Emma Ruth Rundle: My Naked-at-School Nightmare Is Showing up with No Effects

Los Angeles-native Rundle has five albums as leader to her credit, plus two new collaborations with Thou, as well as recordings with the Nocturnes, Red Sparowes, and Marriages.
The sonic sorceress grabs her baritone Fender and leaps into the maelstrom with sludgemasters Thou for a pair of heavy, effects-laden collaborations: May Our Chambers Be Full and The Helm of Sorrow.
It's virtually impossible to interview anyone nowadays and not have the pandemic come up. The only difference in the conversations is the degree to which it has affected the subject's life. Last March, Emma Ruth Rundle was touring solo—as in, sans backing band—in support of her 2018 release On Dark Horses, when the severity of the pandemic hit. Her last live show was on March 10, at the Fonda Theater in Los Angeles.
"That was a very strange show, because of what was happening," she recalls. "I was on tour with Cult of Luna and Intronaut. We started in February and were in 'tour-land,' so you're kind of in a bubble, where the outside world doesn't really exist and the escalation of the virus—that news wasn't impacting us. We weren't seeing it, but by the time we got to Los Angeles ...," she drifts off, the disbelief still palpable. "I'm from L.A. I was born and raised there, and driving into Hollywood, the streets were fucking empty."
"Showing up with an electric guitar and no effects is my version of the nightmare people have where they go to school with no clothes on."
Riding into an upscale ghost town sounds like an apocalyptic scenario—especially when your livelihood depends on audiences. But the adaptability of Rundle, who recorded during the lockdown and recently released an album and an EP, has been a hallmark of her career. The 37-year-old rose to prominence in the early 2000s with the Nocturnes, a folkgaze ensemble blending chamber-pop, goth, and post-rock elements into the genre. Albums like A Year of Spring (2009) and Aokigahara(2011) spotlighted her as one of the millennium's most inspired rock singer-songwriters. While in the Nocturnes, she branched out to work with post-rockers Red Sparowes, and in 2012 forged a more-straight-ahead rock collaboration under the Marriages moniker with Sparowes bassist Greg Burns. In between her musical partnerships, the prolific Rundle has also released four dazzling solo albums.
A common thread through all of her recordings is her passion for the craft of guitar playing. And her thirst for the new is reflected in that, too. With On Dark Horses, she first delved into baritone guitars—their shadowed tones magnifying Rundle's already somewhat foreboding, light-versus-dark aesthetic. From succinct to bombastic, weighty to crushing, and nuanced to vulnerable, her playing—particularly her baritone-derived soundscapes—toes the line between lilting and bludgeoning.
Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - The Valley (Official Audio)
TIDBIT: Rundle's open baritone tuning differs from Thou's G# standard, but all four guitars on their collaborative album mesh thanks to smartly varying parts and the work of producer/engineer James Whitten.
Rundle's pair of recent recordings, late 2020's May Our Chambers Be Full and the new The Helm of Sorrow EP, mark yet another collaboration—this time with Louisiana sludge-metal lords Thou. Although Thou already had three guitar players, these releases are a perfect refuge for Rundle's low-tuned 6-strings. On Chambers'"Killing Floor," "Out of Existence," and "Magickal Cost," her playing weaves into Thou's majestic guitar tapestry as if it has always been there Meanwhile, her haunting, hypnotic vocals transcend the musical maelstrom with melodies that pierce Thou's musical armor, adding a welcome dimension to their muscular riffing. Check out Helm of Sorrow's cunning cover of the Cranberries' "Hollywood" for a slice of that sublime magic.
The Rundle/Thou union began with what she calls a long internet flirtation. "I've been such a massive fan," she admits. "I was listening to them a lot and tagging them on social media." Rundle, also a painter, would often listen to Thou while she worked. They finally met in 2018, backstage at the Northwest Terror Fest in Seattle. "It was so uncomfortable," she remembers. "There's a lot of them and they each have a very different flavor. Everyone's got a very different personality."
When it comes to conventional electrics, Rundle favors this Guild T-Bird or her Gibson SG Special. "I just don't think you can beat an SG," she says.
Photo by Debi Del Grande
Their musical partnership with Rundle kicked off when, in April 2019, Thou was invited to be the artists-in-residence at the Roadburn Festival in the Netherlands. Artists-in-residence perform a collaborative set with an artist of their choosing, so Thou asked Rundle. "That was so much fun," she explains. "I was like, 'Fuck yeah, I'm not going to miss this opportunity.' It was just such a dream come true to be asked to work with my favorite band. We had to come up with original material for a 40-minute set. That's how it started."
