Sharing the Load // Guitar

Be sure to check out the intro post to this series here.

This is the second installment of the “Sharing The Load”series, and what I want to talk about is sharing the load between guitars.  In the coming posts we’ll hit sharing the load of the entire band, and sharing the load on musical instrumental breaks, but today I want to look at sharing the load between guitars.  I want to look at 3 methods in which guitar players can share the load: Using Capos & Different Chord Phrasing, Strumming & Picking, and Adding Leads.   These can apply to multiple acoustics or even acoustics and electrics, whatever the combo is, hopefully these methods help you share the load in order to create a fuller and more pleasant sound.

Using Capos & Different Chord Phrasings

In my first post I established a problem of “muddiness,”when musicians don’t share the load by spreading out high, mid, and low end among one another. This muddiness is a usually just a very flat sound where everyones parts blend together and they become indistinguishable, or everyone begins stepping one one another’s toes.  One place this issue often arises is in acoustic sets with multiple guitar players.  One chord sheet of the original key gets given to each guitar player and everyone is playing the same chords in the same position, trying to do the same strumming pattern and something just doesn’t sound right.  I have had it happen on multiple occasions.  A very simple remedy for this is using a capo.

In order to use a capo one must understand transposition to know where to place the capo on the correct fret and use the correct chords.  If this is something you really don’t know about, there is a great free ebook by Chris Vacher called How to Use A Capo, complete with transposing charts to help with your capo placement and some advance capo techniques.

Using capos will enable you to spread out those high, mid, and low tones pretty simply.  One guitar player can be on lower chords, and another can have the capo placed higher to catch some of those high tones.  An easy example is the key of G.  One guitar player would play the G shape chords on the lower end of the neck, another could capo 5 and play D shaped chords, and if you had a 3rd guitar player you could always capo 3 and play E shaped chords.  Using a capo is a quick and easy way to get a full tone, and very easy for beginner musicians.

Watch this YouTube video of Ruben Morgan and Ben Fielding showing the capo technique on their song “Yahweh.”

Using different chord phrasings without using capos is another great way to share the load with guitarists.  This comes in handy particularly with Electric guitar players.  Just changing where you play your chord can change the tone and give a full sound between guitar players.  Chris Bellamy wrote a great post about this very concept this past month; he gives great insights on this very topic.  Read: Modern Voicings: From The Open “A” Shape.

Side Note: If you do not have a Planning Center (or something similar) subscription, and you create your own chord charts, transposing can take you a long time, try transposr.com. This is a free transposing site from Planning Center Online and it enables you to automatically transpose your charts and mp3 files to whatever key you need.

Strumming & Picking

A big sound difference is made by how guitar players use their right hand (or left hand if your a southpaw).  Splitting between strumming and picking makes a song sound really full and complete, and alleviates the problem of clashing strummers.  If too many people strum at once sometimes strumming patterns cross and it makes whatever song is being played sound a tad off.  Whenever able, have one person strumming and one picking, and if both are strumming try to make sure your strumming patterns are tight.

If there are three guitar players, one guitar should handle the main rhythm strumming, another picking, and the third could add single strums for added emphasis. Minimal playing can get a tad boring, but it really can be a big help to a song.  If you’re on an electric guitar, ambient swells with some delay would be really helpful filling this task.

Adding Leads 

Adding guitar leads is not something for beginner guitar players, but if you have some seasoned guitarists in your band giving one player the task of playing leads gives the song a little more depth.  Playing leads can be tricky, because if placed in the wrong spot it can overshadow the words being sung, which we definitely do not want to have happen in a worship set.  Keep leads during vocals to something subtle that will blend well.

Most songs have lead parts that are used for intros, tagged after chorus or verses, or during instrumental breaks.  Those are ideal times to put those very noticeable melodic lead parts in because nothing is being sung. If you are playing with 3 guitarists the lead guitarist could add leads during instrumentals and add those one strums mentioned above during lyrical parts of the song.

Watch this video of HeartSong from Cedarville University performing their rendition of A Mighty Fortress is Our God, the electric guitar player provides an excellent example of adding minimal but effective swells during beginning verses, lead parts during the instrumentals, alternate phrasings when the song picks up.

These methods certainly aren’t the only ways of sharing the dynamic load between guitars but they are a good starting point.  Hopefully these different techniques prove to be helpful to you and your bands.