Writing A Treaty For Old Arch Enemies - Guitar & Piano
GUITAR MASTERCLASSES with Richie Robinson
Why write a treaty?
One of the most persistent musical “bug-bears” that I have come across is finding a resolution for jazz guitar and piano. The issue is about sharing space and responsibility regarding harmony and rhythm in small and large ensembles.
In this masterclass we will take an overview of some methods we can put to use to make the most of piano-guitar comping situations. Perhaps the most important tasks to undertake in preparation for the ideas and methods outlined below is to go through a process of self-realisation by both guitar and piano players.
Preparing to replace the problem with resolution and growth.
It is far easier to comp together than many guitarist and pianist realise, and yet, the battle rages on. It’s a rhythmic argument, it’s a clashing of harmony, it’s a strain to have adequate room for either instrument to express their ideas, and it often turns into a scuffle for supremacy that leaves ensemble members, audiences and the combatants themselves somewhat ruffled in its wake.
The First Step
The first step in the process of self-realisation to “write a treaty” is to let go of expectations. After all, jazz and other styles of improvisational music are give us situations that work in-the-moment. Often musicians may come into a performance thinking “I will play it this way or that”. Their approach is pre-determined. It is a thought that needs to be replaced with “how can I be most empathetic to what the other musicians are trying to express, and how can I be most open to positive musical interaction”?
The Second Step
This of course requires that the second step be in place. That is, let go of insecurity and arrogance. Jazz musicians can be prone to air of superiority that comes from formal music education. Sometimes this air of superiority can also be a result of a need to remain true to a particular sub-genre of jazz.
They may be quite defensive in fear that what they perceive as their shortcomings may become evident, as musicians very often attach their self-worth to their performance. This of course fuels a fear of any musical environment or situation that may be unpredictable or "uncharted" (pardon the pun) in case it may expose a lack of mastery.
The Third Step
The third required step in preparation is that the piano and guitar in particular let go of ego and allow themselves to listen to and enjoy each other’s sounds and ideas. Ego often rears its ugly head alongside a social politics situation. This must all be put aside. Any perception of hierarchy needs to be forgotten for this to work.
The players’ minds need to be free to work together. This is to aid in opening the door to an emotional connection with each other while in the process of working in the moment as a team and maximising creativity within pre-defined and pre-discussed musical templates and environments.
To achieve the best results all the instruments including vocals in the ensemble need to be aware of this preparation, and the methods that are written below in this masterclass.
The ability of horn players and drummers to play at volumes that allow dynamic room for other instruments is an essential ingredient in unifying the ensemble. Though the ability to play with feeling at all volumes is often only asked of advanced musicians, it is fundamentally required to be able to listen to others in order to play as a team.
A finishing touch
As a finishing touch, all instruments, and in particular, singers must take the time before getting into an ensemble situation to have a melodic, harmonic, and improvisational grip on the songs in their head. There is little that is more frustrating for harmonic instrumentalists than having to abandon rhythmic and harmonic growth and enjoyment in order to take on the responsibility for somebody else’s lack of preparation. There are plenty of tools available for this, such as the iReal book, Band in a Box, and using a piano to explore the harmony.
An overview to methods for resolution & growth.
One of the difficulties for many of us to come upon answers for the age old problem of piano-guitar combos is because there has been comparatively little published about it. Subsequently, inadequate information is available in educational institutions. I personally know a pianist and a guitarist who have been the head of a university music department for over 20 years, and to my knowledge have not published any text on the matter.
Industry expertise in this area is often ensemble specific, and is usually learned over many years by working alongside professional musicians that already have the skill developed.
I consider myself lucky that I have been able to spend thousands of hours interacting in piano-guitar combinations in various bands and ensembles. I have also arranged hundreds of songs for guitar-piano combos in bands and ensembles, and have had the good fortune to be able to analyse a lot of this interaction as close-up as is possible over a twenty year period with modern computer recording technology.
The thousands of hours I have put into this study and analysis as part of production and arranging have yielded a good number of tremendously valuable insights, and hence I heartily recommend that regular on-going recording and analysis on any level is part of the growth cycle for all interactive piano-guitar combos.
The following passages provide a list of some of the methods piano-guitar combos can utilise for resolving interaction issues. Although I have not included insights to all the tools I have developed over the years, there is plenty of food for thought here.
Some of these tools will work with only a small amount of knowledge and preparation, for studio, live, and study purposes. Some need a good deal of cooperation and background work between pianist and guitarist. Once mastered however, these are tools that do not require constant ensemble rehearsal to produce some outstanding “instant arrangements”.
All that is required is an understanding of what each other knows, and agreements to share a given tool or set of tools at a given time.
Here we go;
As stated above and always worth stating again – Listen!! Listening is the number one ingredient to making an ensemble gel. Of course one needs to work on their interactive skills too!
Understand that all instruments in an ensemble are for “comping” and arrange as such.
Set rhythmic templates (modified rhythm charts) written around the melody. Rhythmic templates allow any member of the ensemble to join in at any time and sit “inside” the existing comping. These can be set up ranging from strict (so an actual comping rhythm is set throughout), to very loose and spacious (so each player has some interpretive rhythmic room as well as “punctuating” together).
Determine a separation of essential notes and extensions. For example the piano may play 3rds and 7ths while the guitar plays 11ths, 9ths, and 13ths. Alterations on the 5th could be used by the pianist as aural “signposts” or to create extra half-tone movements and tensions.