In preparation for Roadburn, they began meeting in New Orleans in February 2019. By then, Rundle and Thou guitarist Andy Gibbs had already been emailing ideas back and forth. "It started like a riff here, a riff there," she recalls. "KC [Stafford, guitar/vocals] came into the project with 'Monolith,' which they had written pretty much all the way through. We just fleshed it out." Rundle says the songwriting process was very involved and thinks maybe her Thou cohorts were a bit surprised by her level of commitment. "I think some of their other collaborations were just … expedient," she surmises, carefully choosing her words. "Whereas we were really crafting full songs from absolutely nothing."
"Because I play in a different tuning than everyone else, sometimes I couldn't play the same riffs as them—the voicing would be really strange."
Before heading off to Roadburn, Thou and Rundle embarked on a short tour to warm up for the festival. Rundle performed solo as an opener, and Thou would play their own set, and every few nights they would inject their collaborative performance. "It was like, if the final album is a sculpture that's realized, where you can see features and details, what we had by the time we got to Roadburn was just a lump of clay," she admits. "I recently heard the set from Roadburn, and I can tell I was totally making things up that just sounded like words. [laughs]. It evolved a lot more after we played that set."
A lot of Thou's mighty sound relies on the number of guitars playing the same down-tuned riff. In addition to Gibbs and Stafford, the band includes Matthew Thudium on guitar and Mitch Wells on bass, so fitting into that heavy alignment provided some challenges for Rundle. She says they made it work with the help of producer/engineer James Whitten, who she refers to as Thou's secret weapon. He recorded both May Our Chambers Be Full and The Helm of Sorrow at High Tower Music in New Orleans."
Emma Ruth Rundle's Gear
With 2018's On Dark Horses, Emma Ruth Rundle adopted the Fender Jaguar Special Baritone HH as her main instrument. "They don't make it anymore," she relates, "but it has humbuckers, which is the reason why I really love it."
Photo by Tim Bugbee/Tinnitus Photography
Guitars
- Two Fender Jaguar Special Baritone HHs
- Gibson SG Special
- Guild S-200 T-Bird
- Dunable Yeti
- Cordoba Luthier Series GK Pro
- Blueridge BR-143 Historic Series
Strings
- D'Addario EJ21 sets (standard-scale guitars)
- D'Addario EXL158 sets (baritones)
- D'Addario EJ46 sets (nylon strings)
- D'Addario EJ17 sets (steel-string acoustics)
Amps
- Roland JC-120
- Verellen 2x12 combo based on the Loucks head
Effects
- Korg Pitchblack tuner
- Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork
- EarthQuaker Devices Arrows
- EarthQuaker Devices Palisades
- Keeley Loomer
- Electro-Harmonix Stereo Memory Man with Hazarai
- Line 6 M9
- Two Boss DD-6 Digital Delays
- Boss RV-5 Digital Reverb
- Red Panda Context
James is a genius with guitar tone and with finding a place for all of the guitars," Rundle says. "There is some mystery and mystique to his method. There's no way to have four guitars happening all the time and have it sound that good. I think he's doing some magic and picking and choosing. It was a surprise to hear what moments came out."
It's worth noting that Rundle plays in a different tuning than the rest of Thou, which further complicated how the guitars intermingled. The tuning on Rundle's baritone is G#–C#– G#–A#–C#–G#—an open tuning that lets her barre chords with a single index finger. Thou's tuning, according to Gibbs, is G# standard, just like standard tuning, except the lowest string is G#. "The process went like this," Rundle says. "There would be basic riffs. We would all learn them together, and that would form the basis of the song. But because I play in a different tuning than everyone else, sometimes I couldn't play the same riffs as them—the voicing would be really strange." In some cases, Rundle says it also just didn't make sense to have four guitars and a bass player playing the same drop-tuned riff together. So sometimes she would play other parts. "It made sense to have a little lead melody happening or a different chord voicing," she says. "That's how we made it work. There are times where I'm playing the same 'sort-of' riffs, but there are a lot of moments where it's either a finger-picked thing or a little lead line."
