What if…rock guitars were replaced?

mrfingers

Senior Member
What if you could cover famous, heavy rock guitars with horns and pianos/organs? And I don’t mean “elevator” pop music. Would it be better or impossible, would it be labeled jazz😁?
 
Well, Jon Lord was as big a part of the sound of Deep Purple as Ritchie Blackmore was, and Keith Emerson was known as “the Jimi Hendrix of the Hammond organ” fir a while, so I would say it was possible. Although, why?

:)
 
What if you could cover famous, heavy rock guitars with horns and pianos/organs? And I don’t mean “elevator” pop music. Would it be better or impossible, would it be labeled jazz😁?
probably be labeled as going backwards to early rock and roll (like Little Richard) where the guitar was still a second line rhythm section instrument

Lucille.
besides the older Blues cats.. Guitar wasn't (rare to be) or slowly became a front line instrument


third line instrument there
 
Last edited:
I don't think you could do that successfully with some of the extreme generes b/c wind players can not articulate fast enough to replicate the rhytmhs in styles like black metal, grindcore, d-beat punk etc....
 
Keyboard sounds have become soooo good nowadays. I think a band could absolutely replace guitars with keys. Think Deep Purple. The thing is... Nobody wants to play keys. It's just not cool. Nowadays, it's all about hammering away on stage with that low-slug guitar.
 
cover famous, heavy rock guitars with horns and pianos/organs?
And here I thought you were gonna want AI instruments/sounds.

I dunno...as a teen I rejected The Doors 'cuz they didn't have a bassist. I guess my take is, if the keyboard is gonna sound like a guitar, why not use a guitar? On the other hand, there have been heavy sounding organs (as @Huw Owens mentioned), and they were okay, but I guess I prefer a guitar.

No Idea Idk GIF by Muppet Wiki
 
And here I thought you were gonna want AI instruments/sounds.

I dunno...as a teen I rejected The Doors 'cuz they didn't have a bassist. I guess my take is, if the keyboard is gonna sound like a guitar, why not use a guitar? On the other hand, there have been heavy sounding organs (as @Huw Owens mentioned), and they were okay, but I guess I prefer a guitar.

No Idea Idk GIF by Muppet Wiki

I am also a "purist" in that way....if you are going to use an instrument, use that instrument....not a replication of it.

but I also get that not everybody has access to some of the bigger, and more obscure instruments too...
 
There was a guy playing in Redds Piano Bar lounge in Kalahari Round Rock,TX.
Just another dude with some semi-lame backing tracks....at first.
Then someone requested a guitar song. He strapped on a key-tar and then blew everybodys mind
by playing "Cause We've ended as Lovers" by Jeff Beck......on a keyboard!
It sounded like Jeff was there.......all the roars and scratches....and bends and shrieks.
I spoke to the player. He had worked with a sampling company and had them make him custom samples.
I have always liked the "Whitman Sampler"........for rock ballads.
 
Last edited:
I don't think you could do that successfully with some of the extreme generes b/c wind players can not articulate fast enough to replicate the rhytmhs in styles like black metal, grindcore, d-beat punk etc....

I don’t know, there’s some really fast double-tonguing and triple tonguing in the brass world.
 
I don’t know, there’s some really fast double-tonguing and triple tonguing in the brass world.

true....modern composition has definitely pushed wind players for sure

I
 
true....modern composition has definitely pushed wind players for sure

I

I’m not sure about drum corps stuff, but some of the stuff Empire Brass has done is amazing. And there’s a triple-tonguing passage for horn in Ravel’s Alborada del Gracioso that’s really hard. There’s also flutter tonguing in the flute in that same piece, incredibly fast. Just saying
 
I’m not sure about drum corps stuff, but some of the stuff Empire Brass has done is amazing. And there’s a triple-tonguing passage for horn in Ravel’s Alborada del Gracioso that’s really hard. There’s also flutter tonguing in the flute in that same piece, incredibly fast. Just saying

I feel like drum corps has definitely pushed the limits of speed in wind playing, and it is reflected sometimes now in non-corps composition, since many of those composers write for, have been in, or know tha tthey can sort of write whatever they want to to the elevation of playing skills...sort of like how 4 mallet technique has evolved over the years
 
We played with synth/keyboard/2nd guitar backing tracks last week with a temp guitarist. Since we have no adjoined guitar player we've discussed using full guitar backing tracks.
 
"....if I just had the sex and drugs.........I could do without the rock and roll"-Tap into America
I have always loved...a good rhythm guitar player...with time and groove.
Sometimes just "simple lines intertwining.".....Or a linear line only here and there.......Yeah!
THOSE guys.......we have to have em!
"...mates...I believe I dislocated my shoulder on that last power chord arm flail.."
 
Last edited:
Back
Top