5 TIPS TO NOT BORE PEOPLE WITH YOUR LOOP ARRANGEMENT

by | Sep 14, 2021 | Music Production

One of my best friends loves to remind me how much she hates loopers.

“Except for you, of course,” she amends.

The truth is, I don’t blame her. Looping is inherently self-indulgent. You are, in essence, multiplying and amplifying yourself. And it feels so freaking good and cathartic and fulfilling. You are building something layer by layer, hearing it grow and expand. It is magical. It is meditation. It is processing.

But to someone watching, this can just be…well, boring.

Here’s how you can avoid that.

Don’t loop all your elements in at once at the top.

This is okay to do in a couple songs in your set, but if this is how you start every song it’s just too predictable. Think of places throughout the song other than the intro that you can add in new loop elements. I am personally a big fan of adding in loops during a post chorus. An example is in a cover of Britney Spears’ “Toxic” where I loop in the bass notes between singing lines of the verse instead of looping in the bass notes before I start singing the verse. You can see (and hear) this, as well as the examples below, on Instagram @trishesmusic

 

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Bring loops in and out in different sections.

Just like you don’t want to loop everything all at once, you don’t want to have the same loops playing throughout the whole song (except potentially a rhythm track). Maybe there is a vocal motif loop that only comes in during the verses, or a bass line loop that comes in at the choruses. In the chorus of my song “Venom” I wait until the second half of the chorus to reintroduce my second vocal motif loop.

 

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Create two different rhythm tracks

One for the larger subdivisions (think kick drum and snare) and one for the smaller subdivisions (think hi-hats). This gives you the ability to have more variation as they can each exist on their own or create more impact in sections that you want to feel bigger, by being played together. In my cover of Sam Smith’s “Love Goes” I take my smaller subdivided rhythm out in the verse and reintroduce it in the chorus.

 

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Loop the chorus

Vocals and/or chords with your instrument of choice, during chorus 1 so that chorus 2 and beyond you can add harmonies or different octaves of the chord progression. This will make the song feel like it’s building organically. In one of my own examples, I loop the first half of the chorus of TLC’s “No Scrubs” and harmonize over it for the second half, which is pretty much the same concept.

 

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Don’t be afraid to take your percussion track out.

Having pickups, or entire sections, without any rhythm track can be super effective. I do this often in a bridge because not only does it give the bridge a whole new feeling, but it also makes the following chorus feel even bigger when loops do come back in. I do this in the final verse of my cover of Jolene.

 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Trishes is a project by Trinidadian native Trish Hosein, created to express Freud’s constructs of self (the primal, conscious and spiritual) through spoken word, live looping and vocal effects. Her undeniably original songwriting, fleshed out by hip-hop beats and pop hooks, examines human struggle through an anthropological lens.