Emma Ruth Rundle Rig Rundown
Exclusively a fingerstylist, Rundle uses acrylic nails to pluck her primary guitar, a Fender Jaguar Special Baritone HH. "They don't make it anymore," she relates, "but it has humbuckers, which is the reason why I really love it. That specific model was what got me into playing baritone guitars."
Because the baritone is "pretty wonky" intonation-wise, Rundle also wields a Gibson SG Special, a Guild S-200 T-Bird (both in C# tuning), and a new Dunable Yeti that was custom built for her by Intronaut's Sacha Dunable. "With the Fender, you can't get the intonation right," she says. "It's just the nature of the scale length—and then I'm doing drop-tuning on a drop-tuned instrument! It's flawed in so many ways." [Editor's note: The Jaguar Special bari has a 27" scale, whereas "true" baritones are typically 28" or more in order to intonate more accurately across the fretboard.] Ultimately, she concludes, "I just don't think you can beat an SG." She says that instrument's fretboard reminds her of the classical guitars she learned to fingerpick on—and that she still uses to write and practice on. "To me, the SG is the perfect guitar."
In addition to the baritone, effects are crucial to Rundle's sound and style. "I consider my pedalboard an instrument that I wouldn't want to do any of this stuff without. It's like a palette of tones and effects that you know will work in any given situation. After a certain amount of time, you just know when something has to have a super-hot fuzz with an octave on it for it to cut through at the right moment and make sense. And if I have an EBow, I know it's always going to go with either a slide or a really slow delay."
For acoustic guitars, Rundle uses either a Cordoba GK Pro nylon-string or this Blueridge BR-143 Historic Series steel string.
Photo by Geert Breakers
Rundle says her fascination with effects and electric guitar playing happened in parallel. "I got a multi-effects pedal with my first guitar. I think showing up with an electric guitar and no effects is my version of the nightmare people have where they go to school with no clothes on," she laughs. "It's not a place I want to be, you know?"
Speaking of school, it was while working a 13-year stint at McCabe's Guitar Shop, a folk music center in Santa Monica, California, that she received her informal musical education. "We sold instruments, we had concerts, and we had lessons. A lot of the things that I've learned that have made their way into my playing just came from the people there—the teachers that would come down. Pete Steinberg is an amazing, award-winning finger picker, and he'd just be like, 'Come over here. I'm going to show you something.'" And on the rock side, she credits the inspiration of Jimi Hendrix, Billy Corgan, Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love, P.J. Harvey, and, especially, Nancy Wilson.
"I had this revelation when I learned about Heart. It blew my mind—just seeing a woman shred like that. I felt, when I was super young, that I didn't see myself reflected in guitar magazines or in rock music, necessarily. I'm stoked that we don't have the 'bikini-fashion-show-guitar-thing' anymore, you know what I mean?"
Live at Tilburg's Roadburn Festival in 2019, Emma Ruth Rundle and Thou work out the dynamics of their then-upcoming collaborative recordings in the furious "Ancestral Recall."
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See and hear Taylor’s Legacy Collection guitars played by his successor, Andy Powers.
Last year, Taylor Guitars capped its 50th Anniversary by introducing a new guitar collection celebrating the contributions of co-founders Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug to the guitar world. The Legacy Collection revives five of Bob Taylor’s classic acoustic models, curated by the legendary luthier and innovator himself. “To imagine that we’re doing guitars that harken to our past, our present and our future all at the same time,” Bob says, “I really like that.”
In developing the collection, Bob preserved the essence of his originals while integrating performance and playability upgrades introduced during his tenure as designer-in-chief. “It’s an up-to-date version of what those guitars would be,” Bob explains, “but with the same sound.”
Visually, these guitars feel classic—clean, understated and unmistakably Taylor. While Bob’s original aesthetic preferences are showcased in his Legacy models, the nod to the past runs deeper than trade dress.
From his earliest builds, Bob favored slim-profile necks because he found them easier to play. That preference set a design precedent that established Taylor’s reputation for smooth-playing, comfortable necks. Legacy models feature slim mahogany necks built with Taylor's patented New Technology (NT) design. “My first neck was a bolted-on neck but not an NT neck,” Bob says. “These are NT necks because it’s a better neck.” Introduced in 1999, the NT neck allowed for unprecedented micro-adjustability while offering a consistent, hand-friendly Taylor playing experience.
