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 […]
Tag: Universal Truths And Cycles
Christian Animation Torch Carriers
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Universal Truths And Cycles “Christian Animation Torch Carriers” contains many different sections and also changes time signatures at one point; these characteristics make it fun to play on guitar in my opinion, but it can be a lot to remember while playing. In this post, we’ll break it down […]
Love 1
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Universal Truths And Cycles For several of the songs on Universal Truths And Cycles, including “Love 1,” Robert Pollard uses a chord shape that is very common in his arsenal of guitar tricks. It’s the basic “power chord” shape that we typically play on either the sixth and fifth […]
Pretty Bombs
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Universal Truths And Cycles “Pretty Bombs” is my favorite kind of Robert Pollard song to play on guitar. It moves around a lot from one part to another, and incorporates both strummed chords and arpeggio figures. I used to consider this to be a song that I would probably […]
Universal Truths And Cycles
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Universal Truths And Cycles The title track from Universal Truths And Cycles features a Robert Pollard guitar technique that I call “Barre Four.” This consists of barring (pressing down multiple strings at once across the same fret) across four consecutive strings. In some cases (as with “Downer” or “My […]
Wings Of Thorn
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Universal Truths And Cycles Most of “Wings Of Thorn” is based around the same chord shape. You’ll get your fingers into position for an E major open chord shape and then move that around to different frets on the guitar neck for the majority of the song. The chord changes […]
Back To The Lake
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Universal Truths And Cycles “Back To The Lake” is arguably one of the greatest songs from Universal Truths and Cycles, and that’s an album just bursting with worthy contenders. There’s the anthemic, fist-pumping chorus of “Christian Animation Torch Carriers,” the dizzying thrill ride riffage that is “Everywhere With Helicopter,” […]
