INSTRUMENTAL INQUISITION
Guitar instrumentals have supplied some of music’s most evocative moments. Jason Sidwell asks some top guitarists for their take on this iconic movement. This month: guitarist and film composer, Lyle Workman.
Brilliant guitarist and composer, Lyle Workman.
GT: What is it about guitar instrumentals that appeals to you?
LW: I was most inspired by bands that had great guitar players, though they weren’t necessarily defined as guitar instrumental music. I was drawn to groups like Mahavishnu Orchestra, Dixie Dregs, and the Dutch band, Focus – where guitar played a substantial role, but the overall content of the music, the compositional element, led the charge. I’d describe my own material in the same fashion.
GT: What can an instrumental provide that a vocal song can't?
LW: All music at its best conveys the human condition at all ends of the emotional scale whether it features vocals or not. As such I don’t feel instrumental music can provide anything a song with lyrics can’t, and vice versa. I think the instrumental vs vocal music question really just comes down to personal taste and preference: what individual people prefer to listen to.
GT: Any tendencies that you aim to embrace or avoid?
LW: I aim for solid writing; that’s my prime directive. I start with a pop approach where my desire is to come up with something catchy. I like melodies and hooks, even within 'heady' music that has sophisticated chord changes and rhythmic dexterity. Only after that is all mapped out will I determine areas for the guitar to step to the front of the stage. I like many styles and don’t confine myself by genre, so that’s expressed in my music.
GT: Is a typical song structure - verse, chorus, middle eight and so on - always relevant when composing instrumentals?
LW: There are great examples of that structure where it’s just perfect, and then others where it’s thrown out the window. But I never
consider that structure for my own instrumental material.
GT: How useful is studying a vocalist's approach when creating guitar melodies?
LW: It’s very important to internalise vocal phrasing, to see how breaks for air communicates humanity. If someone grows up listening to vocal music, they can’t help but have it influence their playing. It’s in the water. A great example is Indian music where instrumentalists phrase as singers do, with the micro bends and slides between notes; that phenomenon is echoed in other musical cultures.
GT: How do you start writing an instrumental tune; is there a typical approach?
LW: When I start writing I clear my mind and play my guitar or keyboard with no preconception of where to go. Once I have an idea I like, I develop it. It’s a brick-bybrick approach and I often end up with something that surprises me.
GT: What do you aim for when your performance is centre stage for the entirety of the number, as with an instrumental?
LW: All I set out to do is be deeply connected to what I’m playing to. There is no thought process; it is much more about the feeling to me. The head can get in the way of a good performance. I find it best to let the heart take over, as corny as that may sound. It’s something that takes years to get to – the place where you forget everything you know and let something more in tune with your true self take over.
GT: Many vocal songs feature a guitar solo that starts low and slow then finishes high and fast. Is this useful in instrumental writing, for developing pace and dynamics?
LW: A compelling solo should tell a story and particularly have a good beginning and ending. But that can be manifested in more ways than one and is not defined by definitive structures. My favourite solo of all time is George Harrison’s in Something. It’s a beautifully executed melodic statement from start to finish.
GT: What type of guitar tone do you prefer for instrumentals?
LW: I like a vocal quality to the tone, something smooth and not too raspy or spiky, with a good balance of lows to highs. If it’s a sound with gain, I like to go for the least amount of it to get the point across. Too much gain will cause a lack of dynamics which has a detrimental effect to one’s nuance of playing.
GT: Do you have favourite keys or tempos in which to play or write?
LW: I definitely do not. They are all my children.
GT: Do you find Minor or Major keys easier to write in?
LW: No. I feel after learning the basic open and Major and Minor chords, they are on even playing fields, and then it is simply up to what people like to write in. It could come down to the amount of chords they have to work with; that may be a factor.
GT: Do you have any favourite modes to write or play in?
LW: I prefer more chordal based soloing, chord tones, but if I had to pick a mode I like more than others, it would be Lydian.
GT: It's sometimes considered corny, but what about modulations into new keys?
LW: Yep, I’m a big fan!! The key is to make key modulations sound smooth, and the best way to do this is with voice leading the chords, or having melodies that bridge those changes with a common tone to the modulated chord, or hitting the closest note to the new key.
GT: What are your views on harmonising melodies, again something that divides opinion?
LW: I love it. Again, it’s just a personal taste as to where the harmonies are fitting and where they aren’t. My basic view is if it sounds good to your ear, do it! I love doing three-part, Brian May inspired harmonies when I can fit them into my music.
GT: Could you give us three or so guitar instrumentals that have inspired you, or that you feel are iconic within the oevre?
LW: From the point of view of instrumental pieces that have great guitar in them, I am inspired by: Jimi Hendrix – Power Of Love from the record Band Of Gypsys. It does have a vocal but I have to include it; when the band kicks in after the intro, Jimi steps on his wah-wah pedal and launches into the most spine-tingling, kick-ass, 'blues on steroids' solo. It raised my hairs when I was 13 years old by its God-like power and deep soul, and still has the same effect on me all these years later.
Steve Morse – Night Meets Light from the Dixie Dregs record, What If. I love how Morse plays over the chord changes in the outro solo. It is such a builder with an epic climax.
Allan Holdsworth – ProtosCosmos from the Tony Williams Lifetime record, Believe It. In the context of that time, 1975, Holdworth’s playing was something from another planet. I love everything about Allan’s totally unique playing.
Tommy Bolin – Quadrant 4 from the Billy Cobham record, Spectrum: Unreal, wicked, kick-ass rock guitar playing, incredible tone. He was clearly egged on by the musicianship of the band and the high energy of the song. Tommy played an inspired solo and courtesy of a Maestro Echoplex, created an effect that sounded like his guitar crashed into a spaceship.
“I START WITH A POP APPROACH WHERE MY DESIRE IS TO COME UP WITH SOMETHING CATCHY. I LIKE MELODIES AND HOOKS, EVEN IN 'HEADY' MUSIC”