Always loved 3-pc bands with a guitarist, bassist, and drummer. Didn't matter what kind of music it was. Loved everything about them. I played just about anywhere I had a chance when I was a kid, some bands were big, some were small, but my favorite times have been with 3-pc bands with that lineup. I loved the challenge of making music sound full, loved the challenge of everything being exposed to where you had to be right on or it all fell to crap, and when there were holes, the music had to be interesting enough to not make you think too hard about the holes.
Makes you really examine what works best and what doesn't. And it doesn't have to be just guitar bands or rock. I've seen jazz trios with a guitarist, seen them with a horn, bass and drums, anything with sparse instrumentation during solos. Not so much keyboards because they can solo and play rhythm, too. I'd also say the same thing about duos, especially if they're percussion-free. It's an amazing education in seeing how tight you really are! And over the past couple years I've played with a couple small bands, one original instrumental rock, one bluesy folk type stuff, and now one blues and jazz, although the last two aren't always full-time 3-pc since the singer/harp/2nd guitarist isn't always up there.
For that reason, I truly believe that if you take two musicians of pretty equal talent, and one has played in 3-pc bands and smaller but the other hasn't, the one who has will be overall better.
I've known guitarists who really shine with a bigger band who can't play the opening 16th note riff for "Eye Of The Tiger" without flubbing it up. Some of them played it so badly you'd want to drop it because you knew they would never get it. A couple of them have told me, "It's the drummer's job to keep time, not mine."
Meanwhile, the ones who played in 3-pc bands could not only play that riff, but they could play the intro chords and go right back to the riff and never make you think there was a gap in the 16th notes. And when we absolutely had to play "Eye Of The Tiger" with the rough guitarists (hey, it WAS the 80's, you know?), they'd turn to me, 3-Pc Boy, and tell me to play the opening 16th notes. Not a problem, just let me bust out my trusty pick.
TL DR; Musicians get a little too reliant on everyone else sometimes, especially if they never played in small bands or don't do it as much. Bands with sparse instrumentation really force you to be right on the money because there's nowhere to hide, and musicians who do it, especially bassists who play without drummers, are much better off than those who don't.
Makes you really examine what works best and what doesn't. And it doesn't have to be just guitar bands or rock. I've seen jazz trios with a guitarist, seen them with a horn, bass and drums, anything with sparse instrumentation during solos. Not so much keyboards because they can solo and play rhythm, too. I'd also say the same thing about duos, especially if they're percussion-free. It's an amazing education in seeing how tight you really are! And over the past couple years I've played with a couple small bands, one original instrumental rock, one bluesy folk type stuff, and now one blues and jazz, although the last two aren't always full-time 3-pc since the singer/harp/2nd guitarist isn't always up there.
For that reason, I truly believe that if you take two musicians of pretty equal talent, and one has played in 3-pc bands and smaller but the other hasn't, the one who has will be overall better.
I've known guitarists who really shine with a bigger band who can't play the opening 16th note riff for "Eye Of The Tiger" without flubbing it up. Some of them played it so badly you'd want to drop it because you knew they would never get it. A couple of them have told me, "It's the drummer's job to keep time, not mine."
Meanwhile, the ones who played in 3-pc bands could not only play that riff, but they could play the intro chords and go right back to the riff and never make you think there was a gap in the 16th notes. And when we absolutely had to play "Eye Of The Tiger" with the rough guitarists (hey, it WAS the 80's, you know?), they'd turn to me, 3-Pc Boy, and tell me to play the opening 16th notes. Not a problem, just let me bust out my trusty pick.
TL DR; Musicians get a little too reliant on everyone else sometimes, especially if they never played in small bands or don't do it as much. Bands with sparse instrumentation really force you to be right on the money because there's nowhere to hide, and musicians who do it, especially bassists who play without drummers, are much better off than those who don't.
Last edited:
