Help Request: Acoustic Guitar Duets for Wedding Party

[patrickgm60]

A friend has just been requested to provide AG music this Saturday for a large wedding party. Apparently, Plan A was a family-related musician, but he didn't survive the bridal scrutiny at a rehearsal.

He's asked me to join him. We'll do one hour of AG duet music (no vocals). We're both proficient fingerstyle players and have done a few things together, but not this format.

Suggestions for duet instrumentals, please. We are brainstorming and currently have tossed in the ideas of: Baby I Love Your Way; Isn't She Lovely; Shape of my Heart; Just the Two of Us; Ain't no Sunshine when She's Gone.. We'll be either on two steel strings or one SS and one nylon; want to keep strumming-style stuff to a minimum.

Thank you!

[mchalebk]

Two songs I recently did at a wedding are She's Got a Way and It Had to Be You. Not sure how they'd work for finger style (I sang them while playing guitar), but they seem like good choices.

[brahmz118]

My preference for weddings is to get a songlist from the bride / groom. If not a list, at least a category / theme (e.g., Beatles or Irish music or songs with the word Love in the title). If they say it's up to you, then go with your strengths. I usually pick love-themed songs.

I've also found, when doing instrumental guitar duets, that flatpicking the melody really helps bring it out.

Here's an arrangement of Can't Take My Eyes Off You by Bireli Lagrene and Sylvain Luc - though using a flatpick is obviously part of their style, I think it adds a bit of a welcome edge. It keeps the whole thing from getting too tonally homogeneous in my opinion. For me flatpicking with movable scales also opens up using all 12 keys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T5Jf1mgiK0

Here are some songs I've played melody for in guitar or guitar / piano duets. I usually try to stick to the key of the original recording, since it tends to evoke recognition more readily.

Can't Take My Eyes Off You - Frankie Valli
Beyond the Sea - Bobby Darin
Over the Rainbow / What a Wonderful World - Iz version
All You Need is Love - Beatles
Till There Was You - Beatles
I Will - Beatles
Come Fly With Me - Frank Sinatra
Fly Me to the Moon - Frank Sinatra
You and I - Lady Gaga
'Til Kingdom Come - Coldplay
Everything I Do (I Do It for You) - Bryan Adams
Eternal Flame - Bangles
Our Song - Taylor Swift

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by patrickgm60

...Suggestions for duet instrumentals, please

Hi patrick...


Yesterday
Michelle
Norwegian Wood

California Dreamin

Bojangles
Wonderful Tonight (Clapton)
Summertime (Gershiwin)
Sweet Georgia Brown
Crazy (Willie Nelson)

Somewhere Over the Rainbow
The Entertainer

Hope these stir some helpful ideas...

[sonicland]

The Rose
Sentimental Journey
Here There and Everywhere
Your Song
The Dance
Wonderful Tonight
All I Have To Do Is Dream

[Herb Hunter]

While it would certainly be a challenge for me to work out an interesting instrumental version of, The Wedding Song, you might consider the ones below.

The Wedding Song.................Paul Stookey
In My Life.......................The Beatles
I Will...........................The Beatles
Something........................The Beatles
When I'm 64......................The Beatles
Can't Take My Eyes Off of You....The Four Seasons
You've Got a Friend..............James Taylor
Could I Have This Dance..........Anne murray
That's Amore.....................Dean Martin
What a Wonderful World...........Louis Armstrong

[Paikon]

my little red book - burt bacharach

[patrickgm60]

Thanks for the input, All. Our list of possibilities now includes "Wonderful Tonight," "You've Got a Friend," "Beyond the Sea," and "Summertime."

That duet arrangement of "Can't Take my Eyes off of You" is very interesting; worth exploring in the future, but our gig is Saturday and we won't be able to rehearse.

There is no bride-requested theme, but love is a great suggestion. Ergo, "You're No Good," "Highway to He77," and "What's Love got to do with it" were quickly eliminated...

Will report back next week, as to results. Thanks again.

[patrickgm60]

The wedding event was a success, in part due to your input; thanks again. The acoustic duet portion lasted only one hour, so we actually had too many songs.

Poor acoustics (it was held in a castle)
http://www.ledsonwinery.com/
was a disappointment, but everyone seemed to enjoy it. We snuck in only one lyrically-inapplicable song (Somebody I used to Know), and nobody objected. Also, my LaPetrie nylong guitar didn't seem to have enough "bite" for the room and sound system, so I stuck with SS for most of the songs.

What I was left with is how interesting and fun acoustic guitar duets can be. We had not rehearsed and were calling audibles throughout, so some of the voicings and phrasing would have been improved, with preparation. We stuck with the basic formula of one guitar on rhythm, the other on melody/lead, reversing the roles throughout.

Time to look into the Lagrene/Luc stuff..