Skip to main content
MusicRadar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Artist news
  • Guitars
  • Guitar Pedals
  • Synths
  • Keyboards & Pianos
  • Controllers
  • Guitar Amps
  • Drums
  • Software & Apps
  • More
    • Recording
    • DJ Gear
    • Acoustic Guitars
    • Bass Guitars
    • Tech
    • Tutorials
    • Reviews
    • Buying Guides
    • About Us
More
  • Radiohead theory
  • Steely Dan's drum machine
  • Deep Purple in the dungeon
  • Prince's drummers
  • 95k+ free music samples
Don't miss these
View from behind a drum kit on stage
Drummers 11 live mistakes every drummer makes
10 people drummers will encounter at gigs
Drummers The 10 people drummers will inevitably encounter when playing a gig
native instruments
Music Production Tutorials "As nuanced as the real thing, but only if you know what you're doing": The ultimate guide to plugin guitars
Drum recording
Music Production Tutorials 10 tips for recording perfect drums
Jason Isbell plays a Martin dreadnought onstage in Norway
Artists Jason Isbell has some advice for any young player who has just bought their first acoustic guitar
A Fender Player II Stratocaster and Telecaster on a white piece of wood with lots of holes in it
Electric Guitars Best electric guitars under $1,000/£1,000 in 2025: My top picks for players of all styles
Orbit Culture's guitarists
Electric Guitars Orbit Culture show us their ESP guitars – and tell us why the EverTune bridge is a game-changer
Yungblud
Artists Yungblud reveals his secret to making acoustics sound massive – and hints at future signature model
David Gilmour plays a Black Stratocaster onstage in New York, on a moody stage lit in dark blue.
Artists David Gilmour shares an essential tone tip for guitarists using a whammy bar with a delay pedal
Drums The easy guide to recording drums: kit tips, mic placement and setting up your DAW
Frustrated music producer
Tech Why imposing hard limitations could be the secret to finishing more music
Troy Van Leeuwen of Queens of the Stone Age plays a red/orange Gretsch onstage, and is framed by a triangle of yellow-green stagelights.
Artists “It was the most bizarre musical experience”: QOTSA’s Troy Van Leeuwen on playing Paris's Catacombs
Drummer
Drummers 10 tips to help drummers to develop better timing
Logic Drums
Music Production Tutorials How to think like a human drummer when building software beats
MIDI
Digital Audio Workstation How to humanise your virtual acoustic instruments in your DAW projects
  1. Tutorials
  2. Guitar Lessons & Tutorials

5 tips for guitarists in power-trios

Tuition
By Chris Vinnicombe ( Guitarist ) published 9 May 2012

Three-piece sweeteners for a bigger live sound

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Intro

Intro

The idea of fronting your very own power trio is appealing, isn’t it? No dense wall of rhythm guitar to struggle to cut through, no competition for the limelight… yet being the sole guitarist in a three-piece can be a tough gig. After all, there’s nowhere to hide.

Ahead of Guitarist magazine's Disraeli Gears 45th anniversary spectacular that features exclusive new interviews with Jack Bruce and Pete Brown and insights into Clapton's legendary gear, here are five ways to make sure that you are the cat that gets the cream and not a sourpuss when it comes to fronting your very own musical ménage à trois…

Page 1 of 6
Page 1 of 6
Experiment with group dynamics

Experiment with group dynamics

Don’t feel like you have to play all the way through every song. Try dropping down to just bass and drums during a verse and bringing the guitar back in for the chorus.

Another great trick is to start a song with guitar and drums and hold the bass entry back until the first chorus. When the chorus slams in it can have a huge impact live.

Page 2 of 6
Page 2 of 6
Get effected

Get effected

Whether it’s a little slapback echo or reverb to make your sound thicker and more three-dimensional or something more esoteric, there’s plenty of space in a power-trio for guitar effects.

If you use a lot of drive, try using a few different flavours of stompbox so that the audience doesn’t tire of hearing the same dirty guitar sound for the whole set.

Page 3 of 6
Page 3 of 6
Get your chords out

Get your chords out

In a twin-guitar band, full and complex chord voicings can get very muddy, very quickly as two instruments compete for space in the same frequency range. In a trio you can get away with being much more adventurous in this regard.

Page 4 of 6
Page 4 of 6
Dirty up that bass

Dirty up that bass

When you're playing solos or melody lines, there will be a big frequency space in the midrange where a rhythm guitar part would usually sit.

To combat this, get your bassist to stomp on a dirt pedal of his own when it’s guitar solo time. Some pro bassists even have a separate, overdriven guitar amplifier running that they switch in for this very purpose.

Page 5 of 6
Page 5 of 6
Be prepared

Be prepared

If the three-piece format means that you are required to contribute some or all of the lead vocals then the only way to get better at singing and playing at the same time is through practice.

Repetition is the key – practise on your own if need be but try to do so standing up, without looking at the fretboard. It’s a frontman’s job to connect with the audience and you can’t do that by staring down at your fretting hand!

Page 6 of 6
Page 6 of 6
Chris Vinnicombe

Chris Vinnicombe worked with us here on the MusicRadar team from the site's initial launch way back in 2007, and also contributed to Guitarist magazine as Features Editor until 2014, as well as Total Guitar magazine, amongst others. These days he can be found at Gibson Guitars, where he is editor-in-chief.

Read more
View from behind a drum kit on stage
11 live mistakes every drummer makes
 
 
10 people drummers will encounter at gigs
The 10 people drummers will inevitably encounter when playing a gig
 
 
native instruments
"As nuanced as the real thing, but only if you know what you're doing": The ultimate guide to plugin guitars
 
 
Drum recording
10 tips for recording perfect drums
 
 
Jason Isbell plays a Martin dreadnought onstage in Norway
Jason Isbell has some advice for any young player who has just bought their first acoustic guitar
 
 
A Fender Player II Stratocaster and Telecaster on a white piece of wood with lots of holes in it
Best electric guitars under $1,000/£1,000 in 2025: My top picks for players of all styles
 
 
Latest in Guitar Lessons & Tutorials
Close up of a person holding an acoustic guitar bathed sunlight
Ignite your inner guitar god for just 27 cents a day with TrueFire’s July 4th sale - save 60% on online lessons
 
 
MusicNomad fret tuition
Can you fix your guitar's frets yourself? We try three innovative approaches from MusicNomad to investigate how they might conquer a major cause of fret buzz
 
 
George Harrison
How to play like George Harrison on The Beatles' Abbey Road
 
 
MusicNomad guitar fret cleaning
"You owe your guitar the chance to be its best": How to clean and polish your guitar frets a better way
 
 
Jimmy Page
Play like Jimmy Page! Exclusive video lesson
 
 
Music Theory
How learning and understanding chord symbols can prove a major benefit for sharing your musical ideas
 
 
Latest in Tuition
MusicRadar logo
Never miss a MusicRadar thing: Google has made it easier to keep us in your feed
 
 
Frustrated music producer
Why imposing hard limitations could be the secret to finishing more music
 
 
Ableton Live Tutorial
5 creative ways to use distortion in Ableton Live: From punchier drums to dub techno delays
 
 
Logic Drums
How to think like a human drummer when building software beats
 
 
Virtual drums
How to make virtual acoustic drum performances sound like the real thing
 
 
How to program MIDI drums that sound like the real thing
 
 

MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...