Four Intruments To Three...help...

I'm startin a new band which is only going to consist of one guitar - where my other bands have all had two. The song writing in the past has always started with chords from acoustic then into practise where everyone added other stuff.

I'm now struggling to come up with stuff because we want the guitar to be very 'riffy' and 'picky' i.e The Stone Roses, The Smiths, Led Zeppelin; as opposed to playing chords all the time.

Do I still write stuff with chords first, then add lead guitar, then take the chords away or what?!

Any tips from anyone?

Toucan_

If you're going to only have one guitar, I personally wouldn't recommend going from chords to solo to chords, because the solo will likely sound pretty weak compared to the parts with chords. I would start bas(s)ing songs on basslines. You'd still have the root note, so it wouldn't be too much different from basing songs on chords. But then you could just figure out guitar parts that were sorta picky, and you wouldn't have this massive volume drop when you go into the solo.

I mean, it wouldn't hurt to figure out the chords anyway, but I would try and steer clear of playing them live.

Good advice Buck

Cheers man.

Depends on what you got for backing, if it's just a guitar, I'd steer mostly towards implying the chords you're playing your melody over. Either by outlining the arpeggio, playing the root note with one finger, and melody with the other, or open strings.

I play mostly acoustic, and I play solo by changing into a dropped tuning, like DADF#AD, and it allows me to play a melody and a harmony simultaneously. If you're playing electric, you could try to have a little harmonic idea, with fills in between. For example, The Guitar from the verse of Crazy Train, by Ozzy Osbourne. The Guitarist plays a few chords, then inserts a fill, and it stands well on it's own.

Hope thats helpful! Good luck with your endeavor!

when you're talking about the one-guitar thing, there are tons of ways to go at it. songwriting style shouldn't matter, but keep in mind that some people write better for different size ensembles, you know what i mean? listen to alot of hendrix and take note on how he fills that void where the other guitar would be. hendrix plays his solos behind minimalistic drum and bass, and it sounds wonderful. you will have to understand that the less instrumentation going on at a particular time, the more you 3 will have to step it up and fill that void with musicality. less musicians in a band means more weight on the shoulders of the few.

as far as writing your songs, it would benefit you to be more "riff-based". basing your chorus around a catchy guitar part can more than make up for the lack of band members. remember to think like a minimalist, because that's what you're working with. don't try to go too out of your element (and your playing ability) because you will find out the hard way that you will hate to play shows and you will hate to write songs if you are expecting to make rock operas with 3 people.

i'm assuming the bassist or you will be putting down on vocals, so your songs must be more rehearsed than you might have had to be otherwise. improvisation is fine, but don't be expecting to belt out your songs through a mic and think you can just "go by the feel" on the guitar. you have to have your syncopated rythyms down 10x better than you would have otherwise.

i know these facts are a bit scatterbrained, but hope they help!