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General => Musicians => Topic started by: 2Timer on April 19, 2012, 03:50:46 PM
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After taking a 10 year break from playing in rock bands, I went back to it, and the inevitable is happening already; lots of songs with no keyboard in them.
I consider myself a good player, but I'm not very creative as to what I can throw in to enhance the sound of certain songs, or at the very least, not make it sound like shit. Here are the songs I need some advice on what to do:
1. I Wanna Be Sedated
2. Slow Ride - Foghat
3.Your Mam Don't Dance - Poison
4. Cocaine - Clapton
5. Rockin in the Free World
6. What I Like About You
7. La Grange - ZZ Top
8. Ballroom Blitz
9. Are You Gonna Be My Girl
10. Cold Hearted Bitch
For #9, I'm thinking about brass, and probably some sort of strings and B3 for the rest of them, but I'd love to hear some input. Thanks, guys.
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Organ is a good go-to patch for rock songs without keys. Some sort of string patch would be good for no. 5, and I could see brass on no. 8 as well as no. 9, but the rest probably want an organ (and Cocaine already has an organ part anyway, if my memory suits me).
If the bands you're playing with only have one guitarist, you may also benefit from having a lead handy.
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One thing you can do is supplement any vocals with necessary harmonies that other band members might not be able to pull off.
Also, the distorted organ sound (Highway Star) always seems like a good go-to idea for stuff like this.
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Organ is a good go-to patch for rock songs without keys.
Yep, first thing I was gonna say as well. A nice dirty organ sound adds some balls the same way a second guitar would, but with a little different edge. In fact, I sometimes start by thinking in terms of what a rhythm guitar would be doing, playing chords percussively and adding both rhythm and chords. But also mix it up a bit and take advantage of the fact that it's keys and not just guitar. Switch to long, sustained notes, just fourths and fifths, or even just a single note, for the chorus or under the guitar solo. Stuff like that. Sustained notes can add a lot of tension. Try not to overthink it, though; it's more about feel.
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Listen to some Deep Purple. That will give you inspiration.
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One thing you can do is supplement any vocals with necessary harmonies that other band members might not be able to pull off.
Also, the distorted organ sound (Highway Star) always seems like a good go-to idea for stuff like this.
Hmmm...supplement high harmonies on the keyboard. I never would have thought of that. I'll have to try it.
By the way, it was cool bullshitting on the phone a few weeks ago. We should keep in touch more. And I still have your QR dvd.
Thanks, guys, for the input. I'll probably make a general brass, organ and string patch and try them all at practice.
And Orbert, good call. I do tend to overthink things like this. I guess as long as the soundguy knows not to let the keys cut through as much on songs like these, nothing I do should sound too bad.
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As said, organs, strings, brasses and even pads are your friends.
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Yep, those 4 have been working well for me in this band. Thanks, guys.
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:tup
Best part is, they probably think you're awesome. Any time I sit in with a band and just add some supporting pads or strings or whatever, they're always amazed and telling me everything sounds so much better and fuller and all that. Hey, I'm just playing some chords, trying to add something to the sound, pretty much what I'm supposed to do. I'm glad they like it, but they really need to calm down a bit.
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Yeah, they love me! Probably mostly for my sounds, but I do get to pull lots of leads. We're doing Runaway by Bon Jovi and I have a patch that sounds just like the original. You should see the drummer's eyes light up. My wife says he just watches me and smiles when we gig. Pretty cool feeling.
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Ha ha, I rarely listen to the radio, but for some reason I had it on tonight, and Runaway by Bon Jovi came on.
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Like.