Orchestral Mindset

A systematic approach to layering guitar parts

- CORY WONG

WHEN I AM composing and arranging music, I like to think as an orchestrator. As the guitarist, I try to represent just about everything that's in the arrangement - the drum syncopations, horn parts, keyboards, etc. - in multiple guitar parts. I might start with a bass-like theme, along the lines of FIGURE 1.

Playing in the key of G, I begin on a low G and then playing a G one octave higher on the last 16th note of beat 1. After a 16th rest on beat 2, the high G is played again, followed by E to F in eighth notes. I've now established a "16th-note grid" that serves to represent the rhythmic syncopation of the music.

My next inclination would be to add a complimentary part above that, one that's intentionally simple and sparse. As shown in FIGURE 2, I play two-note shapes, 3rds apart, on the D and G strings, that fall on the upbeat of beat 2 into beat 3. Doing this serves to strengthen these accents in each bar, simple as it may be.