For this module, I will be doing a recorded performance as an ensemble and as a solo artist to present my technical ability on the electric guitar. I will be performing a variety of genres during these performances to show my knowledge of performing all styles of music.
Due to current Covid-19 restrictions, our performances were unable to have a live audience. Therefore we decided to record the whole performance and stream it live on YouTube for people to view online.
Set List Breakdown and Research:
Our set list consisted of the following songs:
- Smooth – Santana
- Colours – Black Pumas
- Stronger Than Me – Amy Winehouse
- Borders – Tawiah
- Lovely Day – Bill withers
- She Said – Plan B
- Animal Spirits – Wulfpeck
- Soup for One/Lady – Chic/Modio (Medley)
- Rosanna – Toto
Below, I have done some research into some of the more guitar focused songs in order to understand how to perform them to a high standard.
Smooth:
Smooth, by Carlos Santana, is a fusion of rock guitar and Latin music, making for a unique and interesting style of playing. This piece has both acoustic guitar for the rhythm, and a distorted electric guitar for the lead – which I would be learning and performing. The lead guitar in this piece consists of fast runs and licks with complex timing that compliment the transition between rhythmic sections. This style of playing is a staple of Santana’s sound and would be challenging to recreate in my own performance. Santana uses playing techniques such as tremolo picking, long sustained notes, and pitch bends in his parts to build up their complexity. This combined with his strong use of the Dorian mode and harmonic minor scale give this piece its iconic sound.
Rosanna:
Rosanna by Toto is another complex piece we would be performing, with some tricky guitar riffs. Steve Lukather is the guitarist for Toto, and is extremely proficient in his performing. He makes use of chromatic notes often, and bluesy multi string bends in his solos giving his sound a complex but bluesy sound. He also incorporates very fast runs of three or four notes on one string when increasing the pace. Additionally he uses occasional sweep picking and arpeggios towards the top of the fretboard, as seen in the video above, as well as his smooth use of alternate picking when moving around scales.
Lukather also incorporates short licks into the rhythm section every so often – in a similar manner to how Santana does – which add some more variety to the song itself as this particular piece is quite repetitive between its verse, pre-chorus and chorus sections.
Soup For One/Lady:
*Soup For One/Lady Medley starts at 13:20 in the video above*
In regards to the guitar, this piece is purely rhythm with no lead parts. Nile Rodgers is an incredibly efficient rhythm guitarist who makes full use of his chord knowledge when performing. This whole track is a medley of two songs, both with similar chords. Nile tends to favour major and minor 7th chords in his music and performs them with a kind of ‘choppy’ funk style of rhythm with plenty of ghost notes which provides a lot of energy to his music. Additionally, Nile tends to play most of his chords in a way in which his hands barely have to change position which looks impressive on stage and shows his excellent understanding of complex chord shapes. Lastly, this piece is played on a clean guitar only so I will have to get the amplifier set up and level appropriate to reflect the style properly.
Animal Spirits:
This song is also performed with a clean guitar, and has a focus on locking in tightly with the drums. The guitarist Cory Wong plays here in a very funky style with lots of stabs on the guitar. His guitar sound consists of a high level of precision, and a confident flexibility in the dynamics and phrasing. An excellent example of this is the timing of the lick he puts in the chorus. This is hard to achieve as it almost feels too late, however it locks in with the other instruments perfectly. Another notable part is a short lead lick right at the end of the breakdown which brings the band back in. This is played sharply and tightly at the top of the neck and is crucial to the sound of this section. The whole guitar part is extremely precise, played with a level of confidence due to Cory Wong’s virtuosity in regards to rhythm playing.
Rehearsal Footage:
Below are some videos of our various rehearsals through the year. These are mostly from the end of 2020 as we had to enter another lockdown around January, therefore postponing our performances.
Performance Reflections:
Ensemble Performance:
Our ensemble performance went very well. We had only few weeks to prepare for this performance as when we originally began this module at the end of 2020 we had to put it on hold as the country entered another national lockdown. Despite this we had all practiced the parts at home and remembered them well, and I believe this is apparent in the video as the band on the whole sound tight. I was playing lead guitar in this ensemble and I had a really good performance this day. I believe I have performed each song on our set list to the best of my ability at the time and captured the tone of each song to a high standard; Smooth by Santana in particular is one I was pleased with my guitar tone and playing on. The drums, bass, and guitar lock together really well in this tune which is crucial to get it to sound right – especially considering our rhythm guitarist has chosen not to attend without any notice, leaving the rest of the band to fill out the sound.
