The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
  1. #1

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    I was listening Joan Chamorro, and thinking that there isnt much actions of guitar in big bands.

    And furthermore that I would like to listen a large ensemble of guitars, like 4 guitars making the bass section, other guitars making the trumpets, etc etc. Not only for a big band style, any style, but with 10 guitars, more or less.

    Any know something like this ? Preferly, in the archtop world, I know there are some thing like this in the classical nylon territory, but its not my thing.

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    The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
     
  3. #2

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    Guitars suck in large ensembles because they cannot double parts. You double horns or strings and it sounds great, the idiosyncrasies in attacks cancel each other and you get a nice warm sound. Double guitars and it amplifies every slight rhythmic imperfection, the exception perhaps being metal-style distortion which gives enough sustain to offset this issue. In CG, trios and quartets where everyone plays a different line works, but these guitar orchestras that schools put together sound awful IMO

  4. #3

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    There were some attempts I remember from the 70's where a bunch of guitarists played multi-part arrangements of jazz tunes but they never really took off. IMHO any more than 2 guitars playing at once doesn't really work so well - even the famed McLaughlin/DiMeola/
    De Lucia project left me feeling that there was always one guitar too many on stage ...
    All I could find were short-lived one time affairs :





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  10. #9

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    Guitarists don't play in sections the way horn players do -- and have for years in many cases.

    Blending with horns isn't so easy on guitar -- the note starts abruptly and fades. Guitarists aren't accustomed to thinking about when to release a note. And, guitarists haven't usually spent a zillion hours blending with horn type lines in a section. Guitarists don't usually react to articulation and volume marks the way horn players do.

    So, I think it can be done, but it's not so easy.