INSTRUMENTAL inquisition!
Instrumentals have supplied some of music’s most evocative moments. We asked some top guitarists for their take on this iconic movement. This month: one-time Joe Satriani student, ex T-Ride guitarist and now solo artist,
GT: What is so appealing to you about instrumentals?
Geoff: I was always fascinated with the raw power and energy of an electric guitar, pumped up loud through a tube amp, in that it’s so primal and emotional. It’s a perfect instrument to be featured as a melodic and rhythmic centre of a well composed and produced song. But to be honest, I don’t especially care for most guitar instrumental music. There are some amazing players in the world today, but the flashy, technique-first style of many of them I find tedious, like watching someone do the same card trick again and again. I prefer a great player, combined with composition-first types of albums like Jeff Beck, Satriani, Steve Morse, Django Reinhardt, or the old albums from Bill Bruford featuring Allan Holdsworth. Give me a great song first, and then let the guitar shine on top of it.
GT: What can an instrumental provide that a vocal song can’t?
Geoff: Just try to sweep-pick with your voice! Ha-ha. Different styles and different instruments can achieve vast, emotionally expressive music. But like ballet and kickboxing, both have a specific purpose and probably don’t need to be compared. With guitar it’s not just about the notes being played, but it’s also the infinite tones, the rhythmic and dynamic capabilities, and the fact that not everyone can do it. Like watching a master at kung fu, the master guitarist can be awe-inspiring just because it’s hard to do it well.
GT: Any tendencies that you aim to embrace or avoid?
Geoff: I don’t really think about it. I find that the process of writing songs, whether it’s instrumental or vocal, is more a stream-ofconsciousness kind of thing. I like to stay in the moment. It always starts with an improvisation, and then I build on it without any firm
direction, letting the song guide me around like it’s coaxing me to reveal it. I don’t usually even remember how I did things when I listen back the next morning and I’m often surprised that I don’t suck. With this attitude, I feel like a song could come from anywhere. Give me a broken ukulele and a bottle of cough syrup and there will be a song in there somehow.
GT: Is a standard song structure always relevant for instrumentals?
Geoff: With instrumental music, anything goes. It’s typically not restrained by pop arrangement mentalities because it doesn’t matter if it is ‘radio friendly’. If a song can keep your attention, and make you want to listen again and again, who cares that it’s 17 minutes of the same two chords? So making instrumental music can be very liberating. I never found myself editing down an instrumental song time so that it would be ‘normal’, and never changed a song because I thought it might not be ‘what people want to hear’, like I often do when making vocal music. There is no shortage of great pop music to listen to if that’s your inclination, so why go in that direction?
GT: How useful is studying a vocalist’s approach for melodies?
Geoff: I have been writing vocal music for most of my career so when I started this instrumental album, I initially approached it in the same way. I wrote 14 songs, tracked drums, then went to record my guitar melody parts. It was horrible. I had to throw away all 14 songs and start again. The vocal centered technique didn’t work at all and I had to write the whole album from a completely different mentality. So, although I think it’s great to study the works of great singers, I prefer to leave those lessons as subliminal.
GT: How do you start writing one; is there a typical approach?
Geoff: I don’t know! It’s a mystery to me. I always record and keep everything. So, my typical starting point is, guitar in tune, amp sounding good, levels set properly into ProTools, then I just hit record and go. I just jam until I have something that strikes me, and then I continue until it is a coherent idea. Then I add some production adornments, bass, keys, and whatever, until I can imagine what the final song might be. If it’s good, then I will shift gears and approach it like a producer and make it sound juicy. With this system I know within one hour whether it’s worth pursuing, and I don’t have any emotional connection if I need to dump it. I’d say 60% of the songs on this album have first take, original improv parts left in the final mix.
GT: What do you aim for when your performance is centre stage for the entire instrumental?
Geoff: The performance has to complement the other instruments and production, never letting the listener get distracted by anything external. Let’s take them on a little adventure, and make sure there are plenty of memorable moments along the way. I use a variety of tones, chord changes, dynamic changes, even silence when needed. Contrast is a powerful tool.
GT: Many vocal songs feature a guitar solo that starts low and slow then finishes high and fast. Is this useful for developing pace and dynamics within a piece?
Geoff: I guess anything could work if it’s good. I find that starting from a system or preconception can really limit the way forward. The more I want it to be something, the more it sounds contrived and forced and boring. I find it’s best to just let go and trust my unconscious skills rather than my terrible organisational abilities. It’s funny for me to find that my best skills frequently are out of my conscious control. I love electronic vibes from bands like Massive Attack or DeadMau5 because they explore dynamic changes in ways that aren’t necessarily typical, but they take the listener on a journey and you’re happy to be on that ride with them. I rarely feel that their music is formulaic or contrived.
GT: What type of guitar tone do you prefer for instrumentals?
