adapt to their environment, stop and realize your at a disadvantage. Sure Great musicians will adapt their style and playing to adapt to their environment, i.e. play to make it sound “bigger”. But stop and listen to any typical Worship Recording. There are at least 4 Electric Guitar tracks, 3 or 4 Stereo Keys tracks, Drum loops, Bass, Drum tracks, BGV’s, and stacked lead vocals. Oh and thats only the “Live” worship recordings! Trying to pull off these tunes with only 3 musicians is tough, even if they are all great musicians. So using loops is a great way to make your small band “bigger”. Here’s a few things you probably are looking for in your tracks:
- Keyboard Pad/Synth Sounds
- Piano Parts
- Acoustic/Electric Guitar Parts
- Drum Loops
- Shaker, Tambourine loops
If this is the situation your in here are a few things to think about and be careful with.
- Use sounds that provide a “base” for your band to play on top of. Use a Pad sound that holds down the bottom, and middle end that would allow your guitarist to play higher voicings, and not be tied to open chords, or power chords all the time.
- Don’t create too busy of a sound. We’ve all experienced 3-4 piece bands that sound like they have 4 BGV’s and 4 guitars and 4 keyboards in them. If you go overboard using loops can easily become a very hokey, over-produced, non-legit thing.
- Be careful to not add too many Acoustic Sounds. Don’t track full on Piano Parts for each of your songs, even if you don’t have a Piano player. You could probably get away with some simple chords or fills every now and again, but tracking a full piano part for an entire song and not having a keyboardist on stage at all can be very hokey.
- Use “simple loops” or shakers & tambourines, that help to keep time and allow your drummer to “open” up his playing a bit more.
- You may want to re-arrange songs that are “heavy” on instruments you don’t have. Make a piano-heavy song, guitar driven and track minimal piano parts to fill in the tune.
- Make sure you rehearse your transitions well. Don’t let people feel like you are “pressing play” and waiting a measure before every song. Start some songs without the loop or just singing a Chorus. Your transitions are crucial to make sure you don’t become a “Worship Robot” that is tied down to a computer and a click.
2) You want to use loops to “redefine” the sound of your band
You’ve probably got a band that either sounds acoustic driven, or very alternative sounding. You may want to take the mindset of a “musical missionary” and translate the songs you do into the “musical context your congregation speaks”. This is difficult because not everyone listens to Lady Gaga, but look at the Billboard “Hot 100″. How many of those songs are Electronic sounding, either Pop or Hip-hop? How many of the songs we do on Sunday sound like that? Most of our songs are written by nerdy white guys that play acoustic guitar. How many of the people on the Billboard charts are nerdy white guys playing guitar? (one more rant then I digress..I promise) We wouldn’t go into Ethopia and play country music to try to “reach” the people there. For some reason we’ve gotten this idea in our head of what type of music is “acceptable” in church. We play all the tunes off the new Hillsong, and Passion CD’s but we could never do a Hip-hop, or Techno song in church, our people would hate it. Unless your people live in a bubble they most likely turn on some Jay-Z and Black-Eyed Peas once they get back in the car on the way to lunch after church on Sunday. Why should the style of music they enjoy outside of church be “unacceptable” inside the church. So.. I say all that to say if you feel like translating your Worship songs into a more “Electronic” sound that might better speak your “people’s language” then loops could help you accomplish this.
Here are a few things to think about if this is the direction you want to go.
- Your going to want to create new “arrangements” of the songs your currently do. Don’t just take Holy is the Lord and add synth licks and techno-loops, and expect it to sound correct. Your going to want to re-adapt your songs. Simplfy your Chord changes in the songs and you may want to speed up or slow down the songs.
- Your going to want to make loops the “fifth Beatle” in your band. Don’t just layer sounds on a loop and press play. Your loops are going to have sounds that you couldn’t get any other way. Beeps and Blips, and not just sounds to “fill” out your sound. Make sure your sound guy mixes the loops with your band, don’t bury them in the band mix, but mix them as if they are part of the band.
- Your band will have to change they way they play. Your guitar player will have to be conscious of what lead synth parts are happening and make sure to compliment the synth part. Your drummer will want to open up their playing and really incorporate loops into their playing. They’ll have to think about what the loop is doing and really make the drum loop part of their sound.
