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How to make guitar and piano work together...

Frosty_109090

Frosty_109090

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May 17, 2013
5
0
#1
I play in a church band made up of piano, guitar, bass and steel pan. Now the problem is there is a clash between the guitar and piano. It seems as if they are fighting each other while playing. It just ends up sounding like one big mess. Now in the part of the world where I live (Trinidad and Tobago that is in the Caribbean) rhythm guitar is appreciated, it gets the worship service moving. So I want the guitar to continue as it is.

Now I spoke to the pianist about this issue and it is not like he is ignoring it, it seems more like he doesn't know what to do other than stomp full fledged chords all over the place sometimes even getting in my way. I figured you people here may have an answer for me on how to fix this or what he should do etc...
 
#3
Yeah they have to leave sonic space for each other to fill. This can be accomplished via sparser voicings on both ends, or having rhythmic space between the two. Then theres simply one player sitting out, or playing fills as suggested above. They need to discuss it with each other, like players do.
 
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#4
How to make a bad piano player better? You might need to write arrangements and get your piano player to play specific parts. If a player doesn't yet have ears for arrangements, you don't want him winging it.

If you invest time in arranging keys parts for your beginner player, you'll probably find that his instincts for ensemble playing will get more tasteful.
 
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#6
EastCoastThump said:
How to make a bad piano player better? You might need to write arrangements and get your piano player to play specific parts. If a player doesn't yet have ears for arrangements, you don't want him winging it.

If you invest time in arranging keys parts for your beginner player, you'll probably find that his instincts for ensemble playing will get more tasteful.
Click to expand...

This seems like a solution. Hopefully after a while he will find his own
 
#8
never forget that Piano is a percussion instrument ..!! I play keys ( firstly starting at age 6 in 1963 ) then adding trumpet at 8 , guitar/bass in my early teens ... still going at it at 56 ... we have 2 hands ... maybe your pianist can play a little more with the drums/bass/gtr ... left hand - bass drum , right hand -snare ..??
since I play bass/gtr ... I try to voice my keyboard chords to compliment the other players ... unless there are very specific keyboard parts that need to be played as written ... if you record yourselves ,... then when you listen back , you can try to point out what you're talking about ..!?!?! hopefully that can be heard and comprehended .... if the pianist can't hear what's going on ... you then have a hearing/listening issue ..!!
that would require some ear training ..!!
 
#9
Many piano players don't know how to play with a band. They are trained to play the whole song. As you add other musicians, each person needs to play less & less to leave room for others. Piano player needs to be content to play simpler chords and play less with the left hand.

One PA trick is to use EQ to help separate them. If you have bass & keyboard stepping on each other, dial some low midrange tones out of the keyboard and dial the same frequencies into the bass. Cut keys by about 3 dB in the range 100 to 400 Hz and boost bass gtr by about 3 dB in the same frequency range. This gives a 6 dB difference between the two instruments and helps them co-exist.
 
#10
darwin-bass said:
Many piano players don't know how to play with a band. They are trained to play the whole song. As you add other musicians, each person needs to play less & less to leave room for others. Piano player needs to be content to play simpler chords and play less with the left hand.

One PA trick is to use EQ to help separate them. If you have bass & keyboard stepping on each other, dial some low midrange tones out of the keyboard and dial the same frequencies into the bass. Cut keys by about 3 dB in the range 100 to 400 Hz and boost bass gtr by about 3 dB in the same frequency range. This gives a 6 dB difference between the two instruments and helps them co-exist.
Click to expand...
I will give this a try
 
#11
Classically trained pianists do this a lot. EQing works, but it's better to talk them into leaving some space. Maybe someone can write specific arrangements out for the pianist with more Caribbean rhythms.
 

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