Acoustic Guitar
Acoustic Guitar
Solo Guitar Composition
In this roundtable discussion, Diego Figueiredo, Gwenifer Raymond, and Yasmin Williams share their unique perspectives on composing for solo guitar. Through conversation and inspiring demonstrations, our guests explore the differences between improvising and refining a piece, techniques for making one guitar feel like a full band, and more.
This episode is sponsored by ToneWoodAmp, a magnetically attached game-changing multi-effects device for acoustic guitars. Get reverb, delay, and more—no amp required! Learn more at tonewoodamp.com.
Additional resources:
- Listen to Part 2, where our guests discuss first songs, life-changing compositions, favorite tunings, and advice for finding your own voice on guitar.
- Visit Diego Figueiredo's website and watch this Acoustic Guitar Sessions video for his lightning-fast performance of the bossa nova standard, “One Note Samba.”
- Visit Gwenifer Raymond's website and watch her video lesson on how to play John Fahey's "Uncloudy Day."
- Visit Yasmin William's website and learn to play one of her compositions, "New Beginnings," a contemplative study in open-D tuning. Learn more about her unique Skytop Grand Concert built by luthier Eric Weigeshoff.
The Acoustic Guitar Podcast theme music is composed by Adam Perlmutter and performed for this episode by Gwenifer Raymond.
This episode is hosted by Nick Grizzle, produced by Tanya Gonzalez, and directed and edited by Joey Lusterman. Executive producers are Lyzy Lusterman and Stephanie Campos Dal Broi.
The Acoustic Guitar Podcast is produced by the team at Acoustic Guitar magazine, including:
- Publisher: Lyzy Lusterman
- Editorial Director: Adam Perlmutter
- Managing Editor: Kevin Owens
- Creative Director: Joey Lusterman
- Digital Content Director: Stephanie Campos Dal Broi
- Digital Content Manager: Nick Grizzle
- Marketing Services Manager: Tanya Gonzalez
Welcome to the Acoustic Guitar Podcast. I'm your host, Nick Grizzle, and that was Gwenifer Raymond playing her interpretation of our theme song. In this episode, you'll hear from a distinguished group of guitarists: Diego Figueiredo, Gwenifer Raymond, and Yasmin Williams, who each share their unique perspectives on composing for solo guitar. We discuss the differences between improvising and refining a piece, techniques for making one guitar feel like a full band, and a whole lot more. Before we get into it, I'd like to take a moment to thank Tonewood Amp for sponsoring this episode. Tonewood Amp is a game-changing multi-effects device that attaches to any acoustic guitar Get reverb, delay and more no amp required. Learn more at TonewoodAmpcom. And one more thing while I have your attention.
Nick:If you've been listening to this show for a while, you've probably noticed the music played at the top of every episode. It was composed by Acoustic Guitar Magazine's editor, Adam Perlmutter. We love hearing the interpretations by our podcast guests and we'd like to hear yours too. You can find the music to play at patreon. com/acousticguitarplus. You don't have to be a paying member to access it. You'll also see instructions for how to submit your own recording for the chance to be featured on a future episode. I'm sure this episode will give you some ideas and inspiration for making the tune your own Again. That site is patreon. com/acousticguitarplus. You'll find that link in the show notes, along with additional resources related to this episode, as well as our guests. Now, without further ado, let's begin with our guests describing their music, starting with Gwenifer.
Gwenifer:Yeah, I mean, I guess I came from kind of the more, I guess one of the more common roots of fingerstyle kind of that, you know that country blues into sort of John Faye sort of style stuff, that I guess that, whatever you might call primitive guitar I've been calling it Welsh primitive because I am Welsh and yeah, sort of I guess I kind of dig. I kind of dig a riff as much as anything else. So I kind of go for the more hooky based, I guess you know guitar like I like a recognizable tune. I listen to a lot of you know solo instrumental classical music as well, which I feel like has got those you know bangin' riffs essentially. So yeah, I guess I also come from like a punk background so I'm quite an aggressive player. So I think my style is kind of identified by a fairly aggressive style but with like a hopefully a fairly strong melodic throughline, if that makes sense. Again, in that, you know I think I pick an alternate and thumb country blue style.
