Anyone Can Play Guitar

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Shadowplay by Joy Division

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Following my look at She’s Lost Control, here’s another dose of post-punk genius from Joy Division. In this style of music attitude and ideas count for more than technique and guitar heroics, and Bernard Sumner’s guitar parts are easy play but perfectly formed. If you don’t already know it check out the original recording below, as well as a great live TV performance introduced by Tony Wilson.

 

 

And here’s my take on how to play it:

 

Find the music/tab below. If you’d like a high-quality PDF to download, click here.

 

Venus by Television

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The original recording:

Here’s a more recent live video. Good view of Lloyd if you want to see just how he fingers certain licks. These days they play tuned down a semi-tone.

And here’s my transcription. Lloyd is the upper part, Verlaine below. I’ve made a tiny fingering adjustment to how I do it in the video on one of the chorus licks, just to bring it in line with Lloyd’s fingering in the above video. Such is the level of nerdy commitment I bring to these lessons for you! If you want a high-quality PDF of the tab/music, click here.

Chinese Rocks by The Heartbreakers/Johnny Thunders

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This one is an absolute punk classic and, from a guitar point of view, it’s pretty easy to play. I’ve written out the music for the main parts of the song below. Rather than  do a note-for-note transcription of both guitar parts (which would have taken me ages to write out, and would probably be a bit unnecessary) I’ve written out the main parts of the song and a few of the added lead licks and fills. If you want to get nerdy, I suggest listening closely to the original recording: you should be able to figure out any of the other little variations which I didn’t go into in the video. If you’re a beginner I recommend getting the basic riffs and chords together first. Once, you’re comfortable with that you can try adding in a few of those extra flourishes.

Rumble by Link Wray

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The original recording sounds like this:

This is great too, Jimmy Page playing air guitar!:

A rock ‘n’ roll classic. And a great one to try if you’re a beginner, though I can’t imagine any player who wouldn’t have fun playing this. Mostly it’s quite straightforward, just take care with the timing, which is a bit quirky in places. Listen closely to the original to get a feel for what’s going on. I’ve written it out below. Download a high-quality PDF here. (Theory nerds, I’ve chosen to write it out in 4/4, though there’s an argument for notating it in 12/8. 4/4 just makes a bit more sense to me and is less cluttered and easier to read.)

Backing track

I put together this quick backing track which I play over at the start of the video. Have a go playing along. It’s a really good test of how well you know the piece, and will really help you to nail the timing. The count at the start is 1 2 3 4 1 2 (then play the opening Dsus2 chord on beats 3 and 4 before the band kicks in.

Gear

For the video I used my Jazzmaster (an American Vintage 65) through an 80s Fender Super Champ. The amp was set fairly quiet and clean; overdrive was from a J Rockett Archer pedal. The tremolo effect is a Fulltone Supa-Trem.

I couldn’t find much definite info on exactly what Link used for the original recording. Some suggest he used a Les Paul (which in 1958 would have had P90s) into a Multivox Premier amp. Overdrive was apparently a result of his slashing the speakers in the amp!