By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Crystal Nuns Cathedral You know how Robert Pollard records demo versions of his songs by hitting the Record button on his boom box, playing part of the song, hitting the Stop button, and repeating this process for the rest of the parts, just to splice the individual pieces into […]
Tag: Guided By Voices

Climbing A Ramp
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Crystal Nuns Cathedral The main guitar part in “Climbing A Ramp” consists of very sparse chord strumming (until, of course, the guitar solo comes in near the song’s end). For this transcription, I’ve included a guitar arrangement of the cello part. You need to be logged in to view […]

Crystal Nuns Cathedral
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Crystal Nuns Cathedral The title track from the Crystal Nuns Cathedral album acts as the perfect closer, wrapping up to a phenomenal collection of songs. This song is a pop masterpiece, the kind we pretty much expect from Robert Pollard at this point, yet it still surprises me that […]

The Eyes Of Your Doctor
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Crystal Nuns Cathedral “The Eyes Of Your Doctor” uses a few fun guitar riffs and lead fills, along with some chord strumming. The song’s different sections are what keep this one interesting to play on guitar, in my opinion. You need to be logged in to view the rest […]

Never Mind The List
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Crystal Nuns Cathedral As far as song structure goes, there’s nothing complicated going on in “Never Mind The List.” We have an intro, two verses, a chorus, another verse (though slightly different from the first two), another chorus, and then a half-chorus that serves as an ending. You need […]

Re-Develop
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Crystal Nuns Cathedral For “Re-Develop,” Robert Pollard calls upon his trusty “D pedal note” chords. The D note on the open fourth string rings out for pretty much the entire song while the chords change around it—mostly on the third, second, and first strings. You need to be logged […]

The Birthday Democrats
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: How Do You Spell Heaven “The Birthday Democrats” provides a solid opening track for How Do You Spell Heaven. Robert Pollard’s main guitar riff, which occurs before the verses and during the song’s ending, is simple to play on guitar and very catchy. You need to be logged in […]

Orange Jacket
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Guided By Voices/Cobra Verde (Split Single) “Orange Jacket” uses a lot of Robert Pollard’s signature arpeggio style guitar, which involves a fretted note on a low string followed by the two strings above it being played open in succession. The song has a few repeating sections but they are […]

Planet Score
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Motivational Jumpsuit Robert Pollard’s ode to a beloved St. Louis, Missouri record store is certainly one of the highlights of Motivational Jumpsuit. The song is somewhat basic in terms of guitar playing and song structure, just like some of the best classic GBV songs. You need to be logged […]

My (Limited) Engagement
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