A Question About Live Lead Guitar and Rythym Guitar?
This week’s question is as follows:
Question: most commonly rock bands have 2 guitars to play the rythym and the lead, but quite often only one guitar s is played throughout the whole song, or sometimes theres one guitar riff throughout the whole song untill it gets to the solo where it is the one part of the song with rythym and lead, when this happens live, do both guitars just play the same thing in sync?
Answer: It sounds like you’re asking about situations when there are clearly 2 parts during the solo, but only one during the rest of the song. In this case, the second guitar is either playing with a little less volume, or playing a complimentary part to the other guitar.
There are exceptions to every rule, but generally the 2 guitarists will avoid playing *exactly* the same thing in sync. Even if they’re both playing rhythm, they will probably play the same chord in different positions on the neck…..for instance, open E vs barred A shape on the 7th fret. This fills the sound out more by covering a wider range of notes.
Perhaps the rhythm player is keeping a solid rhythm on the open E chord, and the other guitar is accenting every 4th beat with a chuck-chuck on the octave. There are a lot of ways to go.
Remember too, rhythm and lead are just "parts" and are interchangeable between the players. They can trade off parts throughout the song.
Rhythm guitar plays chords. Lead guitar plays overallying riffs/solos. Although every band is different, when you think you hear one guitar rhythm, the lead guitarist often plays a minor but complimentary sequence of notes. Or sometimes the two guitarist play similar chord progressions with few but notable differences. Hope this helps.
Sometimes there is just one guitarist. They do all of it and the solo (if there is one). If there’s a guitar backtrack during the solo, sometimes it’s the same guitarist playing both (but not at the same time). If there are two, believe me, they will both normally be playing at the same time. You just don’t hear the rhythm that often, as they are playing the literal background or the background chords to the leads riff. You really have to listen or be a guitar player to hear it naturally.