How hard to play are these bands...

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...the guitar parts. Approximately, and for a novice.

Interpol
Smashing Pumpkins (circa Siamese Dream)
The Strokes

― JesusMaryChain, Wednesday, 11 February 2004 22:52 (twenty-two years ago)

if you can downstroke, you can do it.

― hstencil, Wednesday, 11 February 2004 22:53 (twenty-two years ago)

It's okay; they're all novices too.

― dean! (deangulberry), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 23:02 (twenty-two years ago)

NED TO THRED

― dean! (deangulberry), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 23:03 (twenty-two years ago)

I've learned the strokes - not too hard....some of the leads like 12:51 might give you a little trouble if you're real novice..

ditto for Interpol I would imagine...

Pumpkins might give you some trouble...Billy's a good guitar player.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 23:03 (twenty-two years ago)

just search tablature online...it's give you a pretty good idea...

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 23:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Well new question--

What bands are the hardest to play?

― David Allen (David Allen), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 23:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I know Daniel from Interpol (he used to toil at Route 66 records and Firewater's label, Jetset). I can ask'im if ya like.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 23:14 (twenty-two years ago)

once you've worked out the chords all three are piss easy

― the surface noise (electricsound), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 23:15 (twenty-two years ago)

hard = Smiths, Durutti Column

― the surface noise (electricsound), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 23:15 (twenty-two years ago)

surface noise OTM about the Smiths---- soo soo soo deceptively hard...Marr uses really wierd chords and capos and sometimes everything is really counterintuitive sometimes.

Probably like death metal, too....just from an athletic standpoint.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 23:21 (twenty-two years ago)

and probably like Alan Holdsworth and those guitar mag dudes.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 23:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Johnny Marr's parts are really hard to play in standard tuning. He often used capos and alternate tunings to make parts easier which doesn't help if you have a songbook (I only have the 'Louder Than Bombs' book) where all the notation and chord charts are in standard tuning. You can experiment and get his parts. That he flat picked almost everything with the Smiths is what's really amazing. The precision is stunning.

Hard to the point of not even wanting to bother: Robert Fripp's playing ("Larks' Tongues In Aspic" always comes to mind as being especially hard).

― Bryan (Bryan), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 23:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Geordie Walker of Killing Joke = technically not necessarily the most proficient guitarist in the world, but has a sound and a style that are utterly incomparable (and I ain't just sayin' that). NO ONE sounds like him. NO ONE can replicate "the golden harp". They try. They fail.

http://www.an-irrational-domain.net/images/geordie/geordie28.JPG

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 23:28 (twenty-two years ago)

That's something to keep in mind. You can play the notes that the other guitarist played but trying to sound like them is sort of a silly waste of time. Better to try and find your own sound. Geordie's lines are playable but he has all kinds of subtleties in his playing like neck bends that make getting his parts to sound right tricky.

― Bryan (Bryan), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 23:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I learned to play guitar in high school by playing along to "Siamese Dream," "13 Songs," and "Nevermind." Get someone who knows guitar to teach you how to make barre chords, and do drone chords (for the Pumpkins and Fugazi), and just play along with the albums. I learned so much from goofing around to those albums (and I also learned a lot of bad habits, according to "real" guitar players, so keep that in mind...).

― Ben Boyer (Ben Boyer), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 23:35 (twenty-two years ago)

my old band actually entered a cover band contest as the smiths (and tied for first! I got a bottle of Nightrain wine as a prize)....but man it was hard (and I only play bass). My guitar player had fits, and we ended up basically just butchering/simplifying the parts while still having them sound the same.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 23:40 (twenty-two years ago)

what are 'drone chords'? Is that like the double power-chord used in songs like 'mayonaise'? (ex. e-string 5th fret, a-string 7th fret, d-string 9th fret)? If not I'd be very interested in knowing, as I'm intermediate/bad and would love to expand my vocabulary of chords. Thanks in advance.

― rick flair, Thursday, 12 February 2004 01:24 (twenty-two years ago)

NED TO THRED

The thing and the what?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 12 February 2004 01:29 (twenty-two years ago)

What bands are the hardest to play?

Jimi Hendrix Experience
Yes
Mahavishnu Orchestra
Ten Years After
Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force (or Fucking Fury, which should have been the band's name)
Van Halen

Plus whatever the bands led by Steve Vai and Joe Satriani are called...

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 12 February 2004 02:10 (twenty-two years ago)

dude Geir "Hot for Teacher" isn't that hard to play!

