When a keyboardist solos like a guitarist....

[ABECK]

I remember seeing this years ago, but stumbled on it again today. This is absolutely one of the best uses of pitch bend I can think of. Clearly approaching the bends like a guitar player would and it kills. The band is loving it (really, how often does the band stop to watch a keyboard solo??) Even Stephen Gadd is digging it hard!! Goes to show the sound isn't as important as the performance. Love this.

 

Keys solo at 8:06

[video:youtube]

[Morrissey]

Fantastic solo. Great use of the Nord pitch stick; probably made it easier to play that style than a traditional wheel.

 

If you've never gigged Old Love, I highly recommend it. One of those songs that is fun to listen to but even more fun to play. Those great tension/release moments bands sometimes have to seek out in other tunes are built right into this song.

[Morrissey]

Oh, and I admire Carmon's restraint in building this solo. I'm constantly challenged to exercise that type of patience.

[timwat]

Tim Carmon, on the taped-up Nord L......

[Docbop]

Oh, and I admire Collins's restraint in building this solo. I'm constantly challenged to exercise that type of patience.

 

Tim Carmon is a PK growing up in the church he know how to build and build taking the people where he wants.

[EscapeRocks]

channeling his inner Frampton, and I'm here for it. Loved it!

[TommyRude]

The only thing that would make this better is if he was doing it on a keytar!

[El Lobo]

That's how to build a solo. It doesn't take speed, or going "outside", or anything other than expressiveness, feeling it.

[El Lobo]

This guy plays signature guitar riffs on the Roland Lucina keytar. (Full disclosure: I own one of these. It was a failed product by Roland that was discontinued. I got it cheap.)

 

[MathOfInsects]

Loved the slow build, and particularly liked the first few rounds. And it really needs to be said that much if not all of what allows this to work is the sensitivity and organic musicality of the band, who know exactly when to clear out of the way, and when to support and build along with the soloist--which he also knows they know. You couldn't pull this off at the open mic, for sure.

[ProfD]

Tim Carmon is a fellow Washington DC native.

[AnotherScott]

Great use of the Nord pitch stick; probably made it easier to play that style than a traditional wheel.

Yup. "Nord Lead" may be a bit of an inside joke here, but they're great synths, and the pitch stick is the best bender I've ever played, except for maybe the old CS60/CS80 ribbon.

[niacin]

the Hammond comping on tnis is also so good, notable particularly during the early section where Tim leaves plenty of space. I get to play Old Love regularly with a very fine guitarist/singer who styles himself very much on Clapton. The arc of the song is superb. I'm not a fan of many synth solos, but this is a masterclass.

[rickzjamm]

As Mathofinsects said, having the support of the band around you & knowing when to get out of the way... that's how the big boys do it!!

[Tom Williams]

Wow. I agree with all previous analyses.

 

I've spent 30+ years working on guitar-like synthesis techniques. Looks like I will need at least another 30....

[Baldwin Funster]

Solo like a guitarist? Well close but I would want to see more "guitar face". And maybe some "smell the cheese" frowns. That's how you know its emotional.

[Tusker]

Very emotional playing. I wonder how he is controlling the filter?

[Spider76]

As others have said, as good as the solo is, after a while all I was listening to was the awesome interplay of the band.

[Steve Nathan]

Great playing. Essence of true Blues soloing. That said, I didn't care for the sound, other than the filter control, and the pitch stick vibrato was just too fast imho. Even BB doesn't put that much into it!

[El Lobo]

A different Tim Carmon solo at 1:20, with Clapton & Allman Bros. band (Derek Trucks).

 

[KuruPrionz]

Tim Carmon is a great musician, no two ways about it. I really enjoyed listening.

 

To a guitarist (me) he sounds like a keyboardist trying to sound guitar-ish. The music is still great but guitar does not sound the same. There is a sameness of tone that screams keyboards. He has the licks but not the sounds. The sounds matter, it's part of what makes guitar guitar.

 

I don't hear the same variations in tone that can be obtained by instant changes in picking/plucking the string, including tonal variations made by picking in different spots (near the neck, by the bridge), popping harmonics, subtle differences of attack etc.

Not one triple stop with one note bent and the other two stationary. Lots of us guitarists do things like that in various ways. I'd settle for a double stop with one stationary note and one shifting pitch, that would be a start at least - guitarists do that all the time.

 

If you stand close to your amp with the right guitar and position it just so while holding a note, the note may not only sustain but harmonics begin to bloom.

 

Last but not least and as Steve Nathan pointed out, Tim's vibrato is pretty consistently frantic. I do frantic vibrato too but not every time. Some vibratos are slower, you can make a guitar "sob" if you bend the note up a step and half or two and slowly drop it back down while slowly working a vibrato on the way down.

