I want to be able to cover and loop any song I want [closed]

Question

Justice Der is a guitarist on YouTube that inspired me to starting playing. He does these loop covers of hip-hop/r&b songs. The loops usually have the following layers: percussion -> chords -> bass. After he's finished with the loop, he plays the melody of the song and then his own solo.

Here are a couple of my favorite examples:

Travis Scott - 90210 (second part)

Drake - Passionfruit

Kanye West - Bound 2

My ultimate goal is to be able to create my cover loops of other songs and play over them like he does.

So my questions are the following:

How does he go about choosing chords for his covers and how do I do that myself for songs I want to cover?

Is there any patterns that you can find in his soloing? (technique, scales, note choice, anything that would help me understand why his solos sound the way they do)

Right now I'm a beginner doing JustinGuitar courses. What should I learn after those courses to achieve my "ultimate goal"? I'm sure there's a fundamental understanding of things I have to learn (like chords, theory, scales, modes, triads, rhythm, etc) to be able to create my own covers and solos.

solo examples (links are already set to when the solo starts)

Travis Scott - 90210 (5:06)

https://youtu.be/P0VNAAt

Sade - Cherish the Day (3:27)

Drake - Passionfruit (2:54)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Lets look at Bound 2. As a beginner you've got some work to do, obviously. But there are several things you can focus on which will speed your progress. I don't know where you are skill-wise, obviously, but here are some ideas:

You need to be comfortable with the various Barre-chord variations. All of the Root chords can be barred and you'll want to get comfortable with each. I would think the most important ones would be the "E" style, the "A", the "C" and the "D".

There are portable chord forms not technically Barre chords. The lower "F" and the "D", the "A" with the fifth fret "A" and "E" added are also very useful.

Next, group those chords so that you are able to play rhythm accompaniment in different locations on the fretboard. When you get to picking out the melody you will then have supporting chords you can use to cover the melody line.

When learning his arrangements, pay attention to where his hands are on the fretboard. This will tell you where to pick the melody notes and which form of the supporting chords he is using.

Chord transcriptions are available for virtually every song ever written, for free, from various websites (search "Bound 2 chords"). Even if they don't follow his arrangements, they will still tell you what key and chords he is playing in.

Finally, YouTube allows you to slow down playback without altering the key the song is in. Don't worry about speed until it is nothing to worry about, if you get my meaning.

In my own playing I have found that scales, major, minor and pentatonic are very useful as scaffolding around which to learn solos, even where those solos deviate from specific scales. Those scales also train your fingers for speed and intuition. Scales also mirror the shape of the chord voicings the song is utilizing.

That's a lot, and there's more, but it's fun to learn. Best of luck!