What makes this collection unique within the Taylor line is Bob’s use of his X-bracing architecture, favoring his time-tested internal voicing framework over more recent Taylor bracing innovations to evoke a distinctive tone profile. Since Andy Powers—Taylor’s current Chief Guitar Designer, President and CEO—debuted his patented V-Class bracing in 2018, V-Class has become a staple in Taylor’s premium-performance guitars. Still, Bob’s X-bracing pattern produces a richly textured sound with pleasing volume, balance and clarity that long defined the Taylor voice. All Legacy models feature LR Baggs VTC Element electronics, which Bob says “harkens back to those days.”
The team at Taylor thought the best way to demonstrate the sound of the Legacy guitars was to ask Andy Powers, Bob’s successor, to play them. A world-class luthier and musician, Andy has spent the past 14 years leading Taylor’s guitar innovation. In addition to V-Class bracing, his contributions include the Grand Pacific body style, the ultra-refined Builder’s Edition Collection, and most recently, the stunning Gold Label Collection.
Below you’ll find a series of videos that feature Powers playing each Legacy model along with information about the guitars.
Legacy 800 Series Models
First launched in 1975, the 800 Series was Taylor’s first official guitar series. Today, it remains home to some of the brand’s most acclaimed instruments, including the flagship 814ce, Builder’s Edition 814ce and new Gold Label 814e.
The Legacy 800 Series features the 810e Dreadnought and two Jumbos: the 6-string 815e and 12-string 855e. Each model serves up a refined version of the Dreadnought and Jumbo body shapes Bob inherited from Sam Radding—the original owner of the American Dream music shop where Bob and Kurt first met. “I was making my guitars in the molds that Sam had made at American Dream,” Bob recalls. “There was a Jumbo and a Dreadnought. That’s all we had.”
All three Legacy 800 Series guitars feature one of Bob’s favorite tonewood combos. Solid Indian rosewood back and sides are paired with a Sitka spruce top, yielding warm lows, clear trebles and a scooped midrange.
Aesthetic appointments include a three-ring abalone rosette, mother-of-pearl Large Diamond inlays, white binding around the body and fretboard, and Bob’s “straight-ear” peghead design. Both Jumbo models also showcase a mustache-style ebony bridge—a nod to Bob’s early Jumbo builds.
Legacy 810e
The 810 Dreadnought holds a special place in Bob Taylor’s heart. “My first 810, the one I made for myself, was a thrilling guitar for me to make,” he says. “It’s the one and only guitar I played. It didn’t matter how many guitars we made at Taylor, that’s the one I took out and played.” The Legacy 810e brings back that bold, room-filling Dreadnought voice along with the easy playability expected from a Taylor.
Taylor Guitars | Legacy 810e | Playthrough Demo
Legacy 855e
Taylor’s first 12-strings found an audience in 1970s Los Angeles. “I was making guitars that would find their way to McCabe’s in Santa Monica and Westwood Music,” Bob says, “and these guitars were easy to play. Twelve-strings were a popular sound in that music. It was a modern country/folk/rock music genre that was accepting our guitars because they were easy to play. They also liked the sound of them because our guitars were easier to record.” The Legacy 855e, with its resonant Jumbo body, slim neck and gorgeous octave sparkle, carries that tradition forward.
Taylor Guitars | Legacy 855e | Playthrough Demo
Legacy 815e
The Legacy 815e revives Taylor’s original Jumbo 6-string, delivering a big, lush sound with beautifully blooming overtones.
Legacy Grand Auditoriums
In the early 1990s, Bob Taylor heard a consistent refrain from dealers: “Not everybody wants a dreadnought guitar anymore.” Players were asking for something with comparable volume but different proportions—something more comfortable, yet still powerful. This feedback inspired Bob to design a new body style with more elegant curves, more accommodating proportions and a balanced tonal response. The result was the Grand Auditorium, which Taylor introduced in 1994 to celebrate its 20th anniversary.
Thanks to its musical versatility and easy playability, Bob’s Grand Auditorium attracted a wide variety of players. “We came into our own with our Grand Auditorium,” he says. “People were describing it as ‘all around.’ It’s a good strummer and good for fingerstyle, but it’s not totally geared toward strumming or totally geared toward fingerstyle.” Also referred to as the “Swiss-Army Knife” of guitars or the “Goldilocks” guitar, the GA quickly became a favorite among guitarists across playing styles, musical genres and different playing applications including recording and live performance. “That guitar made studio work successful,” Bob says. It gained a wider fanbase with the debut of the “ce” version, which introduced a Venetian cutaway and onboard electronics. “That became one of our hallmarks,” says Bob. “If you want to plug in your guitar, buy a Taylor.”
