My (Not-So) Secret Recipe for Instrumental Parts That Always Work

I often see beginner or intermediate level players, regardless of their instrument, choosing the same techniques, voicings, and approaches to their worship sets—and most of them want to progress to another, more advanced level. 

Here's the thing: What you're currently doing is REALLY CLOSE to hitting the mark. The only thing you need to do is take what you know and refine it, adapting it to new musical situations.

Where Most People Are

I find that most beginners and intermediate players can perform basic chords/lines, keep time relatively well, and can navigate a chord chart with relative ease. The problem with that is they stay in a lane of comfort, never straying from a learned chord voicing, playing position, or basic groove. Let's look at a basic band of piano/keys, guitar, bass, and drums might typically do

• Piano/keys players: The folks tend to stay around middle C, defaulting to root-position chords in the right hand (and sometimes the left hand). They often move these shapes around, not giving much attention to how each chord leads into the next.

• Guitar players: Acoustic players almost always stick with "cowboy" chords, in open position. Electric players will also use these shapes in addition to power chords. Again, register leaps aren't always a consideration, and playing more advanced chords (like sus/add chords besides Asus, Dsus, and Cadd9) generally isn't in their vocabulary. 

• Bass players: Much like the roles mentioned above, bass players can tend to stay on the lower register of the instrument, only playing notes contained on the E and A strings. They can match grooves with a drummer's kick drum, but moving beyond the basics is usually left untouched.

• Drummers: Many drummers can play a solid backbeat groove in 4/4, 2/4, 3/4, and 6/8 time signatures. While they have solid grasp of groove, it tends to be the only thing they play. Consideration for "orchestral" parts, like cymbal swells, and re-assigning grooves to different areas of the kit are generally left out. 

  
  

Where You Can Go, Initially

The characteristics I mentioned above aren't a bad thing; in fact, they're quite good, in some respects! They demonstrate that you can retain and apply information in a fundamental way. Advanced levels are attained simply by transforming and reapplying your technique while retaining its fundamental character. Let's re-examine what each of the four players can do to take their abilities to the next tier up:

• Piano/keys players: To start, move your right and left hands away from middle C. Get used to "the spread" of covering a wider range of pitches. Just be sure to only use single notes, 5ths, or octaves in the left hand; this will eliminate any "muddiness" permeating your sound. Your right hand can play with different inversions of chords, outside of root-position voicings. 

• Guitar players: Use the shapes you know and re-apply them to the neck in new ways. For instance, you can trade out a plain-old D chord for a Dadd4—all you have to do is form a basic C-chord and move it up two frets! (Your 3rd finger should be at the 5th fret/5th string, 2nd finger on 4th fret/4th string, open 3rd string, and 1st finger on 3rd fret/2nd string. The notes are D-F#-G-D, with the option of an open E—very hip sound!) For you electric players, you can use these same shapes, but also learn how to play a power chord in a higher register; your parts will cut through more. 

• Bass players: What you already know how to do—keep doing it. You hold the band together; you are the foundation of the sound. For variety and interest, add some octave variation and passing tones to get from chord to chord. 

• Drummers: Apply what you know about backbeat grooves to different areas of the kit. Go listen to orchestral recordings (or the reference track for your setlist) and see how you can mimic those parts on your kit. 

But What If I'm Already Doing All This?

Alright, this is where the REAL fun begins! In this portion, I'll mainly be addressing piano/keys and electric guitar players. For acoustic guitar, bass, and drums, keep doing what you're doing, but find ways to integrate new ideas, licks, and fills into your parts. Remember: You collectively form the foundation of the band, so straying outside of the essentials should be done modestly. 

For the rest of you, a major step up in your playing lies in the notes you use to connect chords together. When I'm encountering a new song, I default to using a common tone approach. There are almost always shared tones between chords, and you can make minor adjustments to your shapes to accommodate needed changes. 

Let’s look at this progression: C - G - Am - F

Instead of arpeggiating through the usual chord shapes, I usually opt for a drone-style part that gives new color to the sound of each chord. Over the above progression, I’ll just play C and G pitches, sometimes switching to a D. Why does this work? It’s because those pitches are found within each of the chords I listed above. 

• Over C: C is the root, G is the 5th.

• Over G: C is a suspended 4th (you can opt for a D here in case the melody of the song highlights a G instead of a Gsus4), G is the root.

• Over Am: C is the 3rd, G is the 7th.

• Over F: C is the 5th, G is the add9 (ooh, tasty!)

Just with those three pitches, I can alternate their placements within octaves, apply different rhythmic motives, and on guitar, use different articulations (i.e., palm muting). The basic information is simple, and I can manipulate it accordingly, using my “ear.” If I want to incorporate other pitches, it’s fairly simple to adjust. 

The cool thing is that this doesn't require learning a new chord vocabulary or super-advanced theory; you can simply move shapes you already know around your instrument. In the above example, guitarists can use a power chord grip further up the register, and piano/keys players can experiment with octave placement of the pitches on the keyboard. 

Other approaches to elevate your parts can be to double the melody in various sections, or double an existing vocal harmony. I would do this sparsely, as doubling vocal parts can be a bit overkill if done too much. 

TL;DR

To recap, you can elevate your playing by applying the fundamentals in new ways. It'll require learning a new way of using what you already know, transforming your perception of how the parts fit together. Just remember there isn’t one “set” way to do things, but this works for me–especially when I’m encountering a song for the first time without the opportunity to listen to it beforehand but I have to do more than just “play chords.”

Be blessed 👊✌️