[abspatz]

Hey, whats up? So a friend of mine and I have begun playing once or twice a week, strictly Dead songs. Right now we're concentrating on:

Jack A Roe
Candyman
Fire
Althea
FOTD

Here is what we're running into: On each song, it seems like one of us can nail the rhythym, but the other one is kind of lost as to what to do. We've had the 2nd person noodling around a little bit, and trying to play the chords in different positions, or playing a bass lead over everything, but it just doesn't sound as interesting as we would like. I'm looking for something along the lines of what these guys do:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g5AhtWs ... annel_page
but neither of us is quite sure of how to get there. Any advice on ways to arrange our songs? Thanks!!

-Andrew

[amyjared]

Well, two things come to mind: First, one plays rhythm and the other does the leads/fills. Take Fire. One plays that killer rhythm and the other does Jerry's lick. Second, I often play with another guitarist and one of the things that helps us is a capo. If one of you plays with a capo and plays different chord shapes, it sounds nice. Hope that is of some help.

[strumminsix]

Y'all seem to be playing the same chord, same voicing, same strumming patter.. Mix it up!
Make a rule, whoever sings plays what they want where they want the other moves around them.

I'd suggest the accompanying playing not get too busy in alot of verses but instead plays around with the triad:
- different voicing
- off time accents
- etc...

Well, two things come to mind: First, one plays rhythm and the other does the leads/fills. Take Fire. One plays that killer rhythm and the other does Jerry's lick. Second, I often play with another guitarist and one of the things that helps us is a capo. If one of you plays with a capo and plays different chord shapes, it sounds nice. Hope that is of some help.

You mean a cheater

[mutant_dan]

You might try fingerpicking while the other person is strumming...

[abica]

A buddy and I have been messing with the acoustic duo concept. Instead of typical leads, maybe try strong accented phrases based off what Gtr.2 is playing?

I've begun to learn that dynamics play a huge part in how cool an acoustic duo sounds. Simple volume/attack, vibrato, and Gtr.1 bouncing crazy stuff off the rhythm. We've had fun jamming Althea, Jack-a-Roe, and Rosalee McFall...pretty loose versions, but the other guy is waaay experienced but has never heard the Dead play 'em, and I'm a beginner with a mental DAT full of GD tunes.

We'll start with the basics, I'll play rhythm and he'll mess with cool-sounding voicings higher up the neck, then he'll bust some real solid rhythm and I'll tinker around with typical voicings, but odd rhythms and accents. Basically, we're trying to make a sonic roller-coaster. How good does it sound? Awesome, while in the moment of divine inspiration. We should probably record jams to see what really happens

Seems like it's a bit harder to make it interesting when the song falls short without vocals. Jammier stuff though, or really busy stuff...Jack-a-Roe comes to mind- great fun! I guess you've also got to take into consideration the inherent differences between acoustic and electric- sustain, etc.

Hope I gave ya some ideas- like I said, I'm just getting started.

~j

[High Peaks]

SS brought up a good point. The person singing needs to be the most comfortable, so the 2nd guitarist should work around the singer. I try to use a lot of bluegrass backing. Lots of walk ups, shadowing the melody in fingerpicking, and also using different chord formations at different points on the neck.