Today, the Grand Auditorium is Taylor’s best-selling body shape.
The Legacy Collection features two cedar-top Grand Auditoriums inspired by past favorites: the mahogany/cedar 514ce and rosewood/cedar 714ce. Both models incorporate Bob’s original X-bracing pattern for a tonal character reminiscent of their 1990s and 2000s counterparts. Shared aesthetic details include a green abalone three-ring rosette, ebony bridge pins with green abalone dots, a faux-tortoiseshell pickguard and Taylor gold tuning machines.
Taylor Guitars | Legacy 815e | Playthrough Demo
Legacy 514ce
The Legacy 514ce features solid mahogany back and sides paired with a Western Red cedar top, yielding a punchy midrange and dry, woody sonic personality that pairs beautifully with cedar’s soft-touch sensitivity and warmth. It’s a standout choice for fingerstyle players and light strummers who crave nuance and depth. Distinct visual details include faux-tortoise body and fretboard binding, black-and-white top trim, and mother-of-pearl small diamond fretboard inlays.
Taylor Guitars | Legacy 514ce | Playthrough Demo
Legacy 714ce
The Legacy 714ce also features a cedar top, this time matched with solid Indian rosewood back and sides. The result is a richly textured sound with deep lows, clear trebles and a warm, mellow response. Inspiring as it is, this specific wood pairing isn’t currently offered in any other standard Taylor model. Additional aesthetic details include green abalone dot fretboard inlays, black body and fretboard binding, and black-and-white “pinstripe” body purfling.
While the Legacy Collection spotlights Taylor’s past, newer models from the Gold Label, Builder’s Edition and Somos Collections show the company’s legacy is always evolving. Explore the Legacy Collection at taylorguitars.com or visit your local authorized Taylor dealer.
Taylor Guitars | Legacy 714ce | Playthrough Demo
For the first time ever, two guitar greats, John 5 and Richie Kotzen will be heading out on the road this year. The tour will launch October 16 and run through November, hitting markets across the U.S.
Find the full tour itinerary right plus a link for tickets & VIP, including additional dates featuring John 5 only. Reserved seating tickets will go on sale Friday May 16 though a fan presale will begin today at noon local time and fans are strongly encouraged to buy early to get the best seats.
Meet and Greets for both artists will be available. For John 5 please go to: https://john5store.com/collections/vip.
Today, John 5 also announces more details of his anticipated new album. Called The Ghost, it will be released October 10 and is led by the new track “Fiend,” featuring Kenny Aronoff.
John 5 continues running public tours this month for his Knights In Satan’s Service Museum of KISS Memorabilia in Los Angeles, California. Guided tours are open to the public for one month only (with a possible expansion). Current dates available are May 12-16, May 19-23 and May 27-30. Each will be led by John 5 himself who will provide tons of rich detail and answer any questions. Secure your place HERE.
JOHN 5 continues to tour with Mötley Crüe including an upcoming residency in Las Vegas in 2025.RICHIE KOTZEN &
JOHN 5 FALL 2025 TOUR
October 16 El Cajon, CA @ Magnolia
October 17 Riverside, CA @ Fox Performing Arts
October 18 Roseville, CA @ Goldfield Trading Post
October 19 San Jose, CA @ The Ritz
October 21 Phoenix, AZ @ Celebrity Theatre
October 22 Albuquerque, NM @ KiMo Theatre
October 24 Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater
October 25 Leander, TX @ The Haute Spot
October 27 New Orleans, LA @ House of Blues
October 28 Memphis, TN @ Minglewood Hall
October 29 Nashville, TN @ Fogg Street Lawn Club
October 30 Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
October 31 Orlando, FL @ House of Blues
November 1 Fort Lauderdale, FL @ Culture Room
November 2 Clearwater, FL @ Capitol Theatre
November 4 Richmond, VA @ The National
November 5 Leesburg, VA @ Tally Ho Theater
November 6 Patchogue, NY @ Patchogue Theatre
November 11 Glenside, PA @ Keswick Theatre
November 12 Derry, NH @ Tupelo Music Hall
November 13 Foxborough, MA @ Six String Grill & Stage
November 14 Stroudsburg, PA @ Sherman Theater
November 15 Lorain, OH @ Lorain Palace Theatre
November 16 Columbus, OH @ The King Of Clubs
November 17 Warrendale, PA @ Jergels
November 19 Wyandotte, MI @ District 142
November 20 Flint, MI @ The Machine Shop
November 21 Fort Wayne, IN @ Piere’s
November 22 St. Charles, IL @ Arcada Theatre
November 23 Belvidere, IL @ Apollo Theatre
November 25 Denver, CO @ Oriental Theater
November 29 Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy & Harriet's*
*John 5 only
AEROSMITH guitarist and songwriter JOE PERRY is set to return to the road for a series of August performances with THE JOE PERRY PROJECT. The 8-date run kicks off August 13 in Tampa, FL and wraps August 23 in Port Chester, New York, with an August 19 performance in PERRY’s Boston hometown (see the itinerary below). For the North American trek—which marks the first solo shows for PERRY this year—the legendary guitarist will be joined by his Aerosmith bandmates Brad Whitford (guitar) and Buck Johnson (keys), along with The Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson (vocals), and Stone Temple Pilots’ Robert DeLeo (bass), and Eric Kretz (drums).
