Thoroughly enjoyed playing this session, I could feel I was making less mistakes, and things were smoother and going well. Maybe because I had smoked a spliff, but hadn’t drunk a beer yet before I started – Too much beer doesn’t seem to help a lot – lol
The session starts with me searching my guitar pedal for a nice rocky sound. I am looking for the sound I was using the day before, but I can’t remember its name!
Maybe I should have chopped this bit off the front of the session to upload it – but what the heck – it kind of sets a live atmosphere, almost like you were really there!
After a couple of minutes I find a sound I like, that sounds great with the Led Zep riff I am going to start with.
But oops – As I start playing the riff, and hit the foot pedal, I had forgotten to clear yesterdays loop, and the sound of that famous riff starts sounding. I go with it at first, but the loop has a bad gap in it – and since I desperately need much more practice with loops, I decide to create a new loop – and see if I can do it better this time!
The loop woks this time, nice and smooth. not only that, but I hit that first note of the solo too. I follow the solo at first, not exactly the same as Page, but kind of similar! Then I go off script, and start a bit of improv – that seems to work great – and without mistakes! Wanting to be able to upload a whole track with no major bum notes, I cut the track short, rather than gamble with any experimental stuff, that would almost certainly lead to some major bum notes sooner or later.
With that track in the bag, as it were, I hit save, just in case! And move on to the next thing.
Not sure what to go into at fist I eventually settle for ‘Arches for lions’. the loop isn’t bad, but could be better – though the main problem with the track are the sound levels – the solo track is too buried in the rhythm track, and you just cant hear it properly.
This has happened because I manually turned down the volume on my loop pedal to finish off the last track – then, after stopping the loop, I turned it back up again – and I must have turned it up too far! I really need to find a better way to finish tracks off when I am using the loop pedal – just to hit the button, twice to stop the loop, stops the loop too abruptly – and since you have to hit it twice fairly quickly, it is almost impossible to hit at that perfect moment! Maybe with more practice – I dunno!
The ‘Lions’ track doesn’t go too badly, though I unsuccessfully attempt a bit of pentatonic – twice! that just doesn’t seem to work – I need a bit of pentatonic in this one – and a bit of a major mode too – before I come back down the ‘arches’ to end the track. Ah well, just keep practicing I suppose!
Next it’s onto some blues – and after a couple of false starts I find a nice rhythm and go for it. The loop isn’t great, and there are a couple, or so, of errors in it – but what the heck – lets put some notes on top it. The whole thing comes out as a bit of a confused mess – but there are couple of moments when you can tell what I am trying to do!
This is the one that will trip the copyright flag – though what original song sounded like this, I hate to think!
Back briefly to searching for a new sound – one with more sustain on it. It’s recorded live, and is unedited, so you just have to put up with stuff like this I am afraid!
I try some chugging with my new sound, and try to put a few treble sounds on it – but this sound has low treble, so it doesn’t really work! I look again for a new sound – One that has sustain and good treble!
I find a new sound, which sounds great with the Led Zep riff – but I already did that one – and I really want to try something different! This attempt at this improv is more experimental than the first try, but somewhat predictably, has several bum notes in it! It also stops a bit abruptly! I will try to remember this sound for another day!
The sound also sounds great with my screaming gypsy rock – I get the loop almost perfect, and if wasn’t for those bum notes, this track would sound great! The sound may be a little too dirty – have to try with some other sounds too!
I do some messing about, and continue to explore my foot pedal, in search of that perfect sound.
I find a sound that sounds good and Hendrixy, so I go with that, but it sounds too much like my ‘Gypsy Rock’, and I don’t get inspired! At about this point I seem a bit lost, and searching for something to play. I try a bit of ‘Purple Haze’, but i don’t know enough notes to be able to do anything interesting with it – The same happens when I try some ‘Voodoo’! – I need to look at those on a rainy afternoon by myself, and see if I can do anything interesting with them!
Back to some chugging, with a sound that has beautiful sustain – and its back into a pure rock and roll sound. The loop is great and the treble on top at the right level – well just about. I play some pretty standard soloing, going up and down the fret-board – with few mistakes, but some quite cool sounding bits! It finishes OK too, with quite a quick fade out – With a bit more practice I will have this one sounding quite good!
I move onto some ‘Bela’, which also sounds good with this dirty rock sound I have found. It’s a great loop, but I am not sure what to play over it – the Phrygian works – but I already do that on another track. I will have to try this one again, and experiment a bit more with it – cos i really like the riff!
The track finishes abruptly, and i immediately start something else, but I find myself running out of steam, not sure where to go from here – So after some experimental, and sometimes incoherent sounds, I finally give up for the evening!
