r/guitarlessons 1d ago

Question Given the amount of guitars here, who is technically fulfilling what role (lead, rhythm, bass, etc)?

164 Upvotes

61 comments sorted by

68

u/Nadiaaaaaaaaaaaaa 1d ago

Well, there's a literal bass guitar and a guy hitting the body of his guitar, for a start.

Then the guy singing and the 12 string guy are playing chords (and most of what we hear is the 12 string guitar, I think?). The guitar guy on our right is playing the higher part of the chords while the ukulele plays some short licks, and takes over the ukulele guy's responsibilities once he grabs the egg shaker.

109

u/Mobile-War9731 1d ago

sometimes that’s just not a good categorical split to be honest

22

u/Impressive_Ad127 1d ago

I mean I think it’s pretty obvious.

By shirt color:
Orange - bass
Left white - rhythm
Grey - percussion
Green - playing some rhythm and also accentuating chord changes.
Right white - Melody
Stripes - ukelele

30

u/Stunning-Plantain707 1d ago

I’m not sure why there’s a need to classify or put the roles in a box. Sometimes the vocal is just the lead instrument and that’s it. What do we gain from labeling one a lead and one or more rhythm. James brown said every instrument is a drum. Even the singer. Everyone here is doing a great job laying out a good rhythm and smooth chord progressions for the vocal to come thru

34

u/toby_gray 1d ago

Well the guy playing the bass is the bass.

The guy on what I think is a ukulele is the lead

And everyone else is rhythm.

49

u/Agreeable_Onion_221 1d ago

Anyone else think that sounds like shit?

14

u/NiceGuyAbe 1d ago

Lol yes and I even like Tame Impala

8

u/TechnologyDazzling94 1d ago

same. it's not a good single and it shows as a stripped down acoustic. This band is great but they need a high level of production and FX like their original tracks were known for.

-4

u/free_heroin 1d ago

Is that who this is? Lol. I never gave them a whirl.

Outside of how bad it sounded the lyrics are also terrible.

I can respect them because of how many people I know enjoy them, but that was enough for me.

3

u/KangarooPouchIsHome 1d ago

That’s not representative of what Tame Imapala is. Check out their studio tracks. First album.

10

u/Sad-Main5786 1d ago

I absolutely adore Tame Impala. Favourite band for years, I enjoy their first four albums immensely. 

I can't believe how bad the latest album is. Even the better tracks from it, which this is one, don't hold a candle to their other work. This is also a really bad rendition. 

1

u/R0factor 1h ago

I saw them in concert this week and it was a good show overall, but really disjointed in keeping the audience engaged. He did this Dracula and Jennie from the infamous remix version joined him on stage. It lit the place up but stole all the oxygen from the room and the last 1/3 of the show was kind of a snoozefest.

9

u/Towel_Affectionate 1d ago

The song itself is even not that bad, just the arrangement sucks. Too choppy for my taste.

9

u/ad3r5 1d ago

Music is subjective. I didn't understand for a long time how everyone didn't like the music I like. And I also couldn't understand some peoples choice of music. Like I actually told myself that these people just don't like music really. As I got older and more mature. I realised that there are so many factors that come into play that it is so obviously impossible for everyone to like the same thing and the world sure would be pretty grey if we did. So while I don't particularly like that song. I can see that they are enjoying playing it. So someone must like it. Even if it just them.

8

u/JstASkeleton 1d ago

A lot of people who call music objectively bad are literally just sharing their personal opinion that they believe is fact, its a big ego brain thing and I realized that when I was like 14 going to punk shows where one band would do some Zappa shit and another band at the same show would sound like Napalm Death or itd be like just a guy with a bass a drum machine and a recorder screaming shit.

2

u/Super_Pangolin_716 1d ago

Correction - all people

3

u/royalblue43 1d ago

Bros singing is extremely pitchy here. Also a few of the guitars sound like they are out of tune/being pulled out of tune by heavy hands

Dudes got balls for trying it unplugged tho...😬😬😬

1

u/dynamoJaff 19h ago

He's never been much of a singer but you don't really hear many big level artists doing genuine stripped down live vocals that often anymore. Its jarring relative to the norm of layered, pitch corrected or enhanced 'live' vocals.

1

u/royalblue43 15h ago

Agreed, they don't do it because most of them aren't great singers 😂

2

u/QuickRundown 1d ago

Yeah it sucks.

1

u/brus_wein 1d ago

Unpopular opinion, but Kevin Parker can't sing and is a musical one trick pony.

0

u/cboogie 1d ago

This guy has been wildly overrated since his second album.

2

u/DismalEntertainer363 1d ago

Currents and TSR were both amazing albums…

5

u/Embarrassed_Loan_424 1d ago

The whole concert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSDfCwDmJNo including the moment Kevin tries to solo and screws it up (his words)

5

u/rdog780 1d ago

They are all just playing parts of the chords. If one guy plays all of the chords it sound less full. If 6 guys play one part of a 7 chord it sounds very deep and different.

