The 3 Types of Guitarist
- Strummers
- Twangers
- Riff-meisters
The types are not mutually exclusive, guitarists can take one or more of these roles depending on the dynamics of the track, but you can’t do them all at the same time and that is what makes the distinction valid.
Strummers
Before Rock ‘n’ Roll folk musicians were strumming acoustic guitars across all six strings on first position chord shapes. This was a necessity just to get heard over the other instruments. Fortunately, guitars went electric and volume was never an issue again.
Rhythm guitarists in bands play an important role in (the clue is in the name) holding the rhythm section together. The lead players get all the glory but where would rock be without Power chords?
Strummers can be further sub divided by their dominant styles…
- Droners: A subgroup of the strummers is the droners. They fill the sound with a technique from the Middle Ages, keeping the root note droning whilst playing other notes on top. It’s a sort of sitar type sound and can be very effective with loads of bands paying their guitarist to do that one thing and one thing only, drone. The Edge from U2 is the most famous exponent.
- Chord Riffers: You can also include ‘chord riffers’ in the strummers category if your definition is strictly playing chords. Chord riffers can fill a small band’s sound out very effectively, like Dave Davies of the Kinks with his iconic ‘You really got me’, ‘all the day and all of the night’
- Chord Decorators: Then there are the ‘Chord decorators’ filling out the sound in 3-piece bands by embellishing the space between chords with lyrical flourishes – Jimi Hendrix ‘Little Wing’
- Lead rhythm guitarists are a hybrid who not just sit in the pocket but create the pocket, like Nile Rogers of Chic. He’s never played a conventional guitar solo in his life and yet, his Fender Strat has been on 2 billion dollars of hit records – and still counting.
Twangers
A Twanger is any guitarist following in the time honored early traditions of doing what the electric guitar was born to do - playing single notes very loudly.
Early twangers had clean tone but then came the one always-on effect all guitarists should have - reverb. Then Fender and other manufacturers started adding 'verb built-in on all new models and guitarists could take the sound to a new aural space.
They still didn’t have enough gain to sustain vibrato notes, but the tremolo arm (whammy bar) could be very expressive. Top exponents include Dick Dale with his surf music and Hank Marvin of the Shadows.
Riff-Meisters
Riff-Meisters have one job and one job only – to kick you in the balls.
We’re talking Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath with his devil’s notes.
When a Riff-Meister guitarist hits the spot, a whole genre can be created on the back of it. With Tony Iommi it was Metal.
The Sex Pistols ‘Never mind the Bollocks’ was another case in point, spawning the Punk genre. Noel Gallagher once said,
I wish I’d written that album
Personally, I hated Punk and everything it stood for but hey, I understand there is a place for raw emotion in music, all genres are ultimately born to die – a musical cul-de-sac.
The 4th type of guitarist
Wait, wasn’t there only three types of guitarist?
Of course, any guitarist can, and should cycle though being a strummer, twanger and Riff-Meister to suit but there is one more type who is totally outside of the box – the one-of-one.
The 1 of 1 is someone so unique, so innovative, so genius they are instantly recognizable and totally impossible to imitate. There’s Jimi Hendrix, of course, and also guys like Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page.
They have instantly recognizable trademark sounds, licks and musical strategies. These are the guys who everyone else copies but never equal. Jimi Hendrix once said…
I’ve been copied so well they even copy my mistakes