So our singer in the band is amazing. Like flat out, 100% amazing. She has a hell of a set of pipes on her and kills it everytime. So much So, its made me want to pull up my socks and be as good as she is but just on guitar. We do pop/rock covers and have a wide ranging set list now and id like to add/flourish/show off abit more than I do. I'm conscious of crashing the vocals and always practise what i preach its important to remembering the bands place as people only realy listen to the drums and singer. That being said, how much do you guys do to add to a song with licks and runs rather than basic cowboy chords and barrechords?
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There are are a few songs I play with different singers where I'm playing pretty much nothing the whole song. One I simply vamp following the kick and play one note the whole song. Another is an octave stab one the 1 and 3, again for the whole song. I just stay out of the way of the bass, keys and vocals.
I play guitar and take photos of stuff. I also like beans on toast.
Two or three well chosen and phrased notes will always sound better than a flurry of 'clever' stuff
There are often opportunities to put in a quick lick between verses, unless the bass player has a nice little run which leads into the next verse, or the drummer has a neat fill. One useful trick is that you agree between you who takes which fill.
If you want to add a bit of flash to a solo then a common approach is to start a solo the way it's played on the record before going steadily off piste. There are a lot of songs which have a quiet verse after the solo, partly for effect, partly for the guitarist to reset his volume and pedals.
I know I go on about this and I'm not saying me or my band are any better but there's part of being a good musician that's about knowing when to underplay and not play at all and the curse of pub level bands is that every song is intro then everybody in until the end. Not keeping your hands busy is quite hard to do but your audience feel the groove and hear the dynamics as much and probably more than they hear the songs. People love a flash guitar solo too, they just don't love them on every song ( obvs dependant on the context).
But only if you're Clarence White.
I like to think from an audience point of view, and although we all think everybody's got to stay on the simple groove .... that's what the audience wants, to just listen to the singer and dance .... that's actually not the case. They will be blokes in the audience who are bored of the singer no matter how good the singer is, they don't want to dance ... these people are looking at all the band. If you can do a few things to keep these people entertained without stomping all over the song then that's a good thing from an entertainment point of view.
I also thing that fact that it's "Live" music gives a bit of license to put some extra in .... so it's like the record with some extra garnish rather than just the record. Otherwise all you have is Karaoke.
Out of the 5 bands I'm earning in, the biggest earner by far has the most overplaying in it, make of that what you will.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Well she wouldn't get noticed so much if the rest of the band were getting in the way - it's a shared compliment.
I think there's actually something COOLER about a player who nails his parts unobtrusively then for that one song steps forward and RIPS it, then steps back and gets on with it again.
i love guitar, but even I struggle to watch blues rock with a solo in every f'ing song...
ornament good. Endless widdle bad, in summary.
The notion of 'underplay' vs 'over play' is too binary IMO. Music = emotion and emotions don't really stick to absolutes.
Interestingly the approach from both singers is to rock up the material live compared to the recorded versions. Both guitar players are the consummate side man for most of the gig, playing the perfect parts to complement and not get in the way of the vocals.
Both get to cut loose at least a couple of time in the set. Like everything else in life it`s about balance.
Most of the audience only notice the singer anyway.
Put together a couple if set piece solos where you can shine/be flambouyent and 'stagey' and then step back into the darkness.