The magic behind awesome three-piece bands. How do they do it?

[Pings Bass]

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Time: 1983. Place: Southern California.

In a three-piece, all members must be able to do a lot more than one thing. In our Trio, the Guitarist also played keyboards and did vocals, the Singer also played keyboards, and I played bass, keyboards, Moog Taurus Pedals, and did vocals. And, we loved every minute of it.

We did all-original music, and we made due with an Oberheim OB-8, DMX drum machine, a DSX digital sequencer (without which, we could not have done what we did), the aforementioned Taurus Pedals, a custom Mesa Boogie guitar combo, a Carvin Bassmaster head pushing two SVT810's, and we just went at it.

This was all before we eventually added a drummer, as booking agents did not yet understand digital drums, and they wanted a live body, behind a kit.

That picture is AWESOME.

 

[Jazz Ad]

To me the most important part of a power trio is to stop trying to fill a void.
Instead of playing more notes or differenciated parts, don't be afraid to leave room for space and silence.
Play unison if needed, rely on a full tone and complementarity between instruments rather than busy playing.

 

["Q"]

Honestly, I think it's as simple as the confidence to say "yeah we don't need another player we're more than enough" while the band is forming. So you're more likely to have more talented ppl form a three piece.

 

[obimark]

Ummmm- you are forgetting one thing- many of these 3-piece bands have somebody off to the side of the stage triggering effects and other sounds or even doing rhythm guitar. (Rush being the exception since all of them trigger patches themselves)

Even the Cult, which is essentially a power trio with a singer, had an extra guitarist on most tours..

 

[bigshiny]

I have ALWAYS preferred playing in a trio. All you need is a great guitar player and a very good drummer.

 

[filmtex]

The secret is here in plain view: you need a righty bassist and a lefty guitarist...

You got it! Very perceptive...

 

[podiumboy]

When my band was in it's infancy (we're talking about 2001-2006), we were a 4 piece, but there were only 3 musicians playing. Guitar, Bass, Drums, and then our singer. The singer could kind of strum some guitar chords, but we eventually phased that out because he wasn't very good, and it was a hinderance more than helpful. We were young in those years, and mainly just played our own original songs. We basically wrote those songs around being a 3 piece music section. The 3 of us had a rock solid foundation, and I grew as a musician in that time more than any other. Figuring out ways to fill in the sound, to compensate for only being a 3 piece, really caused me to see playing in a whole new way.

Around 2006, we started the transition to a cover band. We realized that we needed a rhythm guitarist. A good friend of ours just had his band break up, and the timing just worked, and he joined up with us. It really was necessary for us to be an effective cover band, but I always felt that something just wasn't the same after adding that RG.

 

[MustangWally]

Most of my bands have been trios, sometimes with a singer added. More room to have fun! The magic sauce? IMO it's tightness and selectivity - not too much and not too little going on.

These guys are a Houston legend: the Fondue Monks. 3 piece plus singer. Great live show.

 

[Jaygetsreal]

Thanks y'all for your replies, I am really learning from all your experiences. Strong central themes seem to be talent, communication and space. Very few posts suggest technical explanations for 'full' sound, which is significant. If I could summarise so far: High quality musicians. Keep it tight, keep it sparse, give each other space to grow. Chemistry not physics TB rocks!

 

[matthewbrown]

I've been working with a pretty successful classic rock trio for almost five years now, we get compliments on our sound just about every show. And we're not musical savants by any stretch of the imagination. However, we do choose our repertoire very carefully, mainly 50's and 60's songs, and.....we all sing. Individually we're ok, but together, we do a nice job. My band mates are friendly, entertaining guys, we get along on and off stage very well, and we mix with the audience as much as we can- COVID not withstanding. Lots of return customers and long term, consistent bookings. I know, I know. Too many informations...
Oh, and we're bilingual, pretty handy in South Texas.
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I salute your bilingual approach!

 

[Nuage420]

There is an art to playing in a three-piece band that really can't be explained until you do it. I worked with great guitar players who couldn't play in a three-piece band to save their lives. And honestly, while there are things we can do to help, it's mostly on the guitar player. If you notice, most bassists and drummers just do what they ordinarily would do. There are certain exceptions but that's usually how they do it. I used to try to work in octaves to help fill things in. But I still believe it's mostly on the guitar player.

Couldn't agree more.

 

[bbh]

I'd love to check out a trio doing Zappa covers. That's like a third the size of most of his bands!

The guitar player was friends with Frank and had transcribed some sheets for him. It was very artsy.

 

[theduke1]

I've been working with a pretty successful classic rock trio for almost five years now, we get compliments on our sound just about every show. And we're not musical savants by any stretch of the imagination. However, we do choose our repertoire very carefully, mainly 50's and 60's songs, and.....we all sing. Individually we're ok, but together, we do a nice job. My band mates are friendly, entertaining guys, we get along on and off stage very well, and we mix with the audience as much as we can- COVID not withstanding. Lots of return customers and long term, consistent bookings. I know, I know. Too many informations...
Oh, and we're bilingual, pretty handy in South Texas.
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For a moment I thought you talking about my trio The Kolache Bros here in NE Wisconsin
What he said
Duke

 

[filmtex]

If you stretch it out, bands like U2, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, and The Who are three piece in their own ways.

