Genesis Composition techique

 

Thanks a lot!

 

I was always under the impression that Tony Banks listened to complex period pieces and may have attempted to re-do the many passages of notes within those pieces. He played Classical piano and may have reversed patterns that were already written , adding his own ideas as well. If in fact if he did do this, it would be next to impossible to figure out where his ideas came from. Keith Emerson was a fan of the early Genesis music and who knows? ...he may have been fond of Tony Banks' ideas for this reason? It is evident that Procol Harum's "Whiter Shade of Pale" was influenced  by Johann Sebastian Bach, but fast note passages in Genesis songs were not so easy to identify within the Classical world. Many counterpoint sections of Gentle Giant's music can be discovered in period music. Genesis were not so obvious....but that could depend on the discovery of who influenced Banks. The composers.

 

 

"Lover's Leap" and the intro and quiet verses of "Cinema Show" are reminiscent of an old lullaby. The coloring of Steve Hackett's sustaining guitar and Banks' mellotron derive from their influence of the....then, modern day King Crimson. But Genesis did not sound like King Crimson in the way that Gracious, Happy Family, and other bands often did. They produced sounds similar to the ones that Crimson used , but steered clear of K.C.'s style and their musicial approach to those sounds. The closest to Hackett sounding like Fripp is on the "Lamb" album (and I forget the piece), but the band emulates the sound of a subway train (I believe).  I worked with a Genesis tribute band briefly and observed the keboardist crossing his hands to play some of the most melodic yet complex sections of the music. Some of the inverted chord voicings of Hackett and Phillips I had played in Charlie Byrd arrangements. Charlie Byrd plays Bossa Nova Jazz on a nylon string Classical guitar. The Jazz mentality in Genesis music lies within the playing of Phil Collins and is more evident and present on drums. A modern inverted Jazz chord structure is thrown in between Classical sounding sections by Steve Hackett. So sometimes chords used in Jazz music are not easy to hear in their music. Any influence of Folk, Classical, or Jazz is so carefully planned out that the listener can't spot where it my have been adapted from.

 

When Rutherford or Hackett finger picked acoustic, it wasn't simplistic like placing your thumb on F# bass note and fingering a D major chord. Lol! Many of the chords required long stretches across bass strings and playing other strings open. The more commonly used chord voicings of Genesis' guitar playing can for example be noted at the intro of the Rush album "Hemispheres". In this case distortion is used by Alex Lifeson. It may be hard to believe, but some of the acoustic playing of Pete Townshend and his oddball chord voicings off "Who Sell Out" and "Tommy" have been used in Genesis songs. People of course may say...."Hey, everyone in the world has used the same chord voicings...but no, that is not true in all cases. They fingered many open acoustic sounding chord voicings like Pete Townshend did in 66". Because "Tommy" was Classical sounding with it's "Overture" and "Underture" , Pete used a lot of open chords which later turned up in the acoustic side of the early Genesis. So that influence was not from the Fairport Convention's of the world, but possibly you can spot that Townshend had experimented with the sound prior to the forming of the Genesis band.

 

The Enid too! or rather Robert John Godfrey. Maybe that explains why Francis Lickerish and Stephen Stewart's guitar playing remind me of Steve Hackett's.They were playing guitar harmony over top of sections which Godfrey wrote which were influenced by Rachmaninov. Now I need to check out Rachmaninov. Thanks for your very helpful information!

Some composers create pieces that are so chromatic that you wonder what are they thinking, Banks OTOH is very diatonic in his approach which makes his compositions very pleasing to my ear.

Yes, I've read they kept a cover of "In the Court..." on the wall of their practice room to remind them what they aspired to be