Another song I feel we performed well was Rosanna by Toto. The drum beat to this song is quite complex compared to the rest of our set, and our drummer performed it excellently. There is also heavy use of both clean and distortion guitar channels on this song, and I managed to get a good balance between both using a guitar pedal. Additionally I managed to get the timing to the fast part of the middle guitar solo accurate to the original which had proven to be difficult in rehearsals.
Lastly I also realise that this performance would ordinarily be performed to an audience, and stage presence is important. While playing I tried to make sure that I wasn’t completely static. I really enjoyed performing this set and I think this shows in the recording as I can be see moving around a bit and moving with the guitar riffs. I do feel as though I could’ve done better on this front though, although it was quite awkward with there being no audience.
To improve on this performance I feel as though the band on a whole could have done more to look more involved with the music and having a bigger, more energetic presence. Additionally, we would’ve also benefitted from more rehearsal time together prior to the performance as we could then have really worked out any obvious imperfections in our playing. Another thing we need to work on is communication on stage. While we had all of the songs work out well, we would’ve really benefited from giving each other more apparent visual queues between sections. Finally I also believe we could have benefitted from more animated stage lights rather than the static ones we had available at the time. This would’ve further added to the band’s presence and given a really professional atmosphere to the recording.
On the whole, this was a successful performance and I was really happy with my parts and I think I showed a high level of competence when performing various styles of music on the guitar. The balance between each instrument was really well done, and everyone played really well together.
Solo Performance:
For our solo performances we performed to each other with a similar set up to our ensemble gig. I began my performance with the two mellow songs Lenny by Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Jessica by The Allman Brothers, respectively.
I performed Lenny as my first piece, and this I feel went fairly well. I had much less time to prepare this song and Jessica, as I had a huge amount of work that had been thrown off schedule due to the national lockdown. Lenny consists of some more complex chords than my other songs and had a really bluesy feel once the piece gets going. I feel as though I played the rhythm sections and the head of the piece to a really good standard that represents the song well. The solo section was improvised, and I spent some time practicing blues licks on my guitar such as multi string bends and double stops prior to the performance. I believe I showed a good level of competence in regards to my improvisational ability and knowledge of the guitar. I would’ve liked more time to learn a few of Vaughn’s licks on the record as some are far more complex than my own and would be a good way to further my improvisational abilities.
Jessica also went well, there was one or two very minor mistakes in this piece however I carried on until the end. I really enjoyed performing this one and learning the melodies, this piece would’ve sounded even better with an another guitarist to play the harmonies to the melody. The solo in this piece is improvised as well, and I think it went well. I further showed my understanding of the guitar and genre in the scale I was using and the phrasing of my lines. Again I would’ve benefitted from more time to study this song further.
My last two songs were Miasma by Ghost, and an original piece I have been writing for my independent project, called System Pile-Up. These songs are both on distorted electric guitar and are a contrast to my first two pieces.
I wasn’t totally happy with the way either of the pieces went. I felt as though I was having a bit of an off day with my playing during the whole performance, and this is clear in these two tunes. While I know both pieces remarkably well I was still making plenty of mistakes and I don’t feel I did either track justice in this performance. I did still hold both songs together until the end, however I know I can play them to a much higher standard.
Ultimately this performance did still show my understanding of my instrument, but I don’t think it was to the higher standard I know I am capable of reaching with enough time and practice.
Bibliography:
Bell, S., 2018. Digging Deeper: Steve Lukather’s Fantastic Chromatics. [online] Premier Guitar. Available at: <https://www.premierguitar.com/lessons/digging-deeper-steve-lukathers-fantastic-chromatics>
Browne, D., 2019. Man, It’s a Hot One: The Oral History of Santana and Rob Thomas’ ‘Smooth’. [online] Rolling Stone. Available at: <https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/santana-rob-thomas-smooth-oral-history-841189/>
Clark, A., 2020. Cory Wong shows you how to sharpen up your rhythmic precision in this exclusive lesson | Guitar World. [online] Guitarworld.com. Available at: <https://www.guitarworld.com/lessons/cory-wong-shows-you-how-to-sharpen-up-your-rhythmic-precision-in-this-exclusive-lesson>
Gustafson, N., 2020. How to Get the Nile Rodgers Chic Funk Sound | Waves. [online] waves.com. Available at: <https://www.waves.com/how-to-get-nile-rodgers-chic-funk-sound>