One of the key ingredients to achieving a great sound is to design your arrangement so that you have some ‘sonic space’ between each instrument in the group; every instrument should have it’s own place in the audio landscape.
If you have ever wondered why you are not getting the same sound as the recorded version this is a good place to start… in many instances the arrangements we find on most guitar TAB sites is designed to produce a complete sound with just one guitar however, taking that type of arrangement across to a group setting can cause ‘sonic sludge’.
Let’s take a sample chord progression from Tom Petty’s – ‘Won’t Back Down’ to show you how with a few simple changes you can improve your ensemble playing by at least 85%!
Tip 1: Be aware that any note on the guitar from ‘C’ (5th string, 3rd fret) and lower is in the bass guitar range; playing chords with notes that are in the bass player’s frequency will produce a muddy sound.
Sample verse chord progression: (Won’t Back Down – Tom Petty)
Em D G
// // | //// |
Standard guitar TAB type power chords.
Em D G
————
————
————
-9–7——-
-7–5—5—
———3—
Problem: No problem here if you are accompanying your voice; however, if you are playing with a bass player the ‘G’ chord will be an issue.
Notice how the lowest note in the G chord is in the bass players’ range.
Solution: By moving the lowest note of the chord up one octave we can avoid a muddy group sound.
Modified ‘group’ version
Em D G
————
————
————
-9–7—5—
-7–5—5—
————
This version will sound better with your bass player and it’s easier to play… not a bad deal!
Now, moving on to the chorus of ‘Won’t Back Down’
The basic chord progression:
C G D G
/// / | /// / |
Standard guitar TAB type power chords.
C G D G
—————
—————
—————
-5——7——
-3–5—5—5–
—–3——-3–
Problem: Again, no real problem if you are the only instrument accompanying the singer however, there’s a fair amount of moving around with fast chord changes so let’s see if we can find a better solution.
Solution: By moving the chords to the middle two strings (3rd and 4th strings) we can play the ‘G’ using open strings thereby overcoming the fast chord change issue.
Modified ‘group’ version
C G D G
—————
—————
-5–0—7—0–
-5–0—7—0–
—————
—————
Actually, what we did here was the exact same principal that we did earlier with the ‘G’ chord.
* the low note of the C chord was moved up one octave (even though the low note of the C chord did not overlap with the bass frequency – it just created a better flow given the chord sequence).
* the ‘G’ chord from the verse was re-located to be played as an open string chord (same pitch and inversion just moved to a different position on the fretboard).
Tip 2: Experiment with different instrument textures and playing techniques to help define each instrument’s musical space.
Example
On the Tom Petty version an acoustic guitar plays standard open string chords with a clean sound while the electric guitar plays the power chords (I have described above) using a palm muted effect for the verse and an open sound for the chorus.
These type of musical contrasts make for a very interesting production that your audience will want to here again and again.
Hello, I have been playing guitar since 2011. I review guitar as well as other music items. What you should buy for your instrument.
We are a team of musical instruments lovers. We love to play with these.
Like string instruments, wooden instruments, or you can say electrical.
Who are in my team? I play Acoustic and Classical guitar. Sam plays an electric guitar. Watson plays Bass. Pretty plays the drum. And the Piano is played by gibbon. And in a week two new players will join our team.
All are in so good in their field. That’s why all the tips and tricks are written after their guidelines.
One day while playing guitar with my friends. This idea was explored. One of my friends told me why don’t we make a site and share our experience.
