Arranging for One Voice and Guitar
Monday, August 13, 2007 at 10:53AM Today I want to talk about arranging for one guitar. I actually studied orchestration and arrangement at Los Angeles City College (during it’s musical hay day) and at Cal State at Northridge, so I can actually arrange for full orchestras, but given the economics of touring during the Bush Debacle, I travel alone and consequently arrange for one guitar and one voice.
One of the first things that set me free as a performer was the discovery that I didn’t have to play all the strings all the time. The first time that I simply played one note and sang against it (a song from my Ripe Four Distraction CD entitled Everyday, by Rick Ruskin (www.liondogmusic.com) and I) was like a release from prison. The song is in D and starts on the sixth string on a high F# and the walks down chromatically to a C# which is the third of the A (or 5) Chord.
(I’m sure everyone knows this but just in case, as an example, if a song is in D you can refer to the D as a one chord; the G as a four chord; the A as a five chord and so on. This is just numbering the scale and makes it easy when playing live, to communicate to musicians who might not know the progression and this also works across transpositions. No matter what the key, the tonic is the one chord, etc.)
I then play just the fourth, third and second strings in a descending motif starting at the fourth fret and then I finish the verse and go into the chorus, at which point I play a full D maj7 chord and a full A chord. When that full chord kicks in, it sounds like the band arrived.
This is the beauty of playing only one or two strings as you begin a song. It leaves you someplace to go in terms of volume and fullness. You don’t have to play all the strings all the time. I can’t believe how many years I played guitar before I discovered that this was allowed by solo performers. Silly. Anything that you can do with your voice and guitar to make the song interesting and compelling enough for the audience to pay attention to the entire performance, is okay.
It is important to think about the structure of the arrangement. If you just strum and sing, sonically the song never goes anywhere. It remains the same texture throughout. (which can also be a conscious choice, but you better be able to sing so well that you can keep the song interesting for its entire length). I think of the arrangement as a train gathering momentum to the chorus where you are at full steam, then back down to less intensity from the guitar, either by playing more softly or playing less than all six strings.
A fun thing to play in these parts are tenths. Played on only two strings, this is simply the root in bass and the third up an octave from its usual position. You know a chord is essential do mi so played simultaneously. You simply bump the mi up an octave and only play those two notes; the low root and the high third (e.g. G on the sixth string, third fret and the open second string B). Any two notes in this configuration creates the impression of a full chord but it isn’t so dense as a full chord and leaves you room to go someplace else to go to build the songs intensity.
Dynamics play a large part in making a song interesting. Traditionally chorus’s are bigger than verses in terms of volume and sonic complexity. Even if you only strum thru the whole song, if you play the verses at different volume than the chorus’s you will achieve some dynamic interest. If you play and sing the entire song at the same volume it will not be as interesting or as compelling as it would be if you give it some dynamic change.
And the last chorus is the finale and should be the biggest and the most interesting or at least the most compelling. So leave yourself someplace to go. A finale is a payoff and the audience wants and needs that and so does every performance. Here is the roadmap: a structure, an arc, the implication of a destination, the momentum of going towards that destination and the payoff of the arrival at that destination, the finale.
Keep this in mind when you structure an arrangement and when you structure a set.
Reader Comments (44)
Hey James,
Sorry, been crazy busy. Did look at the site and read all on the front page. Great & useful stuff! I liked your ideas about building your arrangements as a solo guitarist/vocalist. And I loved the Wayne Shorter story. Thanks for sharing it. I will help spread the word, I think it’s a great and valuable resource built on EXPERIENCE.
Hope you are well and continuing to rock the planet.
Let’s play some time!
Rob
Robert Kyle
Dark Delishious Music
www.robertkyle.com
www.cdbaby.com/group/robertkylemusic
This is great stuff you're sharing in these blogs, James! Stuff I intuitively know, but I've never heard anyone express so eloquently. It's all about making the most interesting, compelling presentation you can to an audience. And toward that end, anything you can do to broaden the audience's experience of you, whether it be by varying the dynamics of your performance (say between full chord strumming and picking melodic lines on fewer strings for dramatic effect), or occasionally using a cool, hi-tech looping device to provide a "back-up band" while you showcase some good old-fashioned "guitar flash", it just makes your performance all the more engaging and memorable.
It's very gracious of you James, to share this knowledge and wisdom from your years of experience. You're like the Yoda of folk music (although of course you're not green and you're certainly taller and better looking!)
May the Force be with you...
garret, thanks for the kind words and the observations. as you know, i do use a looping box, but (and i think this is in the gear article) i only use it once or twice a set. make it an event instead of a constant texture. i like to demonstrate my expertise and artistry on the instrument before i introduce the technology. this seems to assuage those purists who prefer the unaltered instrument. i want the entire audience to come away enriched and perhaps broadened in their appreciation of the myriad of styles.
by the way, garret swayne runs a wonderful singer/songwriter series in the woodland hills, ca on tuesday evenings. details at his website: www.garretswayne.com
rob kyle, love it that you showed up. you are my favorite sax player in the world. no body has your tone. check it out folks, at cd baby or at rob's darkdelicious music site. he's the best. and check the appearance page on the jls site. rob and i will be doing something together sooner than later i hope.
james
Thanks for sharing great info.
A fun thing to play in these parts are tenths. Played on only two strings, this is simply the root in bass and the third up an octave from its usual position. You know a chord is essential do mi so played simultaneously.
thanks jules, your demistification is a great tool for helping folks that think it's too complicated. look forward to hearing more from you, at your leisure, of course.
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