Guitar stylings a la Hillsong...needing assistance

Hi guys. This may be more appropriate in the techniques section, but due to the genre, I thought I'd get better ideas here.

I'm relatively new to lead stuff. I've been primarily rhythm and "thickening up" in our P&W band. I've been asked to try to expand a little. It's coming along OK, but I'm looking for guidance. We all know the (not sure really what to call it) "well placed, nicely delayed, sparkly droning notes wafting throughout many Hillsong (Live/United, etc)....my question is, do you guys have suggestions to become more versed in picking out this stuff and being able to figure out and fit in my own stuff? Any place you could point me would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

hum the melody from every part of the song and pick it out on the guitar. those are the predominant notes to include in your lead, not necessarily in the order they are sung, of course.

and i prefer my lead to return the listener back to the song. it may be a residual effect of 35 yrs. of bass playing, but, the last bar or two of my lead will almost always head back in the direction of the melody or climb a scale, or decend a scale, or some sort of signal to the ear that "this solo is almost over and we're going to rejoin the tune now." each song will present a way to let you do that if you have time to work it out. just try to let your leads go somewhere, and not just hang around playing notes simply because they fit.

Hillsong has video demos of all of the lead and rhythm guitar parts for their latest CD "God Is Able" on their blog site:

http://hillsongcollected.com/creative/god-is-able-guitar-parts

They also have some videos on YouTube, where they demonstrate their delay setups.

Personally, I dig Hillsong (and do a lot of their stuff at church), but tire of their double delays & nonstop 2 & 3 note riffs after a song or two. I think many of their songs sound better without it. As always, YMMV.

Something the 'clicked' when I joined my church's P&W band years back, with assistance from other team players more versed in the genre - is to avoid the maj 3rd degree of major chords, especially when playing your root and fourth.

If you're in say, C, hanging close to C, G and D ie add2 or add9. These notes blend across chord changes when you factor in the ambient delay that typically gets used. You can get away with more delay (feedback and level) if its rhythmic - either 1/4 notes, dotted 8ths or 8ths to the songs tempo. But then you have to play less, and choose notes more carefully.

Add colour with maj7 or add9, primarily. This way when you do play the 3rd its quite purposeful and introduces a defined major sound, depending on what suits the song.

On minor II, III and VI target the min3rd and flat7 of the chord.

Eg - outline these chords:

Cadd9 (avoid maj 3rd)
Dm7 (target min 3rd and b7, avoid 5th)
Em7 (target min 3rd and b7, avoid 5th)
Fadd2 (avoid maj 3rd)
Gsus4 (resolve sus4 as suited)
Am7 (target min 3rd and b7, avoid 5th)

You should see alot of overlapping notes, get used to those that are common to all, then add back the rest.

make sure you have a delay that has dotted eighth and tap tempo ability.

Thanks for the input! Tylermoss...I'm running through a Pod XT Live into the board, so I'm good with delays and tap.

Nub...the 2-3 note riffs are kinda what I'm searching for. For our sets, those little subtle "extras" add that "something" in our songs. I do a lot of swells, triads, etc already, just trying to expand a bit.

I appreciate all the suggestions!

Try arpeggiating 3 or 4 notes of the chords but playing them higher on the neck than the rhythm chords. Add some chorus too.

Nub...the 2-3 note riffs are kinda what I'm searching for.



Yeah, I know... I was just gettin' my "cranky old man" on. :lol:

Seriously, the Hillsong Collected link is a great resource for that kind of stuff.

Something the 'clicked' when I joined my church's P&W band years back, with assistance from other team players more versed in the genre - is to avoid the maj 3rd degree of major chords, especially when playing your root and fourth.

If you're in say, C, hanging close to C, G and D ie add2 or add9. These notes blend across chord changes when you factor in the ambient delay that typically gets used. You can get away with more delay (feedback and level) if its rhythmic - either 1/4 notes, dotted 8ths or 8ths to the songs tempo. But then you have to play less, and choose notes more carefully.

Add colour with maj7 or add9, primarily. This way when you do play the 3rd its quite purposeful and introduces a defined major sound, depending on what suits the song.