Diego:I am originally from Brazil so I started playing, since I was six years old, the traditional Brazilian music the Samba and the Bossa Nova. That was my first contact with the guitar. My father used it to play the nylon string guitar and he introduced me the old traditional Brazilian music. That was my first contact with music. Then later I discovered the jazz and the classical music. So I played finger style with the right hand technique and I say I am a mix of Brazilian music, jazz and classical music. So that's my conception of music.
Yasmin:I always have such a hard time answering this question, so bear with me. Basically just instrumental guitar with other things added in, like I play kalimba with guitar too and use tap shoes and stuff, and I play guitar a lot of the time with it in my lap, kind of like a lap tapping style, I guess. So basically I just use a lot of hammer-ons and pull-offs to tap on the fretboard very quickly and I use my right hand to do a lot of percussive stuff on the body of the guitar and use my left hand for tapping and other stuff and I do regular finger style stuff too. So for me it's just making the sound as full as possible. How can I make one guitar sound like many? How can I keep an audience entertained throughout a show with just me on stage? How can I make it fun for me and how can I make these songs as full and fleshed out as possible, which is why I add other instruments sometimes. So that's the most important thing and kind of has always been, I guess.
Nick:What are some of the techniques that you do to create that? Because, yeah, as solo guitarist I think that is something that I hear a lot it never sounds like just a guitar. It's like, oh, that's a guitar and a bass no, it's just a guitar, that's a guitar. And percussion no, that's just a guitar. That's like six guitars no, that's one guitar. So what are some of the techniques? Maybe, if you want to demonstrate them a little bit, I don't know, but some of the techniques you use to actually fill in, like you said, the band.
Yasmin:I mean just being able to play bass lines with a melody, like I can play a little bit, I guess, so just being able to play the melody in the bass at the same time and have kind of like notes that ring out that can provide harmony and whatever is important, and with kind of a lap tapping style, I can kind of do a lot more with bass, and yeah, you can kind of both, which is great, since that's kind of what a band is. Anyway, you know, you got the bass dude, you know whoever. You got the lead player, you got the rhythm player, you got the vocalists. You can kind of do all of that with just a guitar.
Nick:Gwenifer, how do you find yourself doing that? Do you have specific techniques that you use? Because I I have a hard time sometimes in your albums that I've heard, I have a hard time believing that's one guitar. You know it's a lot of sound going on there.
Gwenifer:Yeah, I never really made a conscious effort. I mean, I kind of I came to this just playing these so weird little blues instrumentals Because I was just a solo guitar player and I don't sing those. Okay, I'll just make my own little songs and didn't think anyone ever care right. And then I just, you know, okay, people, people, some people kind of dig it. And then, yeah, people would say, oh, sounds like there's all these guitars on stage and I never I really have never attempted to do that on purpose.
Gwenifer:I guess it's just, it's just the way I play. I mean, do play fast. I think that comes from. I do. I do everything kind of fast, including talk. But yeah, coming out there kind of punk background, um, I mean, yeah, I mean it's beyond. So I kind of like the, the, the tension that lies between sometimes it's you know really really big, loud shit and then you sort of turn that into that nice. Yeah, it's like the loud, quiet, loud, right. Yeah, you know it's that those two together is kind of it is the tension, right and that's. I guess that's what's. That's what's interesting In terms of technique. I just hit it really hard and that tends seems to work for me.
Nick:Yeah, Diego, how about you? What are some techniques that you use to kind of fill in the rest of the band, so to speak, when you're playing solo?
Diego:Yes, so I I try to mix the balance between the two hands, like I really love to do the melody, the harmony together. So I explore a lot with the fingers when I play the, the Brazilian, and so we were talking about technique and style, like that kind of feeling of the Brazil, that mix of Brazilian jazz. So it's one point that I explored a lot and for sure, the right hand, the balance of the right hand. But when I, when I explore like more solos *demonstrates on guitar* like so I use these two fingers to just solo to use.
Nick:There's your index and your middle finger there.
Diego:Yeah, exactly, and most of the time, and when accompany or or when I use the bass lines, for example, when I use a tremolo to that sounds like a, so it sounds like two guitars doing one time doing one thing and then. So there are different techniques that I use when I when I do a full solo concert and and I mix all these techniques to, so that's a combination of the three styles that I say the Brazilian jazz and the classical.
