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Alex and His Guitar


Lorraine
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Rhythm guitar has been mentioned. Can someone give me an example of that in a Rush song?

 

The vast majority of Alex's work in Rush is as a rhythm guitarist. That's true for a great many other bands as well. Most of the time, in popular music, the guitar is just playing rhythm parts.

What Rush song wouldn't be?

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Rhythm guitar has been mentioned. Can someone give me an example of that in a Rush song?

 

The vast majority of Alex's work in Rush is as a rhythm guitarist. That's true for a great many other bands as well. Most of the time, in popular music, the guitar is just playing rhythm parts.

 

An easier way to hear when Alex is generally playing rhythm is when Geddy is singing.

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Ooh- Red Barchetta is one that's easy to cite, off the top of my head. During the verses- all rhythm playing.

 

In the intro, Alex plays all harmonics, and Geddy is playing 'lead bass'. :LOL:

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Rhythm guitar has been mentioned. Can someone give me an example of that in a Rush song?

 

The vast majority of Alex's work in Rush is as a rhythm guitarist. That's true for a great many other bands as well. Most of the time, in popular music, the guitar is just playing rhythm parts.

 

An easier way to hear when Alex is generally playing rhythm is when Geddy is singing.

 

Yup- that's it.

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Ooh- Red Barchetta is one that's easy to cite, off the top of my head. During the verses- all rhythm playing.

 

In the intro, Alex plays all harmonics, and Geddy is playing 'lead bass'. :LOL:

 

Such simplicity, but such power. If they only they would go back to that. They did it so well.

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I forget now whether Geddy said it was Permanent Waves or Moving Pictures that was their first 4/4 album?

 

Both have songs having time sigs that aren't in 4/4.

 

I haven't sat down and counted them, but I would think most of the debut album was in 4/4.

 

That's my thinking, too.

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Ooh- Red Barchetta is one that's easy to cite, off the top of my head. During the verses- all rhythm playing.

 

In the intro, Alex plays all harmonics, and Geddy is playing 'lead bass'. :LOL:

I thought the first you hear is Alex and then Geddy, or am I wrong?

 

Sometimes I'm not sure. There is a part in In The End where it sounds like two lead guitars being played at the same time, but one of them must be Geddy doing bass.

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Rhythm guitar has been mentioned. Can someone give me an example of that in a Rush song?

 

The vast majority of Alex's work in Rush is as a rhythm guitarist. That's true for a great many other bands as well. Most of the time, in popular music, the guitar is just playing rhythm parts.

What Rush song wouldn't be?

 

Apart from maybe Hope and Broon's Bane, none of them. He spends most of his time playing rhythm, kicking into leads when appropriate.

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Rhythm guitar has been mentioned. Can someone give me an example of that in a Rush song?

 

The vast majority of Alex's work in Rush is as a rhythm guitarist. That's true for a great many other bands as well. Most of the time, in popular music, the guitar is just playing rhythm parts.

What Rush song wouldn't be?

 

Apart from maybe Hope and Broon's Bane, none of them. He spends most of his time playing rhythm, kicking into leads when appropriate.

Not even the one and only La Villa?

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Ooh- Red Barchetta is one that's easy to cite, off the top of my head. During the verses- all rhythm playing.

 

In the intro, Alex plays all harmonics, and Geddy is playing 'lead bass'. :LOL:

I thought the first you hear is Alex and then Geddy, or am I wrong?

 

Sometimes I'm not sure. There is a part in In The End where it sounds like two lead guitars being played at the same time, but one of them must be Geddy doing bass.

 

It is Alex in the first seconds of Red Barchetta- those notes are the 'harmonics' I referred to. And then you hear Geddy come in, yes.

 

I think there is an overdub or two on In the End (recording multiple tracks and mixing one on top of another).

 

Here Again is another one that definitely has two guitar parts- one electric, one acoustic- overdubbed.

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Rhythm guitar has been mentioned. Can someone give me an example of that in a Rush song?