On minor II, III and VI target the min3rd and flat7 of the chord.

Eg - outline these chords:

Cadd9 (avoid maj 3rd)
Dm7 (target min 3rd and b7, avoid 5th)
Em7 (target min 3rd and b7, avoid 5th)
Fadd2 (avoid maj 3rd)
Gsus4 (resolve sus4 as suited)
Am7 (target min 3rd and b7, avoid 5th)

You should see alot of overlapping notes, get used to those that are common to all, then add back the rest.

Wow. This is awesome stuff. I play my leads by ear mostly, not thinking the theory behind it, just playing stuff that sounds good to me. But after reading this post and as I think about it, I pretty much play this.

I would also add, learn these shapes all up and down the neck. I guess I have without really thinking about it.

Lol! I will ck out the Hillsong link. Thanks!

Wow, I'm learning a lot from this thread too - right down my alley.

Maybe this is what is referred to as "ambient delay" in previous responses, but on my effects, it's called "modulated" delay. It sounds kind of shimmery. That, with a dotted 8th timing, gets you 80% there. Then maybe add a quarter delay.

Wow. This is awesome stuff. I play my leads by ear mostly, not thinking the theory behind it, just playing stuff that sounds good to me. But after reading this post and as I think about it, I pretty much play this.



If you play lead tones, it is nice to 'fatten' them up with open string melodies or double stops. I.e. play a riff in G using the B string and play open G simultaneously. Droff uses a lot of octave shapes to add texture.

I know there are YouTube clips of the highly talented Nigel Hendroff demonstrating some of his Hillsongs. His cousin is a great friend of mine who brought me to the Lord nearly 20 years ago.

In a lead where you're all by yourself, 9s and suspendeds and such are fine. Be careful if you have a choir doing harmonies or an acoustic player pulling those. You'll get big time clashes. If you are sharing the sound with others doing that, either everyone does it or you really want to back off and stick with where the chords are going.

If you're following a specific mp3, start out by picking out the stuff that's on the mp3 and just write it all down and play it as a cover. If you have more time (I never do...lucky if I get 2 days), you can certainly expand and go outside of what they're doing.

Good point.

IMO add9 generally fits with everything, its the safe zone chord even with keys choir and other guitars present :wink:

Its the maj7 that you have to watch, in case there is a strong tonic present. The other is the sus4 on the V chord, if the others are resolving to just a straight V. Vice versa in both cases of course.

Essentially, the semi-tone clashes are the ones to avoid in particular.

Sometimes I play a "pedal tone" chord while everyone else is doing the chord changes, and it can sound pretty cool.

Say for example, you're in the key of G--while everyone else is playing G C Em D or whatever, you can just play a G triad over that on the 7th fret (shaped like a D chord).

You can also do some alternate picking on just the G and B string while playing partial chords higher up on the neck. That can sound very nice with some ambient delay.

If you "add 9, avoid maj 3rd" you are basically playing a [sus]2, which seems to get more usage than even the sus4. The point of the sus chords is to remove that close "dissonance" by simply eliminating the 3rd. But, sometimes you want it (e.g., maj7), but you have to find a form that puts the semitones far enough apart to keep things harmonic.

Here's two forms I use a lot, in fact, we did "Invitacion Fountain" last week, and mostly I just kept going back and forth between these two chords over a G - C change.

G2

E[--5-----
B[--8-----
G[--7-----
D[--5-----
A[--5-----
E[--------


Technically a G/D add4, but close enough to a Cmaj9 to fit the G - C (and worked well with the melody).

E[--7-----
B[--8-----
G[--5-----
D[--5-----
A[--5-----
E[--------

I guess what I'm working at is that a lot of (but not all) times you want to find chord forms that can allow you to make a chord change without big shifts, and continue the droning effect. Learn what forms can do double duty, like the G[sus]2 (wait, that's the same notes as a Dsus[4]!), or the G/Dadd4, Cmaj9, etc., etc.

Keyboard players think like this more, because inherent layout of the instrument lends itself to moving one or two fingers to change chords, unlike guitar which is biased towards moving of fixed shapes along the neck.