New avenues in guitar playing

[Shadoweclipse13]

Transcribing songs that aren't in the mold of guitar music really helps for me. Trying to transcribe parts of Danny Brown's Atrocity Exhibition was a trip. Obviously some songs were impossible to do, but I learned a lot through transcribing the songs I could. Speaking of Hip Hop, I learned a lot about doing more interesting things with rhythm by trying emulate the delivery of certain rappers with my guitar.

Alternatively, I play guitar to songs which don't have a guitar with the mindset of a side musician. You can't really do what you'd do when playing rock, on, say, an atonal ambient electronic sound with very upfront vocals. It helps me be more disciplined and deliberate, and also helps me mold my playing to add to the song, instead of burying it with obnoxious guitar noise.

I LOVE this. Non-standard/strange rhythms have always interested me. I always thought about trying to transcribe multiple parts from an orchestra as guitar, though not in a heavy way like the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Layering multiple guitars like an orchestra would layer multiple cellos or violins could be really cool.

You know about Rhys Chatham right? That's been done. Cool stuff. There are some real neat videos on Youtube of him with even more than this record I link below. I think one video has him conducting 1000 guitars in Paris. I got to see him do a live guitar quartet thing with Thor Harris from Swans playing percussion and it was really good.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0WaNVgJqCU

That's amazing! No, I've never heard of Rhys Chatham before now. That would've been amazing to see I bet! I can't even imagine how cool that would be live. Thanks for the recommendation!

[Jan Deal]

Just over 10 years ago I was involved in a live performance of the Rhys Chatham piece "Guitar Trio". I think there were a total of 5 guitars and a bass player droning on the low E string with accompaniment from a drummer. It was ace!

Thanks for all the ideas folks, really interesting.

[jorri]

somehow Electric Counterpoint (and all steve reich) and some Malian kora (harp) music inspired when stuck a few years back.
now am 'stuck' playing a major pentatonic polyryhythm over everything (but not stuck negatively, maybe)

is not new, but its not the genre i play what i've learned from in... so sometimes it could be wildly different.

and finding my own thing with loop pedals. maybe like as someone says -originally it was 'orchestral imitation' but now something else. I like these dissonant composers like Penderecki or even stravinsky but want to put something in a nice non dissonant song (ever hear Scott Walker - 'Raining Today')

some jazz is interesting. Was it Miles Davis band that had discovered playing fuzz solos to imitate a trumpet? But i always played jazz chords into fuzz i mean screw power chords i sneak in a maj9 and make it weird.