By: Guided By Voices Appears on: La La Land “Cousin Jackie” is one of Robert Pollard’s great “collage style” musical compositions, made up of different sections with various tempos that don’t sound like they should be able to form a cohesive whole. And yet, time and time again, this formula continues to work for him. […]
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Released Into Dementia
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: La La Land To play “Released Into Dementia,” you pretty much only need one chord shape, and you’ll move it up and down on the guitar neck, leaving the open strings ringing out. This is a very common Robert Pollard guitar technique, and it never fails to result in […]
The Unsinkable Fats Domino
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Let’s Go Eat The Factory “The Unsinkable Fats Domino” hits hard with a simple yet killer riff during the verses—using a Robert Pollard guitar technique I call “dropping the bass”—and another Pollard signature technique I call “floating chord shapes” during the chorus. You need to be logged in to […]
The Ids Are Alright
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Universal Truths And Cycles “The Ids Are Alright” is a short acoustic ditty with some of Robert Pollard’s floated chord shapes and a simple but excellent riff in the intro. It’s almost a shame it’s not longer because it’s so fun to strum along to, but its length of […]
Run Wild
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Isolation Drills “Run Wild” features several key Robert Pollard guitar techniques. The verses use an arpeggio guitar phrase as the main riff, along with an open string drone note figure. In the choruses, Pollard uses floating chord shapes, which involve moving an open position chord shape to a different […]
Science Magazine
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: Mouseman Cloud Todd Tobias did an excellent job of making Robert Pollard’s song “Science Magazine” sound like a lo-fi GBV track from the classic era by recording on 8-track and using a drum sample run through a distortion pedal for the percussion. You could probably slide this track in between […]
Not Behind The Fighter Jet
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Mag Earwhig! “Not Behind The Fighter Jet” features a driving arpeggio guitar riff during the verses and some of Robert Pollard’s “floating chord shapes” in the choruses. With its verse-chorus-verse song structure and vocal harmonies, this is pure pop perfection. You need to be logged in to view the […]
Up For All That
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: Jack Sells The Cow According to Todd Tobias, Robert Pollard played both the rhythm and lead guitars on “Up For All That,” so that’s his full barre chord strumming during the verses and terrific sixth string solo that we hear on the album recording. During the choruses, Pollard uses some […]
Each Is Good In His Own House
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: Moses On A Snail “Each Is Good In His Own House” was a joy to learn on guitar because it meant diving into the many layers of instruments that Todd Tobias had included while recording. Robert Pollard’s tune already had a great guitar riff and vocal melody, but while transcribing, […]
Excited Ones
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Crystal Nuns Cathedral “Excited Ones” is a pretty repetitive song; there are a few main guitar parts driving the song forward, but it’s mostly the same main riff/chord progression throughout. Doug Gillard included a lot of variations on these main parts to keep it interesting, so this transcription focuses […]