 

If your guitarist never does those things then he needs to be the lead singer (and a really good one) or you need to shop around for better players.

[ABECK]

That's what I've really enjoyed since picking up the guitar a few years ago. The amount of articulations available and dynamic flexibility absolutely adds to the ability of the player to be so much more expressive.

As for the Tim Carmon solo - while not as expressive as a real guitar, I'd say he's using the tools (bends, filter, vibrato, note approaches) in the most expressive way possible.

[ProfD]

To a guitarist (me) he sounds like a keyboardist trying to sound guitar-ish. The music is still great but guitar does not sound the same. There is a sameness of tone that screams keyboards. He has the licks but not the sounds. The sounds matter, it's part of what makes guitar guitar.

As a huge proponent of KB players, I'm perfectly fine with Tim's solo screaming keyboard albeit with soul.

 

I think KB sounds in a solo context should stand on their own and be distinguishable from guitar.

[Mike Davis]

Such restraint! He took his time, which is not that easy to do. Great stuff.

[KuruPrionz]

To a guitarist (me) he sounds like a keyboardist trying to sound guitar-ish. The music is still great but guitar does not sound the same. There is a sameness of tone that screams keyboards. He has the licks but not the sounds. The sounds matter, it's part of what makes guitar guitar.

As a huge proponent of KB players, I'm perfectly fine with Tim's solo screaming keyboard albeit with soul.

 

I think KB sounds in a solo context should stand on their own and be distinguishable from guitar.

 

I'm fine with it too. I'm simply stating a perspective, one you also hold. Keyboards are keyboards and guitars are guitars. It really is that simple.

 

Tell me a trumpet sounds like a clarinet and I'll say the same thing. Cheers, Kuru

[El Lobo]

Tell me a trumpet sounds like a clarinet and I'll say the same thing. Cheers, Kuru

Gig stories: I'm playing tenor sax at a jam. The guy who is singing and playing guitar looks at me to solo and says "Trombone!" Another gig on tenor sax: attractive woman comes up to me and says "I really like your clarinet." There are a lot of things that could have been said at this point. I said none of them.

[nadroj]

Unpopular opinion, but I wasn't a fan of it! Like many of you, I really appreciate his restraint, style and control - my playing certainly isn't mature enough be as musical as that in that context...but to my ears it just felt like it didn't go anywhere. I kept waiting for a climax that never came ()

 

Obviously the dude could run circles around me, but this particular solo didn't do it for me. Love the style, though. The difference between a player who's good at pitch-bending and one who's mediocre is vast.

[Outkaster]

On a side note it was a nice solo but I wouldn't have jumped in with the Leslie on fast. It would be more interesting to lead up to something keeping it on slow at first but that's just me.

[KuruPrionz]

Tell me a trumpet sounds like a clarinet and I'll say the same thing. Cheers, Kuru

Gig stories: I'm playing tenor sax at a jam. The guy who is singing and playing guitar looks at me to solo and says "Trombone!" Another gig on tenor sax: attractive woman comes up to me and says "I really like your clarinet." There are a lot of things that could have been said at this point. I said none of them.

 

 

Hah! A friend of mine was gigging on pedal steel guitar and somebody told him they really liked his "electric table."

[Dr Mike Metlay]

A very tasteful solo. I would have tweaked the sound a bit to my own tastes, but that's me and not him. The pitch stick on the Nord makes all the difference, it's a brilliant design. The Nonlinear Labs C15 tried to do something similar, but the shape of the button encouraged a fingertip touch rather than the pad or first joint, making musical use pretty difficult.

 

Very emotional playing. I wonder how he is controlling the filter?

I kept hoping the camera would focus on him during one of those sweeps. It could be the mod wheel under his thumb (another brilliant bit of ergonomics!) or a foot pedal. He never once touches the knobs. I would normally guess aftertouch, but Clavia didn't add that until the Nord Lead 3, more's the pity.

 

This guy plays signature guitar riffs on the Roland Lucina keytar. (Full disclosure: I own one of these. It was a failed product by Roland that was discontinued. I got it cheap.)

Alas, the Lucina...

 

It was the last and hardest-to-take failure of Roland keytars for me. It was compact, easy to play, and sounded really good... but it didn't have aftertouch, which didn't come back until the enormously heavy, bulky, and expensive (not to mention hideously ugly) AX-Edge. And my prohibition of non-aftertouch keyboards in my rig is never more strict than when it comes to keytars... ever since the days of my Roland AXIS (the original and still the best of the Rolands) and Yamaha KX5 (brilliantly simple), I've used aftertouch more than the bender when I play, and I've missed it terribly. Sigh.

 

YMMV of course... Tim sure as hell didn't need aftertouch for that yummy solo!