Coming up with parts in an already dense arrangement
Thought I'd throw this out there and see if anyone has any input.
I've recently started playing with a band that's been around a bit, and I'm trying to figure out where I fit in. It's a four piece quirky pop folk rock band. Singer also plays acoustic, an electric guitarist playing a little bit of everything, lots of ambient verbed-out stuff, arpeggios etc, bassist that sometimes also plays keyboard, and drummer. The songs an arrangements are pretty full.
I've come up with some "rules" for myself to help guide me (when I ask the guys for some direction I get 'play what you feel like for now' kind of answers). My guide rules (that I break frequently) are don't (or barely) play during vocals, play sparsely in general, try to have a different guitar tone that the other guitarist (dry when he's verbed, dark when he's bright, etc), double the bass line occasionally, try to employ new (to me) voicings and extended chords, etc.
Any thought or input on these kind of situations would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
I've recently started playing with a band that's been around a bit, and I'm trying to figure out where I fit in. It's a four piece quirky pop folk rock band. Singer also plays acoustic, an electric guitarist playing a little bit of everything, lots of ambient verbed-out stuff, arpeggios etc, bassist that sometimes also plays keyboard, and drummer. The songs an arrangements are pretty full.
I've come up with some "rules" for myself to help guide me (when I ask the guys for some direction I get 'play what you feel like for now' kind of answers). My guide rules (that I break frequently) are don't (or barely) play during vocals, play sparsely in general, try to have a different guitar tone that the other guitarist (dry when he's verbed, dark when he's bright, etc), double the bass line occasionally, try to employ new (to me) voicings and extended chords, etc.
Any thought or input on these kind of situations would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Comments
I like your ideas and "rules".
My suggestion would be - don't be afraid to not play, especially if you don't "hear" a part. Either way, by not playing you achieve many positive results - one allows the music to breathe, brings the overall volume down and makes the return entrance more dramatic...
I hope more folks chime in... I like this thread!
In general my approach in the situation where the music is already very dense is to under play or not play. My feeling is that the music already has the propulsion so I don't really need to play rhythm. Instead what I aim for is texture and accents. I find it adds something if I interject a quick phrase or an accent note/chord into the mix. Like adding a dash of seasoning. It took quite a while to get comfortable with the idea that I didn't always need to look like I was playing or contributing to the sound every moment. My inspiration for getting there was listening to Thelonious Monk. Listen to the quick jabs and accents he adds behind his soloists.
As I side note, I find I can apply a lot of Jim's lessons to my own work because through Jim's lessons I am adding a lot to my own musical vocabulary and that is giving me more interesting seasonings for my own music.
Thanks for the interest in my music. You can find our most recent effort here http://namewithnosound.bandcamp.com/album/rowboating plus pointers to some older stuff.
I'd be happy to hear what you think.
Regards
Warren
Cool sounds, nice textures, I like it! Thanks for posting the link.
Tony