Geoff: Starting with the tone determines the part I will choose to play and nature of the composition. If it’s an aggressive tone, the song generally goes in that aggressive direction. A sweeter tone will inspire a different style of playing which then dictates the nature of the instruments around it. I don’t try to force any tone or feeling in where it doesn’t belong. It’s important for me to be free to make mistakes. I’ll follow an idea to its emotional conclusion and in the end, if I don’t like it, I don’t mind dumping it. But I never start a song with the idea that it will be a masterpiece, regardless of how cool the guitar tone is.
GT: Any favourite keys or tempos?
Geoff: This depends on context. For a live jam, faster tempos and Minor keys are fun, easy, and energetic. But if I’m strumming acoustic guitar, nobody wants to hear my arpeggio skills. Gotta play some groovy vibes, connect with that instrument, and be in the moment.
I NEVER FOUND MYSELF EDITING DOWN AN INSTRUMENTAL SONG TIME SO THAT IT WOULD BE ‘NORMAL’
GT: Do you find Minor or Major keys easier to write in?
Geoff: I don’t usually know what key my songs are in until after they are mostly done. I just don’t think about it. The feeling determines the key and chord changes. Once the basic idea of the song is done, I’ll analyse it, so I know what chords to play on the synthesiser, or maybe to tell the band. Otherwise, I don’t really care.
GT: Any favourite modes?
Geoff: I like anything that twists your expectations a bit. Lately I’ve been digging on Melodic Minor
vibes, Lydian Dominant, or anything Eastern. But it depends on context. When I was a kid and Satriani first showed me Harmonic Minor, aside from the typical applications we would try to jam stereotypical blues licks in that key, to see how mixing unrelated scales and styles might inspire or horrify. I love that approach and apply it to my songwriting, and production style as well. What should I play over this heavy metal riff? My first inclination is to do something obtuse. Let’s see how some Jimmy Nolen styles in Phrygian Dominant can shake things up!
GT: What about modulations into new keys?
Geoff: Always! I love how unexpected chord changes keep the vibe fresh and the listener attentive. Try a change like C Minor to B Lydian and see what melodies it evokes. And then check out Oren Lavie, Did You Really Say No. Another example of a beautiful melody floating effortlessly over some gorgeous chord changes.
GT: Do you view the backing band in a different way than you would on a vocal song?
Geoff: With instrumental music, I encourage the band to over-play, get a bit crazy in moments when it wouldn’t normally be appropriate, and to push the song into strange directions. This forces the other players to follow each other, be in the moment, and create something that couldn’t be pre-planned. That’s why I always want to play with musicians that are brilliant and a bit crazy. And then I leave the mistakes and produce around them in a way that implies they were intentional.
GT: What are your views on harmonising melodies?
Geoff: Some players can get away with it and others not. Brian May and his layered guitar harmonies are beautiful and iconic. But when Iron Maiden did it, it never had that same feeling for me. That’s one thing where I think vocal music has a distinct advantage.
GT: What three guitar instrumentals have inspired you?
Geoff: Only three? Ha-ha!
Bill Bruford, Fainting In Coils.
This is such an incredible, weird, and beautiful composition, with odd time signatures, great melodies and dynamics, and it features the most tasteful solos from Allan Holdsworth, Jeff Berlin, and Dave Stewart. It takes you on an emotional journey, similar to how Pink Floyd does it, and it features such astounding musicianship without assaulting your senses.
Pat Metheny, Story From A Stranger. This is the most gorgeous solo I have ever heard. It’s performed on a guitar synthesiser, with a mellow, muted analog sound that improvises around a chord progression that leaves you breathless with every repetition. His presentation is so effortless, so intense, and so beautiful, that it feels like falling in love again every time I hear it.
Jeff Beck, everything he has ever done. Ha-ha. I guess I should narrow it down. All the classic tunes that we know like Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers and People Get Ready are so beautiful and melodic, that it’s almost easy to forget what a mastery he commands of his instrument. He makes it so natural and effortless. I also love his more modern releases. The song Earthquake has an almost Trent Reznor kind of feeling to it, super groovy, amazing tones, and you can bang your head to it until cervical radiculopathy cripples you. With Jeff Beck, it’s always the tune first, and every brilliant moment of guitar wizardry that he adds on top of it is fantastic.
Joe Satriani, Not Of This Earth, The Extremist, and Surfing With The Alien. These albums have so many great songs, such brilliant use of tones, such amazing arrangements, and they have defined the instrumental rock genre for decades, so really couldn’t go by without mentioning them.
And finally there’s Eddie Van Halen, Eruption! What can I even say about it? That one minute and forty-three seconds changed the world foreverQ
EDDIE VAN HALEN, ERUPTION! THAT ONE MINUTE AND FORTY-THREE SECONDS CHANGED THE WORLD FOREVER