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 […]
Category: tab
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 […]
Even Next
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Warp And Woof So many of Robert Pollard’s songs include a sampling of guitar arpeggio here or there, but there are some occasions where the arpeggio style comprises nearly the entire song. In “Even Next,” the majority of the guitar work is arpeggio, with some light chord strumming right […]
I’ve Owned You For Centuries
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: Not In My Airforce “I’ve Owned You For Centuries” is deceivingly easy to play on guitar. There are a few spots where the guitar part sounds more complex than it really is, but this is due to either the bass guitar or Robert Pollard’s vocal melody adding different notes at […]
My Dog Surprise
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Warp And Woof As the legend goes, Robert Pollard conjured the song title “My Dog Surprise” after mishearing a lyric in Cream’s “Sunshine Of Your Love” (“I’ll soon be with you, my love/give you my dawn surprise“). I can’t help but wonder, then, if this is the reason for […]
Town Of Mirrors
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: Kid Marine I wish more songs had been recorded like “Town Of Mirrors.” There’s a guitar hard-panned to the right channel, another hard-panned to the left channel, and vocals dead center. It just makes it so much easier to isolate the separate guitar parts for transcribing purposes. So in this […]