Like Van Halen, The

I salute your bilingual approach!

Many thanks. My Spanish is abysmal at best, but Gene and Manny are able to easily sing in both English and Spanish.

 

[hbarcat]

Thanks y'all for your replies, I am really learning from all your experiences. Strong central themes seem to be talent, communication and space. Very few posts suggest technical explanations for 'full' sound, which is significant. If I could summarise so far: High quality musicians. Keep it tight, keep it sparse, give each other space to grow. Chemistry not physics TB rocks!

I've played in several classic rock/power trios over the years and the most important ingredient to a full sound is the ability of the guitarist and bassist to competently fill the space of 3 instruments between the 2 of them. The opposite of "sparse".

In my most successful trio, our guitarist had exceptional skill at playing rhythm and doing fills at the same time, while I would almost constantly add rhythm like accents.

This takes a lot of practice and you need to be very tight as a group. It's no exaggeration to say that the guitarist and I were always tightly focused on what notes the other was playing. When it was time for a guitar solo, I would ramp up my bass playing to simulate rhythm guitar parts (lots of arpeggios).

We had about a dozen Pink Floyd songs on our playlist and frequently got compliments on how huge we sounded.

I can't emphasize enough the importance of experience, skill, and endless practice to become tight being absolutely necessary to pull this off. A guitarist and bassist trying to simultaneously play multiple parts together will just sound like random wankery (i.e. terrible) if they're relatively inexperienced or unpracticed.

 

[LBS-bass]

Thanks y'all for your replies, I am really learning from all your experiences. Strong central themes seem to be talent, communication and space. Very few posts suggest technical explanations for 'full' sound, which is significant. If I could summarise so far: High quality musicians. Keep it tight, keep it sparse, give each other space to grow. Chemistry not physics TB rocks!

I would just add that you need to know where space is a help and when it is not. You can't simply say that less is always more. Music needs to be musical.

I've played with guitarists who can play a solo that creates a sonic landscape where you don't realize there's no chording instrument behind them. And I've played with great guitarists who were single-note wizards, but when they drop out of the rhythmic mix to solo, the whole thing suffers. Perhaps it's my own shortcoming as the only other harmonic instrument in the mix at that point, but it's painful to me when those guys switch gears and the energy fails. I don't think it's an either-or where you have to continually fill every space or continually leave space. It's a matter of being tasteful and instrumentally capable of filling where you need to.

 

[mrcbass]

Very few posts suggest technical explanations for 'full' sound, which is significant.

"Full" sound compliments the "space" needs. There's not really a technical explanation for this because, as in most things in music: "it depends".

Knowing whether you need to leave space or need to add movement to your lines is totally dependent on the song and how the other musicians are approaching their parts. It's a feel thing rather than a technical thing.

Basically the "full" and "space" comments are advising that it is essential that everyone listens to each other AND the combined sound - and adjust as is required.

As a bassist, I interpret "full sound" to be a little busier in rhythmic and/or harmonic movement required to support solos. Sometimes we need to fill in for the rhythm guitar sound, but in our special way.

 

[MustangWally]

I have a sort of vague theory about 'sparse' sounding music. My theory is this: that the human brain fills in the gaps in it's own way, so the music provides a kind of framework and your brain does the rest at a subconscious level. Tracks by the Police seem to work this way along with a lot of similarly sparsely arranged tracks. YMMV.
Full disclosure: no mammals, birds or reptiles were harmed in the testing of this theory, nor was any form of scientific method even considered much less used. It is purely a pigment of my imagination (a blue pigment in case you were wondering). Dang this is good coffee!

 

[Gravedigger Dav]

In a nutshell this is your answer. You need not just be busy players but players who understand when to be busy and when to lay back. I’ve seen three piece bands with really accomplished players who each thought the whole thing was about them and it was a mishmash of competing for space, and then there are bands like Morphine. It was the first and so far only time I ever saw a triangle solo and it absolutely killed, but not just because the guy had it in him to sell it musically, but the other two members provided tasty accents throughout and it took the whole thing to a next level performance of beating in a bent steel rod while the other players knew exactly the right time to drop in a single note or a quick flourish. Not everyone can pull off a three piece, me among them. I can fake it a little but not for four bar sets.

Good info. I think Cream was great at this. IMHO, one of the all time great trios.

 

[Fab Superlative]

“Talent”

In one word- here is the answer.

Its a tricky question.....
On one hand you've got CREAM, where the great Jack Bruce was busy as hell, filling in with notes all over the place.
On the other hand youve got ZZ TOP, with Dusty Hill barely moving his left hand.
2 great trios completely different approaches...both sound great.
The answer?
I dunno.

Oh but there is an answer here "Different Approaches" + "Talent" = the three word answer, for making three piece magic happen.

Some of the greats have already been mentioned here except for a few.
I'll add another here, Emerson, Lake, & Palmer

And there have been some current examples mentioned here as well, I'll add a couple more.