The following is an excerpt from my forth-coming book, "From Chickenpants With Love: A Comprehensive History of Live Looping and Ramen Noodle Cuisine in the Continental United States and Canada, Respectively."

"On the Fly" Looping:
This is the first real trick Ilearned as a loop artist. Its main purpose is to speed up loop assembly time. To do this technique, you simply build a loop and then overdub it starting on the second note of the loop as it replays for the first time. This technique is dangerous because if your initial loop is off-time, you're stuck building on a bad loop. If the loop is on-time, however, you've just successfully shaved off the amount of time it would've taken to listen to the loop replay. I use the term "on the fly" because the cooks at a restaurant I used to work at would say "make it on the fly" when they wanted something done quickly.

"Prestidigitation" Looping:
This trick is similar to when a magician directs your eyes to a certain object in one hand while doing his sleight-of-hand work with the other. When working with one looping device, I often get bored during a song if it only has one chord progression -- so sometimes what I'll do is stop the loop and start playing a new part while the old loop is erasing (the erasing process takes about 2 seconds). When the old loop is done erasing, I then loop whatever part I just was playing during the erase. The audience is unaware of the erase and re-record. When additional layering ensues, you have just successfully completed a musically administrative task while doing something purely artistic. It took me forever to figure out how to orchestrate this simple technique. The word "prestidigitation" is a big fat word that I use to make myself look really smart. It means "sleight-of-hand." Doesn't it just roll off the tongue? Pres-ti-digi-tation!!!!! WHEEEE!!!!!!

"Toggle" Looping:
After about 8 months of doing "prestidigitation" (whee!), I soon found myself wanting to build two separate loops which could be serve as parts A and B -- or "verse and chorus" -- without having to erase and re-record. This required purchasing an additional LoopStation. After putting the new LoopStation directly after the old LoopStation in my signal chain, I discovered that there was very little signal loss between the two units. So what I do is build a loop, and when I'm done, I stop it and start the next loop on LoopStation no. 2. I build my part B first, so I can start the song immediately following the last layer of looping on part A. When the song needs a change, I simply stop loop A and start loop B. This trick is cool because it gives the song a more animated quality. I call it "toggle" looping because the switch on a Gibson guitar that changes between tones is called a toggle switch.

"Split Foundation" Looping:
While adding the second LoopStation to my rig, I also discovered that I could loop something simultaneously on two different loopers and have a foundation to build from on both loops. Let's say I loop a drum beat on both loopers. When the beat is at the end, I stop one looper, but keep the other going (this is done by putting the loopstations side by side on the pedalboard, thus enabling me to hit the stop button of looper 1 and the play button of looper 2 with the same foot). I then build a loop on no. 2 . After that, I can build a loop on no. 1 that's in the same tempo, rhythm, or key signature as the other loop.

"Phase" Looping:
This trick always gets people's attention. I initally do a split foundation loop with a very simple beat click. Loop no. 1 is built with a very definite structure and usually is fairly elaborate. After the loop is complete, I build Loop no. 2 with a very ambient or esoteric structure. This usually makes the listener wonder what the hell I'm doing to the song. At that moment, I turn no. 1 back on, letting it play over no. 2. If the parts complement each other well, this trick is quite impressive.

"Copy" Looping:
This trick is very helpful in making short loops into "little assistants" that make a bigger loop sound more interesting. Let's say you make a short 4-second loop of an A minor chord on loop no. 1. You then play no. 1 while recording it with no. 2. While it's recording, you do a melody line, different chord, or an elaborate drum riff over it, thus making it into a very interesting long loop with cool background texture. Without two loopers, this loop is still possible -- it just takes longer to build. Sometimes a long build up can be just as thrilling. I personally prefer to let the LoopStation do the work for me.