“Well…it’s time to let the music do the talkin again,” PERRY says. “I’m really excited about the JPP line up this year!!!! Most of these guys played with me at The Roxy in L.A. at the debut event for my latest solo album [Sweetzerland Manifesto] in January 2018. They’re all busy as hell but thankfully they’re able to carve out some time for this run. And I’m not only lucky enough to have Brad Whitford onstage with me but Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes! [who sang ‘Fortunate One’ on Sweetzerland Manifesto MKII], Robert DeLeo and Eric Kretz from STP!!! and Buck Johnson who plays keys and sings with Aerosmith, the Hollywood Vampires, and is also a solo artist in his own right.”
For the shows, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee says “the set list is gonna include my fav JPP cuts, STP, Black Crowes, and with Brad we’ll be hitting the Aero hits and some deep cuts and then ya never know!!!! Gonna be a BLAST, and if you’ve ever been to one of my shows you know the words GARAGE BAND on STEROIDS come to mind! See you there!!!!”
DATE | LOCATION | VENUE |
Wednesday, August 13 | Tampa, FL | Seminole Hard Rock - Tampa |
Thursday, August 14 | Hollywood, FL | Seminole Hard Rock - Hollywood |
Saturday, August 16 | Toronto, ON | HISTORY |
Sunday, August 17 | Muskoka, ON | Kee to Bala |
Tuesday, August 19 | Boston, MA | Wang Theatre |
Wednesday, August 20 | Hampton Beach, NH | Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom |
Friday, August 22 | Mashantucket, CT | The Premier Theater at Foxwoods Resort Casino |
Saturday, August 23 | Port Chester, NY | Capitol Theatre |
Classic counterpoint techniques that work for surf.
Intermediate
Intermediate
• Learn some time-honored guidelines of classical composition.
• Apply revered rules to more modern styles.
• Create interesting and complex surf lines.The term counterpoint scares many people who think it is a carefully devised process that strips you of creative freedom. This is partly true, because some individuals have pushed the practice of counterpoint as strict rules at some point without explaining its purpose. I disagree with the view that music theory is a rule. Counterpoint, like serialism or any other principle of harmony, is simply a recipe for an expected result. These music theory recipes are not baking recipes where exact measurements must be made; music theory is more like cooking, which is more malleable and open to in-the-moment modifications.
Species Counterpoint
Why was counterpoint invented? Counterpoint has two primary goals: first, to ensure parts are singable, and second, to keep each “voice” independent. Let’s discuss the intervals aspect first. Some intervals are challenging to sing. Tritones, for instance, are not easy for even professional singers to hear and sing when sight reading. Even when time is spent with a piece, getting used to tritones takes a bit of digestion. (This is the main reason tritones were avoided for so long in music. Music was primarily vocal-based for quite some time, such as in 16th century Italian composer Giovanni Palestrina’s music. Carelessly placing tritones would make the music very difficult to sing.) With guitar, we don’t have to hear the notes before we play. We should, but it’s not required (and sometimes that’s what gets us in trouble). The species counterpoint recipe is designed to avoid certain dissonant intervals that are not approached by step. In other words, we don’t jump to or from a dissonance.
