Lesson: Looping Basics Using KT Tunstall's Method

I know this may be old news to some people. But it’s new to me.

KT Tunstall released an awesome song in 2005 called “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree.” It was inspired by a Bo Diddley beat. Here is the very cool video that I came across. This performance pretty much set her on the path to stardom.

Loop pedals are nothing new, I know that. When I was asking about them online, most guys just said that they are overdone and out of style. Thank goodness I really don’t care what anyone thinks!

I borrowed a Boss RC-3 Loop Station. It’s a very basic model. I played with it for a second and realized that you have to have really great timing to play guitar, sing, and use this pedal.

So back to KT Tunstall. I don’t know her personally, but she is an incredibly generous artist. She actually has a tutorial on that amazing song and how she uses a loop pedal as part of her technique. Please check out both part 1 and 2, and then I can break down what was not so clear. I found that many people didn’t understand the set up and I finally figured it out. It is SOOOO cool!!!

Part 1

Part 2

As a newbie to looping, I was amazed that KT used one simple pedal to input her voice, guitar, and percussion, on the fly as a performance. She admits that some parts she has to delete and start over, and I experimented with that, too.

She talks about “splitting the signal,” but in reality she was combining signals. And there were no close ups of the mixer and the cables. So here is what I used to learn her technique.

• 1-Guitar
• 2-Mic on a stand
• 3-Mixer (mine is a Behringer Eurorack mx 802A with power supply)
• 4-Boss RC-3 Loop Station
• 5-Guitar amp
• 6-3 quarter inch guitar cables
• 7-1 XLR mic cable.

View KT Tunstall performing "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" live:

This technique can really spruce up your performance. Plug in and try it out!

Dorit is a rock singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and Middle Eastern Dancer. She has performed internationally on concert stages, TV, film, and theatre, and has inspired many students to find to their own expression through music and dance. Dorit’s current goal is to self produce her album and complete an acoustic guitar she hand built as a teenager at the Bronx High School of Science. Her influences include Led Zeppelin, Middle Eastern music, Latin music and old school hip hop -- anything with great rhythm. Find out more about Dorit here>>