Create a musical conversation with your lead guitar playing
In this Gibson App video, Kirk Fletcher explains his take on creating a conversation within a set of licks using what is often called “call and response” playing.
Fletcher says, “When you’re building a blues solo, it’s a lot of call and response, from my perspective. I like to play a phrase and in a way, answer that phrase.” He goes on to say that the second phrase is often similar to the first but slightly different. So, to follow an initial phrase, one could build radically different retorts or make minor variations, both of which Jimmy Page and Robert Plant utilized to great effect in their live improvisations together in Led Zeppelin using vocals, guitars, and even Theremins.
This “statement and foil” concept isn’t limited to just soloing ideas, either. Call and response vocals are featured throughout classic R&B and pop music, while in the 1977 hit song “Ebony Eyes,” Bob Welch, with his Gibson Les Paul™ in hand (wow, that slinky opening riff!), pits his vocal melody up against a string section undergirded by guitars to create a huge, catchy call and response chorus.
There are baroque classical music techniques, traditional West African choruses, and many West African drumming examples to investigate for additional call and response examples. It’s a massive part of what makes music so great, regardless of the style in question.
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