The unfair position of rhythm guitar player

I was thinking about every guitar player’s dream, about that part where you are the solo guitar player and everybody is cheering you, loving you, adoring you, in a spot where everybody would love to be. It is somehow like in that movie I saw some years back with one guitar player that was no good, selling his soul for becoming a great guitar player playing astonishing solos. Of course…

Anyway, every guitar player wants to be the bad ass solo guitar in a famous rock band. Every guitar player dreams it….

But! There is a but here… I had the opportunity to go with this friend of mine in ‘97 to get a job (my friend, not I) as a professional guitar player in the local theater big band. He was good, really good. Now, as I have already told you a few times before here, he is one of the best rock guitar players in Romania, in my opinion. So, he got the job as the lead guitar in a big band with about 30 instruments, a band that used to play along the lead singers working for the local theater.

There was that other guitar player there, about 45 or something, the second guitar. Of course he didn’t have leading parts, he was always there but nobody saw him. However, I couldn’t help myself thinking that if that guy wouldn’t have been there, the music would have been missing something…

If you think about it, you can not play a guitar solo without somebody being the rhythm guitar, to keep you on chords and to help you be creative. I don’t speak about somebody playing C, F, G only. I am speaking about a better guitar player. A bit of 9 here, some 7+ there, a small 13 chord, well, you know what I mean… Did you ever notice that if you play with a rhythm guitar who is a great at playing chords, you just become more creative, you feel the music better and you are better, playing better solos? It feeds you with his chord harmony instead of playing those plan C, F, G…

That guy there is the second guitar that nobody knows or notice.

I have been in this second position while playing in Kapela (I am not saying I was that guy that inspired the lead guitar, I was not in such a position, unfortunately). I was there for about 1 year and all that I had in front of my eyes was to be the lead guitar in an other band. Of course, the dream…

I am sure you are familiar with TV shows such as “So, you think you can dance?” Next time you watch it, watch the second guitar there and see how important is that part: rhythm, chords, melody, technique but no glory. Is it right this way?

Take the man out of the band and see how it sound. Then, if it sounds bad, put him back in the band and put the lights on him, giving him those moments of glory that he deserves. I say that because our similar TV show here had such a moment, cheering the rhythm guitar while playing on a large screen some great moments with him on stage. Unfortunately it was because his sudden death  a few days ago, he was 70 or something…

But he had his part. Unfortunately, one moment too late…

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