This article was inspired by a fan who was also a guitar teacher. He was having trouble writing instrumental music and wanted some tips. The following is from my email response to him.

When you write instrumental songs you have to write them with more thought in mind. Where vocals can embellish a song with attitude or fanciful words and clever stories, instrumental music is melody, alone.

The way I think about the guitar is as I would think about, or approach any instrument of an orchestra. I try to stay away from “Guitar riffs” per se, and obvious scales and let the music play through me as if I were a flutist, or saxophonist etc., coming from the standpoint of letting the music flow through me – rather than direct it with intentional guitar scales.

Even though they are instrumental songs, I still approach them with the same structure of a normal song:

• Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Chorus (and all of the other traditional patterns and sub patterns of songwriting in the pop genre).

You should also have a guitar solo section (I know that sounds funny in an all-guitar song). However this is where you can totally go-off on the guitar for a few bars. Satch and Vai do it all the time. Finally, you come back to to a verse or a chorus, just as you would in any song.

The Process

While many of my songs have progressive elements to the overall structure and melodies, they still always follow a formula. With that said, many times the whole melody of the hook or chorus will come to me at once in my head, then I need to figure how the background would best support it (drums, bass, keys etc.).

Other times I will just have a rhythm idea and a groove in mind. The best way to handle the latter is to record the progression on to whatever recording device you have and listen to it everyday; don’t even try to figure out the guitar part yet (that’s where your fingers would get in the way).

As you listen to it each day, little ideas or melodies will start to pop into your head. Abstain from picking up your guitar (to work on the song) and continue going through this daily ritual. Finally, a bigger picture will start to emerge of what will sound best on guitar. Many times this will lead to a rearrangement for the background tracks that you first laid down. If you have a portable multi-track recorder (stand alone, or software based like Logic X or Pro Tools) try recording some of the leads that have been floating around in your head. Then listen back to see if they are truly inspired, or just a bunch of fingers wandering around on a neck. =)

When I record a solo for an album, I usually have a lot of improvisation (between the sections I have already planned out). I will drive around in my car a few days listening to these scratch tracks and refine these ideas, then return to record them with all of the improvisational lines now memorized. This way when I record the final tracks, they still have a spontaneous feel to them, but they are still well-thought-out and well rehearsed.

I can always tell a great guitarist in any genre during the very first few notes of their solo. He/She knows where they are going with the melody, and always has a story to tell with it. They have control of their instrument and when it comes to the end of the solo, it’s definitive and lands in a place that lifts-up the next section of the song.

Remember the Guitar, in instrumental rock, has to speak to the audience as a singer would. By keeping this in mind in the beginning, middle and end of the writing and recording process, your instrumental songs will be vastly improved.

Finally, remember a wise songwriter once said, the first 100 songs you write will probably be total crap! So keep writing all the time, and get those first hundred out of the way! =)