Utilise the Freddie Green / Count Basie style. Not as easy as it looks; “play Freddie Green” is perhaps the single most misquoted statement by “experts” in educational institutions and jazz ensembles today. The Freddie Green style is essentially a dance style, and is an entire study on its own. It is best done with a barely-audible-but-“felt” acoustic guitar adding a vertical element to the double bass interacting with simple piano parts.
An interesting point of note here regarding listening skill is that Freddie Green sat in the centre of a Count Basie's big band with an almost inaudible un-amplified acoustic guitar, and the entire band listened well enough for him to be the central driving force for each and every musician!!
Here are some supporting quotes - Count Basie himself described Freddie Green as “A guy you hear, yet don't hear, but always know whether he is there or not". Louis Bellson said “He was just loud enough so you could feel it”, Bob Blumenthal states “strumming his un-amplified guitar in sync with the beat as the band roared around him” Bassist George Duviver states that “Freddie Green does it without getting in the way. He's supporting, not drowning out, the others. You can always hear the bass and drums when he plays."I will elaborate on this in another masterclass and in lessons.
Harmonising the bass line. This is a fun technique that can be described as an "evolution of the Freddie Green style" and it can be put to good effect with an acoustic guitar playing over an electric bass or even on an electric guitar. The simplicity in this guitar and bass combo provides timbral differences that give a great degree of harmonic and rhythmic space in which the piano can move.
Counter melodies either behind the soloist, or as a “top or internal line” to the comping instrument. There are a myriad of ways to fit in here and these will be discussed in detail in lessons.
Play the smallest voicings required. This can be utilised on its own or in combination with most the methods outlined here.
Play “leapfrog” through passages where each instrument plays alternately in every second bar, and the extra excitement of the “game” comes from actually using two brains to form each chord sequence. It is much like the word game where each player in turn says a new word to build on the previous player’s word with the aim of building a sensible story. This could also be used in combination with ideas from the riffing method mentioned here.
Utilise time windows. This is a holistic concept in itself, and needs its own masterclass and a full study in lesson time. The basic idea is that the piano and guitar play phrases that are in different multiples of two than each other and the other instruments in the arrangement, and goes so far as to utilise song forms in different time windows.
“Lay out” for sections – This is the most simple and basic of all solutions and can create dynamic effects as well as act as an instant fix onstage when there is no time to prepare. It is far from a first choice for passionate musicians wanting to “sink their teeth” into nice juicy arrangements or interactions, or for ensembles that have rehearsal time available. Along with being quick and easy though, it can second as a quick fix for musicians who have little professional interactive guidance in this regard. Simple as this technique may be, it can't be just thrown in willy-nilly, and it may be best to discuss it off-stage before a performance.
I have seen first-hand the worst case scenario where an ensemble piano player was a poor listener, and without warning changed to this method mid-song after establishing a very busy comping version of "Count Basie" over a "Freddie Green" style guitar. He simply ceased playing! He then turned away from the piano on his stool expecting the rhythm section to change style with him! - needless to say, it left the band in what felt like a harmonic vacuum!
Overall it is a technique best not overused, as it can become too predictable for the band and the audience, and stunt the musical growth of the ensemble.
Appoint a leader. You could do this permanently, or on a weekly or monthly basis, or on a song to song basis. They can then direct those interactions as well as things like “trade fours”, “break-downs”, intros, outros, and endings.
Riffing and riff-leading. To do this, for example a nod would be given to a player. That player would then play a riff. That riff would form the basis of an “instant arrangement”, or as its likeness was known in the old days, a “head arrangement”. The players involved would utilise the elements of the riff – its harmony, its rhythm, and it’s placing against the melody, its sub phrases, it’s pre or post phrasing, and its space.
A crash course in riffing and a good dose of practice is required to come up with riffs that work well for a variety of progressions and styles, and another body of study needs to be put into working with the elements of riffs, and how they can be thrown out to or received by ensemble members as interactive cues. The nitty gritty how-to’s are discussed in lesson time.
Students, teachers and performers with the time and imagination however, will find that listening to the classic big bands such as Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, and Duke Ellington, and imagining how to re-voice those ideas onto piano-guitar ensemble situations will likely gain a good grip on the idea.
Summary
In order to make these interactive skills most effective, we need to focus on feel and groove and make academic thinking secondary. I have seen many guitarists and pianists play individually in a very neat and tidy manner, and they spell out the chords so examiners can see they are "correct", and so singers that have problems holding a melody or a harmony in their head have something to fall back on.
However when it comes to creating magic with interaction, it is the feel and groove players that make it happen, and most often those caught up in academic thinking are simply in the wrong head space.
The elements of feel and groove are not part of this particular masterclass. However, employing the simplest of ideas such as working to pivot points for aural interaction will help keep a focus on feel, and this is far more important than ensuring that the chords and melody are played as written.
Essentially, feel and groove are really the most fundamental requirements in making all the preparation and methodology discussed in this masterclass come to life. All the fancy scales, chords, lines and written charts in the world will never equal musicians that understand how to work together and really gel. The piano-guitar combination of course needs to approach this as a team.
Sometimes there will be situations where musicians can’t communicate before a performance. If either piano or guitar tends to dominate then space has to be allowed accordingly, and discussed later if necessary.
I leave now with hints to another batch of interactive tools I have used and developed (see below). Please feel free to discuss these with me in lesson times.
All the best with your musical development!
- Richie Robinson -
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