When music changed and new instruments became available, the recipes of species counterpoint changed, which makes sense as the limitations of hearing a note weren’t as much of an issue. As baroque composer and theorist Johann Joseph Fuchs proposed, the series counterpoint method is a recipe that places us in a particular time in history. By understanding and using the recipe of series counterpoint, we can connect with the rich musical tradition of the past.
Independence
During this same period, one of the main ingredients of music was that each “voice” (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) was to remain independent. You should be able to hear the journey of each voice on its own. The recipes for counterpoint ensure we maintain independence. Playing two 5ths in succession or two octaves in succession sounds unified and thus makes us lose independence. Using counterpoint, we can ensure that we don’t weave in and out of independent and unified sounds. In the era of early counterpoint, say the Palestrina era, composers didn’t think in terms of a predetermined chord progression. They thought about each line and made sure they merged in harmony. The music was written horizontally to ensure the lines didn’t crash or lose independence. This is considerably different from how we often make music in the rock genres of the 20th century. Bach started incorporating the thought of a “vertical” chord progression. Even before the 20th century, the recipes for counterpoint had evolved. But the evolution didn’t make the earlier recipes irrelevant; it added more options to our recipe book.
Voice Leading
Another critical thing about counterpoint is the movement from one note to another. This is similar to the earlier discussion about intervals that are hard to sing. Voice leading is a crucial aspect of counterpoint. It’s the art of connecting one note to another, whether in a single line or with chords. It ensures that our musical lines flow smoothly, guiding the listener’s ear through the composition. Writing a herky-jerky line that jumps all over the place makes it hard to sing. The art of voice leading is writing lines to feel and sound like they unfold and take us on a ride, but not a ride on a road ridden with potholes—think of a newly paved road on a highway. Counterpoint instills in us how to create even motion. So, when you want to create unrest and a feeling of a jerky experience, you’re applying intentionally.
Power of Suggestion
Counterpoint rules are not strict guidelines but rather flexible recipes or suggestions. Composers have always been free to write what they wanted (well, aside from political and religious oppression), using counterpoint to enhance their compositions, and many composers have experimented with expanding the counterpoint recipes. There are times when we need an expected result. This is when you can use tools to help you achieve that outcome. Although counterpoint was most popular in eras that have long since passed, it still holds significant value in our modern music industry. Its recipes, while evolving, continue to provide a solid foundation for contemporary music composition.
Broken Traditions
At some point, composers grew weary of the sounds they had heard for many years and started expanding. They stopped caring about losing the independence of voices and used parallel 5ths and octaves. Sometimes, they stopped caring about voice leading and wrote pointillistic music. Composers even started composing with noise (such as John Cage), or experimenting with electronic means of composition (Delia Derbyshire and Karlheinz Stockhausen). However, counterpoint still existed, and many of these composers, even though they strayed from some of the recipes, still deeply understood its structure, such as Arnold Schoenberg, who invented a system to avoid tonal harmony.
Lesson
I will give you more than just a dry recipe for species counterpoint in this lesson. Instead, I’ll focus on key elements that can be directly applied to your rock and pop compositions, making your music more dynamic and interesting. For each of these examples, I will live in the land of surf music, one of my favorite genres.
Imitation
In fugues, which are species counterpoint-based, we use something called imitation. Imagine we have two guitarists. Guitarist 1 plays a riff or melodic phrase, and then Guitarist 2 plays that same riff right after Guitarist 1 finishes. Guitar 2 is imitating Guitar 1. However, we can adjust the octave and pitches on which the imitation starts to add more variety to its performance.
For Ex. 1, I created a three-measure phrase for guitar 1 that I will imitate in measure two with Guitar 2. Guitar 2 is an exact copycat of Guitar 1, but they don’t play the part at the same time.
Ex. 2: For this example, I will drop the imitation for Guitar 2 an octave lower.
Ex. 3 is where the fun begins. As I mentioned earlier, we can start on different pitches for our imitation. If the theme (measures one through three) implies a key signature (we’re using the key of E minor for each of these examples to keep it simple), we can imply another key for the imitation but keep the same interval relationship and shape of the theme. We will outline the V chord (Bm) for measures four through six. The result is a conversation between two instruments that can move through a chord progression in a song or a couple of key centers for variety. We can use the same idea with guitar and bass or any other combination of instruments.
