By: Robert Pollard Appears on: From a Compound Eye Learning how to play “Dancing Girls And Dancing Men” on guitar had me pretty stumped for a while; with the prominent (and very bouncy) bassline, drums, and keyboards, it doesn’t seem like a particularly guitar-driven song. Especially with the Todd Tobias-produced Robert Pollard songs, I often […]
Tag: Robert Pollard
Far-Out Crops
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: Kid Marine On “Far-Out Crops” from Kid Marine, Robert Pollard uses a songwriting technique of repeating the same guitar riff while changing the chords that are played along with it. You’ll see this happen on two different riffs in this song. The riffs will appear in the guitar tab, and […]
Weatherman And Skin Goddess
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: Robert Pollard Is Off to Business Today’s post features guitar tablature and chords for a true musical masterpiece: Robert Pollard’s “Weatherman And Skin Goddess.” It’s one of his longer songs, clocking in at just under five and a half minutes, so there are a few parts here to learn. You […]
Life Is Beautiful
By: Robert Pollard with Doug Gillard Appears on: Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department “Life Is Beautiful” has a guitar melody that’s really fun to play and built around an open string drone technique. The fourth and third strings will ring open on the D and G notes, respectively, while the note on the […]
Hammer In Your Eyes
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: From a Compound Eye I have a theory about several of the songs on From A Compound Eye. The songs in question are “Hammer In Your Eyes,” “Kick Me And Cancel,” and “I’m A Widow,” and the theory is that Robert Pollard sat down with his guitar and wrote the main […]
Roofer’s Union Fight Song
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: Not In My Airforce Over on the GBV Guitar Facebook Page, I asked if anyone had any requests they’d like to see tabbed out on this site, and someone named “Roofer’s Union Fight Song” from the Robert Pollard solo album, Not In My Airforce. I’ve always loved this song, so I […]
Run Son Run
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: Fiction Man “Run Son Run,” the opening track on Robert Pollard’s Fiction Man, has that wonderful gritty feeling that permeates so much of the production of this album. I think that’s what makes it a favorite of mine; there’s such a dirty sound to it that complements these songs so […]
King Of Arthur Avenue
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: Not In My Airforce When it’s just Robert Pollard and an acoustic guitar, the beauty of his songwriting really shines through. Listen to some of the early Guided By Voices recordings, some of the material on the Suitcase box sets, or demo recordings such as those on Edison’s Demos. On these bare-bones […]
Make Use
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: Waved Out For “Make Use,” the opening track on his 1998 solo album, Waved Out, Robert Pollard crafts an entire song with basically just one chord shape. It’s a perfect example of how much can be accomplished with the “floating chord shape” guitar technique that he uses in many of his […]
Slick As Snails
By: Robert Pollard with Doug Gillard Appears on: Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department I don’t know how to properly explain it, but there’s a certain kind of magic that occurs when Robert Pollard teams up with Doug Gillard. You can hear it all over the Guided By Voices records that feature Doug as […]
