INTRO INSTRUMENTAL INQUISITION!
Guitar instrumentals have supplied some of music’s most evocative moments. Jason Sidwell asks top guitarists for their take on this iconic movement. This month: the renowned prog-metal virtuoso from Pittsburgh.
GT:What is it about guitar instrumentals that appeals to you?
TS: It’s the nature of being able to tell a story without the use of direct language. With instrumental music, you have to paint that picture without the use of that directness. And in a certain way, there's freedom in that.
GT: What can an instrumental provide a listener that a vocal song can't?
TS: I think that relates to my previous answer. It provides a musical immersion that is unhindered by the obtuseness of a vocal part. Although we do have devices like metaphor in language, to me at least, vocals give the listener a much more direct message. Instrumentals can be more like reading a book, where you have to fill in parts with your own imagination, whereas vocals act like a movie, where we can see and hear what the writer wants to a larger degree.
GT: Any tendencies with instrumentals that you embrace or avoid, like rhythms, harmony, playing approach, tones?
TS: Well, I love rhythms. So you’ll hear lots of manipulations of it in my music. And maybe more specifically odd time signatures and compound metres. For whatever reason, it just makes me happy. Beyond that, another major factor is intent; everything has to make sense and have its place. It's not just random riff after random riff for me. There’s an energy that moves a song forward, and intent helps to know where to push things or hold them back.
GT: Is a typical song structure of intro, verse, chorus, middle eight, etc, always relevant for writing an instrumental?
TS: Not for me, haha. I usually don't even take that into consideration, which is why you’ll probably not hear my stuff on top 40 radio anytime soon. My goal is not to follow a formula. I want to make something immersive and fun, and bring people along with me for a ride.
GT: How useful is studying a vocalist's approach for playing guitar melodies? TS: I think it’s a great idea. Particularly for phrasing. Guitarists are notorious for playing and playing and playing. If you’re a vocalist and you keep going, you die, haha! You have to breathe. So listening to a good singer can do wonders for phrasing. Beyond that, most vocalists keep it simple and find a great melody quicker than say, a guitarist. Because, again, you don’t have the option to blabber all over the place really quickly for an hour. There’s a great lesson in that too.
GT: How do you start writing one; is there a typical approach or inspiration?
TS: Not a singular approach, no.
Sometimes I have chords or a riff and I listen and try to hear what it suggests to me. I’m a guitarist first, so that’s a common way. But ther
