A question for guitar players

[U2girl]

I heard of the rhythm style of playing guitar as opposed to lead guitar style. What is the difference?

(also, which is/was the hardest U2 song to play for you?)

 

[gragravar]

"Rhythm" guitar is normally considered to be playing chords and supporting parts in general whereas "lead" guitar is playing them fancy solos and nifty licks... it was fairly common to see guitarists in bands (particularly bands with lots of guitarists such as southern boogie bands and so on) in the early 70s described in this way on record covers, biogs etc. when it was terribly important to list all the different things that each person did but the terms don't seem to be used much if at all these days and I've always thought the difference was kind of meaningless/pointless anyway. Any guitarist worth his or her salt can play a decent solo and who really cares what the guitarist is actually doing as long as it sounds good? Musicians excepted of course.

Speaking as a bass player, U2 songs don't tend to be terribly complex. 40 is a little harder than most of them I suppose, some of the left hand fingering is quite tricky.

 

[U2girl]

I see, thanks.
So someone like Edge or Keith Richards plays the rhythm style?

 

[Stories for Boys]

in u2, when bono plays guitar, he's playing the rhythm part and edge is playing lead/solo parts. really though, many bands have only 1 guitarist and so they're a combo of the two...really.

which u2 song is hardest? well, of the ones i know i'd say hmtmkmkm is hardest cause of some of the repeated slides...of ones i don't know, i hear ialw is tough.

personally, i think rem guitar parts are often harder than u2. u2's all about effects/delay/distortion/ambience...that makes it difficult to get the actual sound right, but often the song itself is more simple.

 

[discothequeLP]

U2 doesn't really have rhythm and lead, just the Edge.



Hardest U2 song? BTBS can be a bit tricky, especially the live solo.
The Fly is pretty hard to get all the note right

 

[beezd26]

personally, i think rem guitar parts are often harder than u2. u2's all about effects/delay/distortion/ambience...that makes it difficult to get the actual sound right, but often the song itself is more simple.

Ummm no one mentioned REM here.....do you have an uncontrolable obsession? I think you need to go to a RFA session (REM fans annonymous).

 

[Stories for Boys]

Ummm no one mentioned REM here.....do you have an uncontrolable obsession? I think you need to go to a RFA session (REM fans annonymous).

ummm...why would i want to give up rem?

plus...if i stopped bringing rem into every conversation, who would you giggle about them with?

 

[Chizip]

take it oustide guys

 

[Pinball Wizard]

personally, i think rem guitar parts are often harder than u2. u2's all about effects/delay/distortion/ambience...that makes it difficult to get the actual sound right, but often the song itself is more simple.

The Edge is often a two-string player... from playing his stuff I think that's usually how he develops a song, and things get more intricate from there.

Rhythm patterns found in U2 songs can sometimes be challenging, so some of the earlier material from Boy, October, and War may take a while to figure out the timing. Like SFB says, Delay and miscellaneous effects make it difficult to decifer at points.

Hardest song to play? There's a few from Achtung Baby. It doesn't take much time learning from a tab, but getting the tone and time somewhat precise is the frustrating part. In my experience the online tabs are useless for that.

Good to see you around Mick.

 

[Stories for Boys]

true true, pw...for example, no matter how hard i try, i can't get the rhythm to party girl right...

 

[gragravar]

U2 Girl: Re: Keith Richards: Yes, he is a classic "rhythm" guitarist, one of the few I can think of who is a very famous, rich and well loved guitarist whose soloes are by far and away the least important aspect of his career (in fact I cannot right now recall a single notable solo of his though I am sure there must be at least a couple, right guys...?), unlike Clapton or Jeff Beck for example, whose legendary soloes are their trademarks.

Pinball Wizard, is that a "nice to see you around" directed at moi or is it aimed at another Mick?

 

[Pinball Wizard]

Pinball Wizard, is that a "nice to see you around" directed at moi or is it aimed at another Mick?

I saved that one for you.



U2girl, a lot of people even consider Hendrix a rhythm guitar player... so it's just a matter of perspective, and how one is viewed in their own time vs. the present. Standards have definitely changed... probably not for the better.

 

[Chizip]

take it outside guys

 

[Stories for Boys]

take your face outside, chuck

 

[Chizip]

ill chuck your face

 

[U2girl]

Take it outside both of you

 

[The Sage]

this went off topic a long time ago...

 

[Chizip]

i've heard just about enough from you

 

[The Sage]

 

[shaun vox]

motherfuckers.

 

[The Sage]

motherf**king rock and roll

 

[Pinball Wizard]

... yes.

Yes, that's just what I was going to say.

 

[The Sage]

Here's the original question of the thread just in case anyone feels like going back on topic again any time soon...

I heard of the rhythm style of playing guitar as opposed to lead guitar style. What is the difference?

(also, which is/was the hardest U2 song to play for you?)

The hardest song for me to play is a difficult question, as for me there are different types of difficult songs: there are ones with relatively simple chord progressions that need a complex rythmn to make them interesting, and ones that have harder chord progressions to master but are then more interesting with a simpler rythmn, if that makes sense. Then of course there are the songs with complex riffs that I take one look at and die....

I could count on the fingers of one hand the songs I can play that I would say come anywhere close to matching the Edge's versions...

 

[MooMoo!]

bits with deleay pedals i find hard to play, as i dont actually have one! but ive found a way around it by using a special sharkfin pick in a certain way. great for streets.

 

[The Sage]

Yay! Sharkfins are great

 

[MooMoo!]

you gotta use the bumpy side on a kinda diagonal to get a delay-ish sound. its great for streets.

 

[Phalanx]

Those kind of picks (like Herdim ones) are perfect for every song, as a matter of fact.