Differentiate between 'solo guitar' and 'rhythm guitar'?

This is an interesting one, with probably some conflicting opinions on:

While entering a new album, I encountered some tracks having two guitar players.
One credited as playing ‘solo guitar’, the other one as playing ‘rhythm guitar’.
While they may theoretically both be playing the exact same type and model instrument, their role is certainly different.

Yet you can not select either ‘solo guitar’ or ‘rhythm guitar’. Only ‘guitar’.
I feel that that should be an option though. It is rather relevant and helpful information for knowing who is playing what on a certain recording.
A comparison with classical music: a tenor and a baritone both use vocal chords as their instrument, but also have different roles.

Ideas?

You can note this distinction in the “instrument credit” field. If ever we decide we want to make specific “rhythm guitar” and “solo guitar” etc. instruments, they’re easy to find, and until then, their role is still documented. :slight_smile:

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There is a “solo” attribute for the instrument performance relationship.

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Ah, very nice.
Thanks guys!

Are they searchable, actually? (Not saying we shouldn’t enter the data, it’s much better than nothing, but not sure how easy to find it is)

I (in rock) see lead guitar (as opposed to rhythm guitar), usually, not really solo guitar.

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Maybe “lead” role should be added as an attribute, and be removed from singing vocals after
https://tickets.metabrainz.org/browse/STYLE-609

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@jesus2099, the second album I was entering in the database had it named like that exactly.
(barcode 011105963220)

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@hiccup barcode:011105963220 :wink:

Everything’s searchable using SQL. :slight_smile:

It’s generally better to refer to Release MBIDs rather than barcodes, as one barcode can refer to multiple releases. E.g., in this case you could have referred to “release 2f576a9f-dfed-4467-828a-770392674c97” (or just link it: Release “Claus Ogerman featuring Michael Brecker” by Claus Ogerman feat. Michael Brecker - MusicBrainz :)).

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So, for the purposes of people trying to fix and add data, or explore it through the website, they aren’t? In that case, that’s pretty meh :frowning:

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I’ve come to the opinion that SQL is the worst way to search a database. What we end up with is having to query is a bunch of highly-optimized storage structures instead of the more natural organization that the web interface provides.

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