I've been on a musical kick for most of the year, learning about live looping. I've long written and produced audio stories, and I have a cool vision for being able to do this with live looping in a live performance. So, I've been paying attention to people who do this well and it happens that the hottest musician at the moment, Ed Sheeran, also sports some chops with the looper.

Sheeran isn't the vanguard, there are plenty of people doing this, but he does it in a unique way and works hard, with plenty of natural talent, and it just works for him. I watch his performances closely for some tricks and tips and while some of the stuff he does will take a lot of practice, here's a little thing I noticed yesterday.

In his Wembley shows he opens with "I'm a Mess" which is mostly acoustic, nothing like how he opens his "Multiply in Dublin" show. But in this clip, at about 1:00, start paying attention. At 1:08 he lays down a quick riff, then immediately lays down a one measure beat over it. Then he pop-stops (1:15) for about two beats and starts only the beat, not the riff. It's difficult to immediately tell the riff isn't there.

But not noticing the missing riff is kind of the point. It's only there to start with just to give him a chance to lay down the driving beat track without everything screeching to a halt.

When I first watched it, I was trying to figure out what the heck he did to lay down a backing riff that, in a mere measure, would sound good repeatedly looping and with as many as six different chords being played over the top of it. I thought it was impossible.

But that's not what he did. I believe he lays down the riff, as I said, to keep things moving while he lays the beat down. He doesn't really need the riff, but it sounds better than stopping the guitar altogether and then whacking out the beat, then getting back to the guitar. Due to the nature of his setup with the Chewie Monsta, whatever he is playing on guitar, which doubles as his drum machine, will be recorded. He couldn't even just strum once loudly and let it ring while the beat track is recorded. The ringing of the strings would be recorded too.

It's little tricks like this that make performing with a looper a lot easier. You can separate what you need to do and make it sound really good. I can see using this trick a lot. Just a toss-away riff to keep things moving whilst you do something else.

He does the same thing here to open at Roundhouse.