Nick:Yeah, yeah, yeah, keep the bass line going. Almost sounds independent from everything else you're doing there. It's a lot of practice.
Gwenifer:I'm sure.
Nick:We're talking about storytelling without words a lot of the time here. So I mean, how do you like to convey those emotions, those ideas, those images in your compositions, specifically with your guitar?
Diego:my compositions. That are a lot of situations that inspire me to compose, like travel. So is one of the different places and things like that one of my last latest album last year. It's called the Antarctic. This album all the songs was inspired by a trip that I went in a cruise ship to Antarctica continent.
Nick:Gwenifer, how about you? How do you convey those emotions, those ideas and those images In your composition, specifically with your guitar?
Gwenifer:One of the things I enjoy about instrumental instrumental, especially solo instrumental pieces Is this ability to convey, I guess, more abstract ideas. I think you know part of the power is you're not, you don't have to form a coherent sentence and therefore you kind of able to represent more abstract conceptual ideas, kind of you know things a little bit more about Some difficult to disclose Feeling or whatever. So to me it's sometimes it's almost like I don't know you kind of pulling notes out of the ether. Really, it's like it's like valis speaking, you know, through the windows and you just can't. You just kind of you just I just play and then things come out and they're not.
Gwenifer:It's not really until afterwards sometimes that I think, oh, this really reminds me of this thing. I guess this is what this song's about, because it's kind of been in place to my brain already, right, so maybe, so maybe that piece of music is simply that bit coming out. I think it's more about. I like, I'm kind of more of the opposite. I like to discover what the song's about rather than try and write a song about something.
Nick:Yeah, yeah, it's been. How about you? You know, how do you get those, those images, those ideas? You know those, those big ideas, those big emotions out specifically on your guitar?
Yasmin:So I relate a lot to what Gwenifer said in terms of not really coming in with any sort of like set idea or concept. I kind of just uh, notes happen and then maybe when a song is finished, I can kind of figure out what it's about. If it's about anything.
Yasmin:But I feel like more lately, I'm kind of taking a more like cinematic approach to how I write things, in terms of, like the song is kind of like a story playing out, whether it's like related to travels like I somewhat recently went to a really picturesque, gorgeous city and wrote a song about that or related to how I feel about something happening like socially, like, um, when I wrote songs about the Black Lives Matter protests that were happening here. Now, typically it's kind of like both, like a song might be related to something or it might not be.
Yasmin:It is what it is. How I capture an emotion, um, I don't, I don't really know. Uh, I don't have like a set formula for writing, writing a song you know like oh, I want this to sound sad, I'll let me insert some seventh. I don't know, I don't do that. Um, it just kind of is what it is, is whatever I guess the heart wants, and then the mind kind of just comes up with the correct notes and not correct, but you know, correlating, correlating notes to bring out whatever the heart is saying.
Nick:So it sounds like a lot of improv is is important in your composition process.
Yasmin:Absolutely. It's basically all. A lot of it is improv. It's rare that I kind of write a melody or something or rhythm in advance, but sometimes I do.
Nick:Do you have those moments where you're maybe out on a walk or something and you get a melody in your head? Or is it when you sit down to write and you're like okay, I'm writing a song right now. What's gonna come to me?
Yasmin:Definitely, if I'm on a walk or something, I rarely have ever sit down to write anything. I will sit down to practice quote-unquote, because I don't really practice that much, but when I do, I like to kind of like doodle is what I call it, kind of like I don't know if you're ever in class and got bored and just started drawing pictures on something. That's kind of what I think of like my compositional process is. It's just kind of seeing what sticks.
Nick:Gwenifer, how about you?
Gwenifer:Yeah for sure. No, it's a lot of. I mean, I don't. I honestly I don't do the I. Even if I do think of a melody, it's sort of gone by the time I sit at my guitar or it turns into something completely different. I've definitely written a few songs trying to play someone else's song, having no idea how that song goes, and then writing some completely different. That's. That's kind of happened before. But no, yeah, it's, it's. I think sometimes things just make themselves apparent. I mean, a lot of it is about finding, as I mentioned before, I'm I'm a sucker for a really good hook and I think I don't know, maybe, maybe I've everyone's brains different, but I can't think of a good hook. It's kind of I don't really write the songs, they write themselves. I'm like just there to capture them, you know, or some equally pretentious nonsense.
