Any tips for writing 2 guitar parts as I'm currently writing a song and well I've got 1 part sorted but we have another guitarist, we did managed to start playing something the other day but when I stopped and listened to it it just sounded..... odd.
I'm not sure if it was because the distortion we were using was too similar or something like that but it all kept getting really mixed up. Im playing open chords and the other guitar is playing power chords, both pieces sound fine on their own its just putting them together. My guitar part is as follows (I think) Esus, Fmaj7, C, Em
have one person play a riff while the other plays a rhythmic thing... or just jam until you find two parts that fit together.
The more instrumentation you have, the simpler each part needs to be.
If you listen to something really complex, like a Beethoven symphony - with 60-100 musicians playing at the same time - you find they're never playing more than about four different notes, often just two or three. So the first thing you want to look at is how many different notes are going on - if you're playing Fmaj7, the other guitar shouldn't be adding any new notes to the mix... F5 or A5 might be ok, C5 or E5 won't be, because they add more notes to the mix.
Second, pay attention to the rhythms. Most of us start out playing solo guitar, and we need to be 'busy' about our playing to fill the sonic space. As you add instruments to the mix, you need to play less... when I work with a six piece band, it feels like I'm barely playing on most tunes!
Listen to bands like U2 - who use very sparse instrumental parts that fit well with each other - or bands like Metallica, who often layer a lot of parts (but each one is <i>very</i> simple) to get some ideas of what works and what doesn't in terms of musical space.
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
Thanks noteboat what you've said has made sense to me really. Also thanks to Jason but your solution won't really help in this situation as the song I'm trying is basically escalating to big heavy part so that was the idea of the 2 guitars.
We've got a practise tonight so Ill try and play around with it, I might get my acoustic out and use that as opposed to filling the sonic stage with distortion (Kinda cranberries style)
If anyone else fancies chipping in feel free :P
Playing the same chords in different positions and or voicings can add biggness. (That is if biggness is a word) :oops:
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --
another idea which could be helpful is to combine strumming parts from guitar one with arpeggios from guitar 2: if you check some music sheets you could see that many bands has similar approaches!
also guitar 1 could lay down the rhythm, while guitar two plays the melody (the same notes of the singer)
Matteo
I think the word TRGuitar was looking for was fullness - or maybe depth. But yes, I got what he meant about alternate voicings. One way to do this would be to use a capo - for instance, one person plays C, Am, F and G chords, the other capos at the 5th fret and plays G, Em, C and D. You'd have to transpose the song to another key for the second guitarist to decide wher the capo is going to go
The chords you mentioned before shouldn't sound too bad with one player doing open chords and the other playing barres around the 7th and 8th frets.
:D :D :D
Vic
"Sometimes the beauty of music can help us all find strength to deal with all the curves life can throw us." (D. Hodge.)
Well we tried again last night and I dropped the distortion completely and it sounded a hell of a lot better, Ill put a clip up on here at some point as I'm still not completely sold but it does sound interesting
Once again cheers for the help everyone and you've certainly given me some ideas for the future!
Ok as promised I spent a while over the weekend recording what we had so I thought I'd put it up here for you guys to listen to
https://www.guitarnoise.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=290343#290343
