Ever since music came to play, it’s main star has always been the bright alluring voices of singers who brought a whole new dynamic to the music they accompanied. For ages, every instrument has looked over on how to best accompany the vocalist, make them shine, and live in the backseat for the benefit of the art, but this is no more. As time has gone by, so has the growth of music and thus, growth in knowledge of the instrument, giving us modern day classics where instruments have their own voice, shining brightly with solos, melodies and riffs that mimic the standard pieces of a song, if not expanding on the same, experimenting with sections and rhythms and time signatures vocalists wouldn’t dare venturing near. The uniqueness of instrumentals brings a new emotion to what we’re all accustomed to be, dictating mood and pace oh, so well, and with ease.
The movement started with classical music, transitioning to jazz, and when the rest of the world realized their instruments could sing too, instrumentals hit the world like a storm, with bands and solo artists exploring the genres of blues, neo-classical, jazz, progressive metal and rock, and most recently, djent, to the extent where the vocals are rendered redundant, but only in specific genres. Vocals are still considered instrumental in most hip-hip, pop and rap songs, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change anytime soon.
The first genre we’d discussed would be jazz, simply because it would be pioneers, the harbingers, pretty much the godfathers of instrumentals. This is a genre where every individual instrument, be it by itself, in a band, or in an orchestra, can shine while also being an integral part of the music created together, or as a family of instruments that shine together. Many artists like Nate smith, Ari Hoenig, John Coltrane, Miles Davis and many more brought a new life to their instruments- the drums and keyboards and saxophones, playing with time signatures like toys, leaving behind masterpieces. One of John Coltrane’s most well known works, a song called “Giant Steps” was a revolution for music theory, bringing a whole new method to playing scales and improvisation, a song which budding jazz musicians still find difficult to improvise to and play over. “Pocket Change”, one of Nate Smith’s most popular instrumentals, features a polyrhythm that is impossible to make sense of, let alone try to figure out. But maybe that’s the beauty of jazz, where it’s not supposed to make sense, it’s simply to be enjoyed, to let yourself go in every note and let the rhythm throw you around the room, and the extensive knowledge of music theory a jazz musician learns exploits this very well.
The younger, raunchier little brother of jazz instrumentals would be blues, which relies on so much more emotion than jazz, but legend says wars have been fought on what’s the difference between jazz and blues, so asking someone is not recommended. A lot of blues licks laid the foundation for some of the greatest riffs and solos known today, like the verse to “crazy train”, the solo of “heart shaped box”, and much more. Many rock guitarists like Carlos Santana and Eric Clapton draw their inspiration from blues licks and techniques that gives a whole new flavour to their iconic music.
The trend doesn’t stop here. There are many more genres where instrumentals are a major sub-division, adding a whole new madness to the madness that is music. More to come very soon.
By Sharan Aditya
Chords & Co. 