In counterpoint, we call the first riff or melodic phrase the “theme.” You may wonder what Guitar 1 is supposed to do while Guitar 2 (or in my recorded examples, bass) imitates the first riff. We have two options: One is to play free—you devise a harmony that works on top of the riff, but you don’t have to play this harmony on every imitation. It’s just an accompaniment that happens at that given time, as in Ex. 4a. Ex. 4b uses the same free accompaniment but moves bars four through six to B minor.
The second option is a countertheme. You can write a second riff that plays every time the imitation plays. The theme and countertheme are interconnected. They swap parts back and forth, as we see in Ex. 5a. Ex. 5b uses the same free accompaniment but moves bars four, five, and six to the key of B minor.
We already have a fruit-bearing tree. This technique prolongs material, using the same parts to lengthen and ornament the music you’re making. Johann Sebastian Bach was a master of this, and I highly recommend studying his music if you like imitation, canons, and fugues.
Consonance and Dissonance
Okay, now that you understand the basic concepts of imitation, theme, and countertheme, it’s time to start digging deeper into the concepts of harmony and voice leading. For counterpoint, we have two categories for interval organization. Consonant intervals are unisons, 3rds, 5ths, 6ths, and octaves. We also have dissonant intervals, such as 2nds, 4ths, and 7ths. Ex. 6 features consonant intervals, Ex. 7, dissonant.
In counterpoint, we only use dissonant intervals step by step. We never jump into them or leave them by leap. Jumping into dissonances can be off-putting. Yes, there are times when you want that sound, but there is a difference between knowing how to use dissonance and using dissonance that isn’t working. Ex. 8 is an example of jumping into dissonance. Many guitarists don’t know how to deal with dissonance when soloing, and songwriters sometimes can’t hear poorly approached dissonance when writing melodies. I know … it sure sounds like I’m talking about rules here! But really, it’s about using tools to achieve a desired result or fixing issues rather than strict regulations.
Strong Beats
In classical music, beat 1 is the strongest in the bar, followed by beat 3, the second strongest. Beats 2 and 4 are the strong beats in jazz. We will focus on beat 1 as the strong beat right now. It’s generally essential that beat 1 of each measure is consonant. The recipe states not to use dissonance on strong beats. There is more tolerance for dissonance on weak beats (2 and 4).
This means we must have an overview of our lines and how they meet at each bar on beat 1 (and beat 3). Beats 1 and 3 should be consonant using a unison, 3rd, 5th, 6th, or octave. Using species counterpoint allows us to tell a functional harmony story more clearly, making the story more apparent to the listener.
The Dreaded Parallel Perfect Intervals
If your head isn’t already spinning, get ready. Earlier, I mentioned that we want to maintain independence with each line in the counterpoint. We don’t want to hear them collapse into each other. Unisons, perfect 5ths, and octaves are perfect intervals. They are the most unified-sounding intervals, which means you lose the most independence when using them. Using two back-to-back octaves is a parallel motion of a perfect interval. This means the line’s independence is wholly lost, which we want to avoid in counterpoint. For this reason, we avoid placing parallel perfect 5ths and octaves successive to each other and adjacent strong beats. Check out Ex. 9 to hear parallel octaves and Ex. 10 for parallel 5ths. Bear in mind, of course, that some genres and periods completely disregard this, such as minimalism.
Shapes of Things
We have most of the basics laid out, except one more topic regarding the independence of lines. We want to maintain the independence of the line with interval choice rather than the direction of each line. When we think of musical lines, we want each line to have its own journey but not unfavorably crash into the other. To achieve this, we want each line to have a different shape and follow each other in parallel motion. We have options for variety.
1. Parallel motion: Each line moves in the same direction with perfect intervals (Ex. 11).
2. Similar motion: Each line moves in the same direction with constant intervals (Ex. 12).
3. Oblique motion: When one voice stays in the same position, the other voice moves (Ex. 13).
4. Contrary motion: When both lines move in opposite directions, offering the most independence (Ex. 14).
The idea is to have a variety of shapes to maintain independence of direction.
Final Thoughts
I know this is a lot to take in. Studying counterpoint is no small task. But I hope that this introductory lesson into the concepts of counterpoint illuminates its power as both a creative tool and a troubleshooting device for composing and building solos. Understanding counterpoint means only sometimes considering it in the composition process. You can write as you always do, but if something doesn’t sound right, it’s much easier and faster to diagnose and fix the problem. There are times when composing with counterpoint in mind can be a fantastic tool. It’s up to you to decide when to use the creative recipe.