Nick:Diego, you you've written a lot of songs with other instruments too. I mean, a lot of your albums have have other players on them too. They're not just all solo guitar albums for you. Do you write that stuff together with those other players? Do you have an idea going into it with them? Do you have your composition ready to go and you say here's the chart, play it. How do you like to work?
Diego:So, depends on the situation. I have a different records that's just original songs and that I compose thinking about the guitar and about other instruments, like my latest album, now called my word, I just released a couple days ago. It's our original songs, so and I compose thinking about instruments, like I have a trio like playing drums, bass and guitar, so I compose something specifically thinking about that combination we have. I have a couple songs, just guitar and trumpet, with a great trumpet player, Nicholas Payton. So and I compose a song specific specifically for that situation, like for guitar and trumpet, other songs with guitar and clarinet. So, depends on the situation. And I have other recordings and during my concerts that I do not, original songs, arrangements of jazz standards and Brazilian music by Antonio Carlos Jobim, by other composers.
Diego:So it's another different situation because I like to arrange or I get that. I get a song, a well-known song, and I I put my approach on an arranging, change the chords, change the harmonies. So it's another thing. But, for sure, when I play with different instruments, when I play solo, I am totally free to do whatever I want, to improvise it, to create other harmonic situations and anything. But when I play with the other musicians like a band or even a duo. I have to think more about what we'll do together, so that that's too different. Two different situations.
Nick:Yeah, and when you are writing, you know solo compositions. Do you, do you like to improvise in the moment and and kind of go with it, or do you, are you more structured? You write it all out?
Diego:Well I am a mix of classical music too. I just got to the technique, the technique of the right hand of the classical music and some songs that I like. But I never play the same song the same way. I always improvise. So if you see me playing one song, every time I play this song I play different because I put some improvisation in the middle. I will start differently. That's my favorite thing to create and to improvise. So if I play Girl from Ipanema 100 times, I play a hundred times different, with different progression, different improvisations. So that's that, that's my, I'd say. But for sure that are some specific situation that we have to follow the rules. When I play with an orchestra, for example, I have to follow the structure of the song. When I play with for a recording, that we have to follow the structure of the song we have to follow. But but when I play solo, totally free.
Nick:When you and when you do the solo and it's your song do you still improvise? Will you still play it a hundred different ways, a hundred times, even if it's your own composition?
Diego:Yes, but everything depends on the moment. Sometimes I really just play the song, yeah, sometimes, if I feel it depends. If I am in a studio or a concert, that depends the kind of the audience, the response of the audience. So there are a lot of things that that helps me to decide which way to go, or just play the song the way it is. I never know, I don't know what I do.
Nick:So actually, so depends on the situation, but but most of the time I'm improvise yeah, and so when you're, you know a lot of the time people guitarists will talk about serving the song. You know you play what, what it's gonna serve the song. And when it's a solo composition that you wrote and you're playing the only instrument on it, that might change. You know, because if you're in a band you got to lay back and let someone else solo that kind of thing. How do you, you know, balance that serving the song right with your own composition, with, if you want to, you want to shred a little bit, you want to get flashy with it. You know how do you balance those two sides when it is your own solo composition.
Diego:Yeah, it's, it's hard, it's not easy like to take that decision in the moment. If I, if I will just play the song, the regular, or if I'm improvising something. So I don't have any like a real decision if I do that or not, because I take it, I leave the moment to tell me what to do in some situations. But the most important thing for me it's try to make that beautiful. So if the song, if you go to a beautiful way for my taste, of course, and I try to make that as beautiful as possible for me and for the audience.
Nick:Gwenifer, how do you I mean, how do you see yourself in relationship to the song as a solo instrumentalist? You know, like we talked about serving the song, that kind of thing. It's your song. You're the only person playing on it. How do you interpret that?
Gwenifer:To me.
Gwenifer:I'm not much of a dramatic improviser.
Gwenifer:You know you might attack a certain phrase slightly differently from place, you know from show to show, but I kind of have.