- Incorporate your band in the loop creation process. Have your guitarist/bassist create some of the synth parts for the loop. Have them play some of the synth parts live, or play pads when they can. Do as much as you can live, but still incorporate the loop. Have your drummer create loops that compliment his playing. He should use loops to “complete” his sound and be conscious of what the loop is doing at all times.
- Make sure your band is on board. If you haven’t picked up on that yet, its probably the most important part in the whole process. If you just add in this “Electronic” sounding loop on top of what you normally do your band will sound cluttered and you’ll lose more then you’ll gain. Make sure they are cool with this and on-board with the challenge. It will be exciting and the results will be fun to play and fun to hear.
3) You want to use loops to “polish” your sound
You’ve probably got a full band. You’ve got two guitarists, drummer, bassist, a keyboardist or two, and probably a few vocalists. You may even have a percussionist. If this is you your probably interested in just “sweeting” your sound. You’ve already got a fairly complete sound. You would like to use loops to add another dynamic to your song. The biggest way that loops can help you is to help smooth out transitions. You can have some cool sounding intros with just a simple loop and a cool synth part. You can have an outro loop that continues to run into the next song and helps to smooth out your song to song transitions. If this is you then take a look at a few of these suggestions.
- Put control of the loop in the hands of your drummer, or percussionist. Allow them to fire all the loops and clicks. Steer away from tracks set to a preset arrangement. Allow your drummer to fade in and out loops to start and end songs. He really can treat the loops as another extension of his drums. Essentially “external” percussion. Using Ableton Live you can fire your clicks and bring your loops in and out when you wish. You can fade them in and out when you wish or program them to come in and out when your want.
- Your band probably isn’t going to need to change the way they play. Your primarily going to be using loops in certain sections of the song. You can add a loop to a drum solo to make it bigger, or use a loop to fill out what would typically be a vocals only chorus.
- Keep it simple. Since you’ve got a complete sound already your not going to need to add lots of synth’s and busy sounds. You may want to add a few filler synth parts and some simple drum loops. If you have multiple keyboard parts that you can’t cover live you may want to track some of those. Make sure to track the “easiest” ones. Your probably better off to track a Pad part and play the rhodes part.
4) You want to use loops as your band
You’re probably in a mobile enviroment. Your probably a worship leader at a church plant, you may not have a full band everyweek and stressed trying to find players to play. You probably play Acoustic guitar or Keyboard and you want something more. If this is you then here are a few things to look at.
- Don’t feel like you’ve got to use backing tracks. You want to fill out your sound, but don’t feel like you’ve got to use sounds that sound like your band. Don’t spend all week programming Acoustic and Realistic sounding drum parts, and Electric guitar parts. This can feel very hokey to be the only guy on stage and playing with a full band. Its almost like “Karaoke Worship”. Use simple washy loops to keep time and keep rhythm. You can use Pads to give you a base sound. You can use a “Drone” type sound to help drive the song along. You don’t have to have a “full band” sound. Use what you might consider a “disadvantage” (not having any musicians) as an “advantage”. Don’t try to sound like a band.
- Control your loops yourself with a Midi Foot controller or midi keyboard. If your playing Acoustic it will probably make the most sense if you use a midi foot controller. If your playing keys you could use another keyboard as a controller, or you may even be able to use your current keyboard if its got “midi assignable” functions.
- Don’t tie yourself down to a strict arrangement. Use Ableton live to fire your loop in sections. You can repeat the intro as long as you need to or do another chorus if needed etc. If your the only person on stage make sure YOU are controlling the loops, don’t let them Control YOU.
- Consider using “solo loops”. Solo loops are very similar in style to “The Postal Service” or “Owl City”. They are loops that have synth bass parts, some sort of drum part and some synth leads. They have a very “Electronic” feel to them. You don’t have to make every song sound like a Techno song if you don’t want to. Like we discussed earlier use your “disadvantage” of not having a band to your “advantage” and create a unique sound.
So what do you want your loops to do for you? What do you want them to add to your sound? The most important thing is to remember to do what fits your situation and serves your people the best. Don’t use loops just like “so and so..” does because they said its the only “right” way to use loops. Do what is best for you. Its also important to remember that you don’t have to only use one type of loops. You can do a sunday without your band and use “solo” loops, and then use loops every sunday with your band to “polish” your sound. So try out all the different types of loops you can and figure out what works best for your ministry.
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