Can Multiple Rhythm Section Instruments Work Together?
Welcome back to another weekly arranging newsletter where I look at various techniques that will hopefully help you get the most out of your own charts. One of the most requested topics so far has been what to do with the rhythm section. There are many facets to this specific topic and the range of issues you all have raised vary from how to write simplified comping patterns to how to uncomplicate drum parts as well as things like how to accommodate for extra instruments (such as two keyboards or auxiliary percussion). As you can imagine, there’s a whole lot that can be written about the rhythm section and if I were to try and condense what I’ve learnt into a single newsletter entry, you’d probably be reading it until next week’s email! So for this week’s entry let’s start with what seems to be the most common issue raised: how to add multiple harmonic instruments together.
Being a bassist, I’ve been at home in the rhythm section for nearly 20 years. With that said, it wasn’t until many years into my journey that I actually started to understand the role of each instrument in the section. For my high school life and the start of university, I just stuck to my lane and made sure my bass lines felt good (well at least tried, you’ll have to ask those around me whether they actually were). However, there was one day when I was taking an improv class and we had a replacement teacher, Prof. David Morgenroth, who spent the entire session breaking down the rhythm section instruments. His insights were pure gold and at the time I didn’t realize how much it would impact my writing years down the road. The reason I bring up this story is because that one class has framed how I think about harmonic instruments in the context of a rhythm section, something I consider necessary to understand if you are wanting to add further harmonic instruments to the section like vibes or have multiple keys players etc.
So what is this golden knowledge Morgenroth gave to the class? He had us play a couple of choruses on whatever bebop standard we were learning that week and demonstrated various comping patterns on the piano. By playing alongside him, it was obvious how the different approaches he took changed the entire feel of the section. He then added a guitar into the mix and in order for the section to sound great together, both the guitar and piano had to have complimentary approaches. Although it wasn’t the primary intention of the lesson, Morgenroth had answered the age-old question of how two or more harmonic instruments can play alongside each other in a rhythm section.
To accomplish this, each instrument had to have a unique pattern/approach which didn’t step on the feet of the other instruments. Because bass and drums naturally stay out of the way of chordal instruments, the key was having both the guitar and piano not attempt to double up on the same type of patterns. All too often you’ll see both instruments given slashes and have them try to comp, only for them to choose different voicings and rhythmic ideas which clash both rhythmically and harmonically.
Now that I’ve been exposed to a bit more music than when I originally took that improv class, the four most common approaches I’ve seen work are:
Rhythmically comp using chords
Play some sort of consistent rhythm pattern, either chords or single notes
Play long chord pads
Double one of the horn parts, usually the melody
For example, if we look at the classic New Testament Basie big band formula, Freddie Green plays consistent crotchet/quarter notes with basic voicings which mainly revolve around the fundamental harmony (root, 2rd, 5th, 7th) of each chord. That leaves Basie to play more sporadically on piano as well as outline more of the extensions and alterations in his playing. In contrast, you could flip the roles and have the piano play more of a repetitive time feel (such as early Basie with stride style comping) which leaves the guitar to be more free with their comping. The takeaway is that you should try to have the piano and guitar play different approaches, and these should be discussed ahead of time with the players.
With that established, how does the vibraphone fit into this situation? Well it shares exactly the same harmonic role as the piano and guitar. So you can easily have it play alongside the other two instruments as long as it is playing something complimentary. You can also have one or more instruments lay out for certain sections to vary the orchestration and density of harmonic rhythm instruments. There are lots of possibilities so test them out and see what works with your repertoire and musicians. The main thing I would try to avoid is having more than one instrument take the first approach where they are comping in response to the soloist or band. Option 2 and 3 can be doubled up easily though. Here’s a few different combinations I’ve used in the past
Depending on the style, your options will change, but so far this approach has always helped me. The next step would be to understand the vocabulary associated with each style so that the rhythm parts are more informed by context. That way, no matter what level of player you deal with, you’ll be able to get them on the right track and even simplified parts will feel right for each piece.
Looking to next week, I’m going to stay on the topic of the rhythm section but shift gears to the area of latin percussion and how to get the most out of your auxiliary percussionists. A topic I’ve enjoyed discussing for the last few years since I did my big Cuban music deep dive in 2020 and 2021.
Thanks,
Toshi