Gwenifer:I like this idea of trying to discover what the best, like what the perfect form of that song is right, and kind of your first iteration, your first draft is probably like writing it in the first instance and then recording it in an album at least it is for me and then when you go, when you tour that album, when you tour that song, you're playing it a hundred different sound systems, hundred different microphones, you're hearing it through from a hundred different angles and you kind of figure out actually what that song should have been all along. So it's less about improvisation or about kind of chipping away these little bits and pieces and tying, you know, until I mean you never really get there right. I mean maybe you'll go too far and you'll, you know, break the nose off the statue or whatever. But you're kind of approach, you just try to approach. You know, approach, perfection, like an exponential curve man, I don't know, it's that's kind of what I like to do anyway.
Nick:So you were, you record it first and then, after you've played it a whole bunch, you start to hear the refinements.
Gwenifer:Yeah, because I'm really bad at writing songs. It takes me forever, so I better record this, put an album out and then, and then I go and tour it go. Oh, if I recorded this now, it would be a much better song what do you mean?
Nick:Laughs: you're bad at writing songs. I mean, I've heard your songs Gwenifer: I'm very slow. A very slow, very slow songwriter takes me a long time well. Nick: Yasmin, how do you see you know yourself in relationship to the song, again, as a solo, you're the only person playing the instruments, your, it's your music that you wrote. You know how do you serve the song in that and not just like shred all over the place.
Yasmin:You know for me, I guess serving the song is paramount and by far the most important thing and, like all the different techniques I use and whatever, all began with the purpose of serving the song best and how the best do that. So for me improvising comes in a lot during the composition process and when I'm actually writing the song, and then I just go through a lot of iterations and see what verse is best, what course is best, what bridge is best, whatever, and once the song is done, for me the song is pretty much done. I don't do anything else to it. I mean, is a song ever really done? I don't know. I don't have the answer for that. But for me, like in concert, the song is done.
Yasmin:I don't really play a song that's kind of not finished in a show. So I play it pretty much the same way in most shows, unless I'm like bringing in a chamber ensemble or bringing in other performers. Then I'll do something differently. But if it's just a solo set with just me, I'll just play the song as it's meant to be played, which is why I wrote in the first place like that. Nick: tell us about your guitar.
Nick:What guitar are you playing right now?
Diego:this is an Ovation nylon guitar. This is my road road trip guitar so it's easy. Easy to connect it. I just need to change my string is too old. I did the like five concerts with the string. I used to do two concerts, every two concerts I change the strings. This is a string. It's a Brazilian brand string. It's very soft but it doesn't keep so long. So I have ever two concerts. I tend to the string. So a lot of guitarists asking me about what string I use. I like that because it's very soft to play this. This string and this is the guitar is an ovation nylon guitar. I have some handmade guitars couple but it's hard to travel with many guitars on airplanes it's, it's not. So I have to decide to bring one guitar and most of the time I plug on live concerts and recording with mic for sure. But yeah, we'd have to take some decisions on the road.
Nick:Gwenifer, what are you playing? What were you playing earlier? What's your guitar?
Gwenifer:This is my waterloo. This is kind of. This is my main sort of touring guitar and I, to be honest, I write mostly on this. I've got like so many guitars but this is always the nearest one to where I sit, but it's also my touring guitar as my waterloo WL 14 L, I like a small body guitar. It's a steel string. It's yeah, it's pretty. It's pretty small body because because of my habit of playing kind of overly aggressive, I like I like a smaller body because I feel like you just kind of catch the, the notes in the, in the, in the ruckus, a little bit, a little bit clearer.
Gwenifer:I used to play a lot of them. When I said I still do a lot of vintage guitars but for touring I know these are really nice because they um, you know they kind of have, you know they're intentionally built to the set to a similar spec as I can old pre pre war blues guitar. But also, you know, if I do smash it to a thousand pieces on the plane, it's not like I'm actually destroying a piece of history, because I've got this, some amazing guitar behind me which was gifted to me by a Henry Kaiser, which is this guitar from the, I think it's from 1880, and it's absolutely, it's absolutely insane guitar to play on and it's amazing. But I'm terrified of it because it's actually is a piece of history, so it's kind of you play. It's a special occasion to play on that guitar, man. It's very, very nice. It's very definitely possessed by something I reckon - some ancient spirit.
Nick:What's the sound on that one versus the the waterloo?
