The Craft of Accompaniment – Read more

Q & A

Before enrollment students must undergo a free interview to assess their skills.

These are some of the questions asked.

Arranging Techniques

You can copy Ed Sheeran and create something similar or instead learn all your options and then choose what you prefer to layer.

“Are there a classification of options? “

Yes, chords can be played with one, two notes or more at a time, with

What you can do is already out there in text books of arranging and orchestration but not the how to do it while someone is singing. This is a craft you will learn.

But you are the vocalist and you have the biggest advantage as you can sing the song and play the chord options at the same time and naturally you will choose what sounds good. If not, you will not be able to express yourself.

The big problem occurs if you’re not accustomed to singing the melody while you choose as you will not have the melody present and you will get in its way, by choosing options that will not allow your vocals to shine as they should .

Two Sustained Chords One Sound

The general rule is that when you have two sustained harmonies, for example the piano and you, naturally when you play chords they become one sound and you will not hear yourself with clarity and should not.

So you need to break away from this option of layering sustained sounds and explore other arranging techniques applied to real time accompaniment.

You can do this quickly by studying my courses  or by transcribing what Hendrix, Clapton, Benson, Jimmy Page , Bb King do, understanding the how and what they play behind the vocals, and I am not talking about fills, I am talking about how they create the groove.

What they do, the tools they use, are already classified into concepts found in arranging.

In my courses you will learn the craft of how to apply them and go for it. 

Where it all Started, My Story 

When we covered a song , our band would sound great but when we did our own originals once again I would just hear a wall of sound behind the vocals. 

It was not About our Musicianship

So I knew it was not about our musicianship nor sound engineering but about the choices we made to play chords and the groove, basically the band sound, which is what all the artists I love are about.

I learnt that the solution was in arranging and orchestration which is basically organizing what each member of a band has to do, but these techniques were developed for big bands and orchestras and not for the rhythm section,  but  Quincy Jones with Micheal Jackson and George Martin with the Beatles were applying them and the bands were sounding awesome.

Berklee College of Music

I had to learn more so I went to Quincy Jones school, I went to Berklee College of Music in Boston U.S.A and finished my studies in arranging under the supervision of the Grammy Award winner Bob Freedman. 

He taught me that the secret as an arranger lies in helping each individual sound great in a group setting with a minimal guidance that can allow them to play with clarity and spontaneity.

I started applying these techniques to my rhythm sections and my playing. In summary each individual has to define the groove and the harmony but in relation to the vocals. There you have to sing the melody and play the part and if it works well,  it will work in the band. 

This works fine with bass lines, riffs and counterlines but sustained harmony is another world as two chords played at the same time become one and that is why strumming doesn’t provide clarity.

How to solve this?

Play chords with a melodic value but once again the proof of if you’re doing right will be if you can sing the vocal line at the same time and if you are defining the groove . If not you will interfere with the band. So you have to learn to think horizontally.

This is a craft you learn with hands on training and guidance and this is what these courses are all about. 

The How to Sound good.

Spanish Society of Authors

A few years after completing Berklee I was commissioned by the Spanish Society of Authors to write the text book on arranging and orchestration  called El Arrgelo Un Puzzle de Expresión musical  where you  study all the possible tools or techniques. These courses teach you the craft of how to apply them from the point of view of the guitarist.