I recently had an offer for a collaboration from a friend of mine for two of his songs. He wanted me to write lead guitar behind his rhythm. The cool part is he had all the lyrics written for it and knew how he wanted the structure to go. Structure to me is defined how well the song flows overall: lyrically and musically.
Instead of cool riff number 1 and cool riff #2, I like to get an idea, or an arrangement built then fillers and extras can come later. Get a "bass line", or a foundation started. Simple harmonies behind pieces of a song is only a portion of a whole.
Every musician has their process of writing and composing. One might write from start to finish, while another creates a chorus and builds around it. There are no set ways to effectively compose. No rules. Creativity for most, isn't summoned on a whim either. My creative process starts with riffs, then build into a rough arrangement, and finally fine tune/put it all together.
A lot of bands use two electric guitarists in their ensemble. Not always does one guitarist play rhythm and the other does solos: some bands contain two lead guitarists. That's where the opinion of defining what a lead guitarist does with shades of gray. It's a pretty safe bet to call the guitarist who is composing and playing the solos a lead guitarist, but what about someone who "riffs" with single notes? The role of either rhythm or lead guitarist isn't black or white.
A lot of guitarists harmonize with each other. Great bands known for this are, but not limited to: Boston, Iron Maiden, In Flames and more. Whether they're using a pentatonic, thirds, fifths, etc there's a way to harmonize. The point of thinking abstract with two electric guitarists is two rhythmical leads can work together outside of playing perfect harmonies. Even the time signatures can be different.
Another element to add to music is dubbing on a track. Within the YouTube playlist I've created for this article a song by ERRA "Lights City" contains dubbing which you'll see at the end of the song. Lots of accents like this are really awesome to add depth to a song. One great metal guitarist, Marc Okubo (Veil of Maya) is the only electric guitarist in the band, but you'll hear harmonized parts added to the recordings of his tracks. This process is called dubbing.
Another element to add to music is dubbing on a track. Within the YouTube playlist I've created for this article a song by ERRA "Lights City" contains dubbing which you'll see at the end of the song. Lots of accents like this are really awesome to add depth to a song. One great metal guitarist, Marc Okubo (Veil of Maya) is the only electric guitarist in the band, but you'll hear harmonized parts added to the recordings of his tracks. This process is called dubbing.
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