Should a singer songwriter play chord voicings outside their vocal range?

Question

I've always understood in a band setup you want to avoid everyone fighting over the same frequency range.

But the common guitar chord voicings mean you are playing notes in the range E2-G4 which covers pretty much the entire male vocal range and a lot of the female tessitura.

Does this mean a singer songwriter type performer should seek to find chord voicings that don't overlap the vocal melody in order to keep the vocal crisper in the mix? I rarely see this happen so do different rules apply here?

Answer 1

Guitar and voice are generally so tonally different it isn't really an issue. It depends a bit on playing style and guitar sound as well.

I think for any singer songwriter an awareness of space is important. Check this out. Note that the guitar is well back in the mix, and he is often playing fills to his own vocal. This mirrors what good arrangers do - leave space for the vocal. Space is not only in frequency domain - it is also in the time domain.