I’m no prophet, but as far as I can see, the electric isn’t going away anytime soon.
For decades upon decades it has melted a few faces and made glad the heart of man. In all seriousness, the electric guitar is such a powerful instrument, but do you know how to harness it to its full effectiveness?
That’s where James Duke comes in. James is a touring/session guitarist who’s played for the likes of John Mark McMillan, Morningstar, Jason Upton, Matt Redman, among others. He’s also the mastermind behind his band, All the Bright Lights.
In this interview we discuss all things electric guitar – how James has developed his tone, how he writes parts, how to build a pedalboard on a budget, and much more.
Let’s geek out.
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What You’ll Learn
- The secret to engaging worship
- Responding to the Holy Spirit
- On writing guitar parts
- On experimentation & failure
- How James develops his tone
- Working with different artists
- The secret to a massive sound
- James’ essential pedals & biggest influences
- How to use reverb & delay with intention
- How to make your playing exciting
- The subjectivity of tone
- What makes John Mark McMillan & Matt Redman unique
Resources Mentioned in this Post
- Blog: James Duke
- Twitter: @thejamesduke
- Band: All the Bright Lights
- Pedal: MXR Dyna comp
- Pedal: Tube Screamer
- Pedal: Full Drive
- Pedal: Boss DD-5
- Pedal: Memory Man
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Question: What was your biggest takeaway from my interview with James? Any further questions? Who knows, he may just show up in the comments 🙂 You can leave a comment by clicking here.
[ois skin=”Beyond Sunday 2″]
David, thanks so much for the interview ! It’s fantastic !
Yep!!Fantastic is what I want to say! Just like it so much and thank you for the sharing!!
Good pragmatic interview. I didn’t hear James use the word, but he pointed too it, minimalism.
Keep it basic and simple. I have developed my tone kind of the same way. I do things for coloring the tone, but I want to hear the strings just as James said. Slowly over time I developed a use for delay. I use a medium/short delay mixed where you can’t hear the delay per say as I am playing. The delayed notes add thickness and richness and different overtones to the fundamental. It is kind of like using draw bars on a Hammond B-3 organ. I use a second delay for echo effects, but not very often. My basic board is pretty basic, but I find that a 10 band graphic EQ is extremely valuable in shaping tone as well.
An electric player creates their own sound, it is their voice. With great players you can recognize their sound in 2 or 3 notes. It is unmistakable. I think that is why electric guitar has become popular with Praise music. It adds a certain recognizable but unique sound that is created by the choices of the player.
Always love your perspective, Don. In your teaching, do you find you teach electric guitar concepts to more advance players or do you do more beginner teaching?
David-Great interview! I just found your site recently. Great worship leading info that I’ve been passing along to our team. Keep it coming!
james duke is my guitar hero