Lorraine Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 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? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EagleMoon Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 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. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue J Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 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'. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue J Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EagleMoon Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 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'. Such simplicity, but such power. If they only they would go back to that. They did it so well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JARG Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorraine Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 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'. 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JARG Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 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. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorraine Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 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? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue J Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 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'. 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JARG Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 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! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue J Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorraine Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 A lot of people here talk about "riffs". Is that something specific? Or just a fancy thing to say instead of chords? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorraine Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JARG Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 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. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disk98 Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JARG Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 (edited) 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 January 7, 2015 by JARG 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disk98 Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 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. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorraine Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 Is it true that he never had a guitar lesson and anything he knows he learned on his own? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorraine Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 Are there any riffs in The Weapon or Xanadu? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disk98 Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorraine Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 Alex, if you're lurking about, feel free to join in here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorraine Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 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. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tas7 Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 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. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorraine Posted January 7, 2015 Author Share Posted January 7, 2015 What's an arpeggio? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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