In a lot of modern music, a fuzzed up electric guitar ends up not only doing the solo in the bridge, it is the instrument used for color licks throughout the piece. In many recent hits, though, the lead guitar is nonexistent, or relegated to more of a background role. Here are some fun ways to keep the guitar in your compositions without allowing it to overpower other instruments.
VOLUME
I know this is a touchy subject with many guitar soloists, but sometimes all they need to do is turn the knob down to a lower level. Believe it or not, if you play with the knobs a bit, you can still get that fuzzy, overdriven tone, complete with feedback, at a much quieter volume. Just play with your gain, distortion and presence knobs at the lower volume settings, and with just a little fiddling, you will get even that nice feedback squeal you like using on occasion. If you can hear the other instruments, too, it is more fun to be able to work off what they are playing, instead of just coming up with something that follows the main chord progression. Sure, the people in the sound booth can always turn you down later, but it will mean a lot more work, and you may find that other people seem a little irritated with you after a take or two hearing you blast them out of the building. They can always turn you up or ask for more volume, too, you know. Listen to classical music just for fun-they can get plenty loud, and you can hear the soloists when it is their turn, yet you can hear all the other instruments clearly, too. Think of the guitar as the French horn-it has a place, and you can hear it, but most of the time, the violins or piano are meant to be the main sound in many pieces. You can learn a lot from the French horn.
COUNTERPOINT
In older compositions, the call-and-response form of music was very popular. Think of having a conversation with the other instruments when you write the guitar part. You aren't giving a speech, you are talking to them, and that means you need to listen to what they are saying and respond to that, not just expound your own opinions. If the piano is supposed to provide the main meat of the piece, perhaps a questioning tone would sound nice in the holes left open, or even an echo of what is already being said, just said in a different point of view. You can add another element to the music, too, by saying something musically that enhances it and adds a bit of mystery, like the tweeting birds heard over a babbling brook, the distant train whistle over the sound of highway traffic, or the tones of your access number being dialed over the sound of your Internet hooking up. Listen to some conversations even on television shows sometimes, and listen to how the sounds of the voices, some high, some low meld together-it really is musical in a way, and might give you some good ideas.
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