How Many Guitarists Does It Take To Make A Band?

How Many Guitarists Does It Take To Make A Band?

By Graheme Wilson

In a band with a lineup of guitar, bass and drums the guitar player is going to be very busy. She will be the only melodic instrument. When she plays lead there will be no rhythm and when she plays rhythm there will be no lead. So it is a tough job. She has to decide what she is going to concentrate on. Some of the choices are :

1. Play mostly rhythm and jam in a riff in the middle, like Mick Green in The Pirates or Wilko Johnson in Dr. Feelgood 
 

2. Play mostly lead and hit part chords to give it some power like Jimi Hendrix or Robin Trower

3. Play all rhythm and forget the lead like Paul Weller in The Jam and Pete Townsend in The Who.

4. Play long lead solos and get the bass player to fill in with chords like Eric Clapton in Cream

What if you add another guitar player, that should make it interesting?

Well you would think so. I have seen so many bands with two guitar players playing the same chords at the same position on the fretboard. Why?

The manager of my first band also made this point. I was the lead guitar and he wanted me forget doubling on chords and leave them to the rhythm guitarist. so I started working on lead parts and only played single notes. Then our band found its sound, It was different, cleaner, more defined.

Prince told his guitar player, “If I see you playing more than one note at a time I will kick your arse”

So if you do have the luxury of two guitarists in your band make sure that they never play the same chords together, maybe you could fine them and top up the bands kitty. If they ask why tell them that its boring and shows a lack of imagination. You need a good imagination to be an arranger. Then you will have a unique sound to back up your extravagant claims and increase your fan base on social media.

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