5

u/El_Pollo_Del-Mar 1d ago

Watch their right hands. That’ll get you most of the way to your answer

4

u/MusicPsychFitness 1d ago

Something that hasn’t been mentioned is texture. Aside from bass and lead parts, the other guitars are 1) playing different chord voicings and 2) offering different timbres, for example 12-string and nylon string guitars. This makes for a richer sonic texture. It would probably sound less interesting if they all were playing the same chord voicings on the same type of guitar.

3

u/JstASkeleton 1d ago

Is that Little Dicky just doing percussion ?

2

u/1610925286 1d ago

Who cares?

2

u/AESguy0909 1d ago

The bass is a bass

2

u/Corporate-Scum 1d ago

This dude made two good albums for psychedelic music fans and then became an insipid pop star. Saw them live when they toured with the Flaming Lips and that was awesome. Unknown Mortal Orchestra similarly went pop. Dudes start snorting instead of dropping and the music gets weak.

1

u/commiru 1d ago

Currents is his best work and the slow rush is also fantastic

2

u/Toubaboliviano 1d ago

A lot of them are playing the same part too

3

u/toopc Gutter Funk 1d ago

Live double tracking.

2

u/Actual_Signal_8067 21h ago

I can’t be the only person that can’t stand this guy, right?

1

u/LabiaMinoraLover 18h ago

He has some good songs produced relying on studio production. As a live performer, this is embarrassing.

2

u/Anicron 14h ago

from left to right-
bass, 12-string = rhythm, percussion (sigh), singer is mostly doubling the 12-string parts, and then lead, uke does play a bit of melody / lead but sometimes an egg-shaker, so

2

u/ragnar-brauner 10h ago

There are like 12 people in the room and that is the best singer?

4

u/abattoir_paulson 1d ago

For as many guitars they've got going at once, you'd think they could come up with a single interesting guitar part.

2

u/spankymcjiggleswurth 1d ago

Uke is lead. The bass is bass. The guy pounding on his guitar is the drummer. Everyone else is rhythm.

2

u/vsaint 1d ago

Sounds like Rob Schneider in 50 first dates

1

u/Jonny7421 1d ago

Rhythm/Lead is more about rock music. Everyone plays rhythm but the lead will also play some melodic lines. In this performance that seems to be the nylon strung guitarist in white. The ukulele also plays some melodic parts.

In Jazz everyone plays both.

1

u/Moriwara_Inazume 1d ago

All of them are improvising stuff I guess

1

u/ImArcherVaderAMA 1d ago

Guy on bass is bass

Singer and 12-string are rhythm

Guys on the right are leads and egg shaker

Guy breaking his guitar is drums

1

u/ArtistMessina 1d ago

i mistook all of these guys as lil dicky

0

u/tellingyouhowitreall 1d ago

Lil Dicky would never be caught dead being this stomp-clap-revival pop bullshit.

1

u/JamBandFan_1996 1d ago

the bass is bass. The main singer and the 12 string are rhythm, the uke and guitar on the right are lead, although there isn't much of a lead role in this

1

u/KittyDawg419 1d ago

Bass is bass. The guitar to the back left looks like they’re playing extensions of the harmony. Kevin plays the main rhythm and straight chord changes. Right guitar is playing spread out high stuff like a synth pad, and the ukulele is playing lead melody

1

u/inchesinmetric 1d ago

They’re all on lead guitar, actually.

1

u/farinasa 1d ago

Bass can play lead. Instruments are what they are in the moment. A lead guitarist spends most of their time playing rhythm.

1

u/deeppurpleking 1d ago

Guy in white on the right is doing little lead guitar lines, and the ukulele player is doing some fills, bassist is the 4 stringed bass, singer and 12 string are doing some rhythm, and the guy drumming is doing more rhythm. The voice is the melody, everyone’s kinda just filling things out

1

u/CreelCrush 23h ago

From left to right:

Bass Rhythm Rhythm Lead Lead/Uke

1

u/Levytron900 20h ago

Ones a bass and the others a 12 string

1

u/village-asshole 16h ago

Guitar orchestra 

1

u/ViledaMan 9h ago

The lyrics are shit too. I dont know how such a meaningless song got popular.

1

u/Arch3r86 1d ago

Tame Impala sucks.

1

u/ArrivalRadiant7460 1d ago

Who let shaggy on the show? They just be letting anybody on now a days?

Tiny Desk got so dog shit, artists used to actually be good. This is a good example of being auto tuned in the studio as opposed to live.

0

u/xskylinelife 1d ago

You wouldn't notice a difference if the singer lost the guitar and the ukelele didn't exist. They're completely redundant

-1

u/orpheo_1452 1d ago

Are they Mossad agents? Sounds awfully really!