Ace's Masterclasses Recording Guitar Melodies | Music Radar
We’ve covered a variety of tracking tips in our tutorials so far with Skunk Anansie guitarist Ace, but here, the ACM tutor has delved into the world of tactics for making your guitar melody stand out.
Here, Ace tells you his tactics for recording guitar tracks, and how harmonising can develop the melodic nature of a lead line.
Here, Ace tells you his tactics for recording guitar tracks, and how harmonising can develop the melodic nature of a lead line.
Transcript
00:00 Hi, it's Ace here. We're back in Metropolis Studios and today I want to talk about melodies
00:11 and simple motifs really. Let's try to do something very, very simple just to listen
00:16 to the ear and the way that it just fits into the track. So start simple, we can get more
00:22 complicated as we go along. First of all, I'm going to lay down a few tracks. So I'm
00:26 going to do the technique I was talking about before, which is one single coil chord track
00:31 and then maybe some root and fifths underneath to give us a bit of a rhythm bass. Then I'm
00:36 going to play some melodies on the top, really, really simple, maybe harmonize with them and
00:41 use maybe some effects sounds as well. So here we go. First of all, we're going to lay
00:45 down the track. So let's go for the single coil open chord track.
01:03 And here is with a humbucker.
01:21 Okay, so we've flashed a few rhythms down there. We'll just quickly balance them up
01:46 left and right and let's try some really, really simple melodies. I'll put a little
01:51 bit of sound on this. It's got a bit of chorus on it and it's got a bit of delay. And then
01:56 just do something really, really simple and then maybe harmonize with it. Let's see how
02:00 we go from here.
02:22 Okay so we put down a really simple melody, something that just rolls all the way through
02:27 the chord sequence and a little motif in there as well with a bit of a sound. So now, why
02:32 not harmonize it? The most simplest thing to do is to say, for me, is to play the same
02:36 thing but the other way around, okay? So let's see if this works. It might make a simple,
02:41 nice harmony for us, okay? Keep it simple and always trust your ear.
03:11 So there you go. There's melodies. Keeping it simple, listen to your ear, always work
03:15 on good sounds and solid rhythms and try to find something that kind of flows through
03:21 the whole piece. Hooky is the key and melodic and tuneful is always a winner.
03:28 [music]
03:33 [music fades out]