― hstencil, Thursday, 12 February 2004 02:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Forgot about King Crimson. I mean, really obvious choice...

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 12 February 2004 02:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Jimmy Page's stuff with the violin bow. Never tried it, but it sounds differently difficult.

― jim wentworth (wench), Thursday, 12 February 2004 04:39 (twenty-two years ago)

The three bands listed up top can't be hard at all. I know the Pumpkins are easy. Geir Hongro is the only one who listed anything that sounds actually difficult. Also, Morbid Angel is a bit of a test. And anything from that one Owls album too...

― Johnny Badlees (crispssssss), Thursday, 12 February 2004 05:02 (twenty-two years ago)

"drone chords" = octaves, naturally.

they're corgan's favorite.

― mike bott, Thursday, 12 February 2004 05:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I learned guitar playing along to records by Belly, Suede, the Auteurs, REM, Swervedriver, PJ Harvey, Catherine Wheel... good times. I could play thru most of them all the way.

― Blood and sparkles (bloodandsparkles), Thursday, 12 February 2004 05:08 (twenty-two years ago)

"What bands are the hardest to play?"

Captain Beefheart?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 12 February 2004 09:41 (twenty-two years ago)

You said it Stew, tho I have managed bits of "Trout Mask"

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 12 February 2004 11:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Try playing some nick drake, really easy.....

― Chris V (Chris V), Thursday, 12 February 2004 12:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Bert Jansch - not easy

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 12 February 2004 12:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Don Ross - not easy

― Chris V (Chris V), Thursday, 12 February 2004 12:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Getting further and further from the concept of "bands" but:
Sonny Sharrock?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 12 February 2004 12:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Derek Bailey!

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 12 February 2004 12:53 (twenty-two years ago)

and there are lots of hendrix songs that are quite simple actually.

― Chris V (Chris V), Thursday, 12 February 2004 12:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Some Joe Satraini parts are hard to play....i think i spelt his name wrong but ye get the gist of the matter.

― The Casper Method (The Casper Method), Thursday, 12 February 2004 13:29 (twenty-two years ago)

"drone chords" = octaves, naturally.

More specifically,

E|---0---
A|---5---
D|---x---
G|---7---
B|---0---
E|---0---

i.e., an example of a drone formation in E. You can slide this finger position up and down the board (Cherub Rock is a good application of this chord formation).

― JP Almeida (JP Almeida), Thursday, 12 February 2004 14:06 (twenty-two years ago)

You said it Stew, tho I have managed bits of "Trout Mask"

i figured out "moonlight on vermont" about 10 years ago (rhythm and lead parts), it's much easier than it sounds.

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 12 February 2004 14:15 (twenty-two years ago)

It's much easier than everything else on the album too

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 12 February 2004 14:24 (twenty-two years ago)

clawhammer used to do an excellent version of it (live and on record).

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 12 February 2004 14:25 (twenty-two years ago)

Try playing some nick drake, really easy.....

This had better be a joke.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 12 February 2004 14:33 (twenty-two years ago)

its is alex....if you only knew my guitar string and tuning troubles over the past two weeks!

― Chris V (Chris V), Thursday, 12 February 2004 14:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Just for the sake of spreading the gospel futher.....KNEEL BEFORE YOUR GOD!

http://www.duskdigital.com/albums/killingjoke/Killing_Joke_Underworld_Soundcheck_060.sized.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 12 February 2004 15:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Looking a bit like Bill Murray circa "Lost in Translation" there, indeed.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 12 February 2004 15:30 (twenty-two years ago)

God, I was SURE that was Murray from some deleted scene screen capture! Eerie.

― Ben Boyer (Ben Boyer), Thursday, 12 February 2004 19:44 (twenty-two years ago)

it's been a long, long time since i played it, but IIRC, "Mayonnaise" had some sort of really funky detuned E thing going on with James' (ahem) picked bit at the beginning. not difficult if guitar is properly detuned, but.

― janni (janni), Thursday, 12 February 2004 19:59 (twenty-two years ago)

durutti column is easy to fake with a decent delay/echo pedal, though

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Thursday, 12 February 2004 20:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Some of Nick Drake's songs are pretty easy ("Fly," for instance) but things like "Road" = insanity.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Friday, 13 February 2004 02:00 (twenty-two years ago)

his hardest song is, of course, "Know" ;)

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Friday, 13 February 2004 02:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Jeff Buckley can be challenging.

― Jole (Jole), Friday, 13 February 2004 02:33 (twenty-two years ago)

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