 

The vast majority of Alex's work in Rush is as a rhythm guitarist. That's true for a great many other bands as well. Most of the time, in popular music, the guitar is just playing rhythm parts.

What Rush song wouldn't be?

 

Apart from maybe Hope and Broon's Bane, none of them. He spends most of his time playing rhythm, kicking into leads when appropriate.

Not even the one and only La Villa?

 

Lots of rhythm guitar work, plus leads, riffs, arpeggios, etc.

 

You done opened a big can of worms, missy!

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Rhythm guitar has been mentioned. Can someone give me an example of that in a Rush song?

 

The vast majority of Alex's work in Rush is as a rhythm guitarist. That's true for a great many other bands as well. Most of the time, in popular music, the guitar is just playing rhythm parts.

What Rush song wouldn't be?

 

Apart from maybe Hope and Broon's Bane, none of them. He spends most of his time playing rhythm, kicking into leads when appropriate.

Not even the one and only La Villa?

 

That has a repetitive descending lead line (higher notes to lower notes) that settles into the basic rhythm part, throughout.

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Don't forget to give an example of one so that I can listen. That's important. This way I know what you are talking about.

La Villa is a good place to illustrate some of those terms.

 

After the classical guitar into, the electric guitar comes in playing that looping, fluid pattern. Alex is holding down a single chord shape, but he's picking the individual notes found in that chord shape. An arpeggio is when you play the constituent notes of a chord rather than sounding them all at once.

 

 

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I forget now whether Geddy said it was Permanent Waves or Moving Pictures that was their first 4/4 album?

Not Moving Pictures. The intro to YYZ is definitely not 4/4.

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A lot of people here talk about "riffs". Is that something specific? Or just a fancy thing to say instead of chords?

 

There's no hard and fast definition for what a riff is...you know it when you hear it.

 

Sometimes!

 

The opening guitar pattern in Finding My Way is an example of a riff, but it's probably the case that not everyone agrees with that.

Edited by JARG
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A lot of people here talk about "riffs". Is that something specific? Or just a fancy thing to say instead of chords?

It's a definitive set of notes. Like the intro to Limelight, or the hard rock part of TSoR.

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Are there any riffs in The Weapon or Xanadu?

Absolutely. You know the guitar part that keeps repeating during "We've got nothing to fear but fear itself?" In Xanadu, there are two main riffs—the two patterns in the beginning that repeat themselves.

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Are there any riffs in The Weapon or Xanadu?

Absolutely. You know the guitar part that keeps repeating during "We've got nothing to fear but fear itself?" In Xanadu, there are two main riffs—the two patterns in the beginning that repeat themselves.

That's what I figured on Xanadu, but The Weapon I would have thought it would be at the beginning (starting at about .11) and during the phenomenal whatever its called starting at about 4:21 which goes on to explode at 4:55. :)

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Discussed the topic so many times. First the shredders whilst sounding impressive are ten a penny, I've heard kids imitating Vai, Satriani and Van Halen till the cows come home. So what makes our Alex stand out.

1. He combines rhythm and lead guitar in a very complicated and exhausting fashion, think Freewill. Only guitarist I can think of who has the same intensity is Steve Howe of Yes.

2. People question his technicality but he has total control of the guitar, the first four notes of the solo in The Trees look easy on paper but to get that bendy slide between the first two notes perfect then jump all the way up the fret board to land the next two notes takes a lot of practice, trust me. Steve Hillage springs to mind as a similar guitarist who can bend, slide, vibrato and hold notes perfectly. When I've listened to Alex recently some of his solos sound like a virtuoso violinist - Analog Kid solo.

3. Those exhausting syncopated/weird time signature riff exercises, think La Villa, Jacob's Ladder, Marathon.

4. Those beautiful arpeggios a la Steve Hackett, one in New World Man gets me every time.

Would type more but for some reason this site doesn't make using a keyboard easy. Anyone else have this problem.Taken 15 minutes to type this.

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