INSTRUMENTAL INQUISITION !

Guitar instrumentals have supplied some of music’s most evocative moments. Jason Sidwell asks some top guitarists for their take on this iconic movement. This month: Night Ranger’s outstanding guitarist, Brad Gillis.

- Brad Gillis

GT: What is it about guitar instrumentals that particularly appeals to you?

BG: I love hearing catchy melodies during guitar instrumentals. If a guitar can bring out the sound of emotion with volume and tone changes, the guitar can speak through the player’s hands. No two players are alike.

GT: What can an instrumental provide a listener that a vocal song can't?

BG: This gives the listener a chance to drift with a player’s notes and feel. Whereas vocal lyrics tell their own story, guitar melodies are open to interpretation. A bluesy slow tasty solo has more impact than fast riffage and tells its own story, and usually, you walk away humming that melody.

GT: Any tendencies with instrumentals that you aim to embrace or avoid?

BG: Overplaying and adding too many parts can be an easy mistake. Heavily distorting rhythm tones can muffle up your song too. I like to take my rhythm parts and double them then pan left and right. Maybe changing to a clean tone and a different guitar for a background part or bridge section works well too. I personally work with a singing sustaining guitar tone for soloing but there are a few ballad songs on the new Night Ranger record. I used my 1957 Stratocaster through different old Fender Blackface amps and worked my volume control for different guitar shades.

GT: Is a typical song structure intro, verse, chorus, middle, etc, always relevant for the dynamics of an instrumental?