Gwenifer:They're not too dissimilar. I really like the the waterloo because it can sound as good as this incredible thing. I just say it's slightly bigger kind of was like or warmer warmer. I know it's kind of got the. It's kind of got the, the pre-possession of the guitar that's been around longer than any living human being, you know. I feel like that just has a certain presence to it, regardless, um, and I changed my strings every gig, so someone please sponsor me for strings. I'm desperate.
Nick:Gwenifer: This is my shameless plug. Nick: Oh my god. Gwenifer: it's a nightmare man.
Gwenifer:It's because I hit them too hard, they don't, they snap. So I use Monels, which are really nice. That's kind of one of my, I think. Something a lot of people ask actually is what strings? And I use these Martin Monel strings because they're really nice, because a they sound good, they last as long as the coated strings, uh, and they also they don't take very long to break in, which is when you have to change the strings 10 minutes before going on stage. That's kind of an important thing. So I do, I do sort of recommend non-corporate sponsored strings.
Yasmin:Uh, so this is a custom made guitar made by Skytop Guitars. It's pretty. It's actually very cool because it has very big sound ports on the side of it, um, instead of the Kind of sound hole that's usually in the middle, um, and I think it just projects really well, gives the player a really cool kind of like sound, where the sound is kind of like kind of busts you over the head really, because the holes are like directed right to your head.
Nick:Yeah, they're pointing like shaping your face there.
Yasmin:Yeah, it's kind of like a stereo effect, which is really cool. And this guitar is interesting because it has like little wormholes in it on the front.
Nick:Yeah, there's no sound hole. There's these little, like you call them wormholes. Are those natural holes in the wood?
Yasmin:Yeah, no, they're like mollusk holes. They are mollusk burrow into the wood. The wood's pretty old, so, yeah, they made these holes. And Eric Weigeshoff, the guy from you know, Skytop guitars is his, his, uh, his brand. He repurposes this wood to make guitar tops, which is really cool and it's great for me, because the two Side sound ports kind of get muffled a bit by my stomach when I have laptop acoustically. So the little holes in the front definitely like help push the sound out to whatever audience, which is great.
Yasmin:Um, this guitar is my main touring guitar and just the main guitar I play in general and write on and do everything on. I love this guitar. I have a lot of guitars, um, but this is my main one. I think I have what 18 or something. Nick: How do you mic it? Yasmin: I have a pickup in it.
Yasmin:But in the studio usually we use like four or five mics, like two behind me to like capture the like sound port sound, and then two in the front and then kind of one just Place somewhere. It's typically how we do it. It's kind of it was a challenge to mic because the sound just goes all over the place, kind of, but, um, it sounds really awesome once you dial it in. Uh yeah, but yeah, this guitar is, I just love it, but it's just honestly like flying with it still kind of scares me a little bit because it's worth like it's just really expensive and I just I just I love this guitar and it's just honestly allows me to play the best I can play. Nick: So what kind of wood is it?
Nick:Yasmin: Sitka spruce as the top and then the back is.
Yasmin:I don't know if y'all can see this, but the back is um spalted tamarind and the binding is blood wood. Gwenifer: blood wood? Yasmin: Yeah, I love blood wood. Gwenifer: Man, metal man. Yasmin: I know right but I love it. It's just so red and so just dope looking. And the fretboard is ebony or like an ebony substitute.
Nick:Gwenifer: Do you plug in or do you all? Are you all acoustic when you play?
Gwenifer:I've gone through many stages of microphoning my guitars.
Nick:Some might say a compulsion.
Gwenifer:That's a problem. At the moment I'm just microphone. I've got a little dpa clip- on which I I carry around with me like a little nerd. Oh sweet Um it sounds really nice. Yeah, there's a little clip on dpa man. It's actually I think it was when we were on we played bristol.
Nick:Yasmin: I was gonna say yeah it was the first place.
Yasmin:Is that what you use then?
Gwenifer:It's what the sound tech guy had and he convinced I actually bought one that evening because it's so nice.
Yasmin:Yeah, that sounds it.
Gwenifer:It's super nice. I recommend them definitely.
Nick:That's the end of part one. In part two, our guests discuss first songs, life changing songs, favorite tunings and advice for finding your own voice on guitar. You can listen to it at patreon dot com Slash acoustic guitar plus or check the show notes to learn more.
