Another Joy Division track? Oh go on then…
Tab
…can be found on my Patreon page.
Goth
Hong Kong Garden by Siouxsie and the Banshees
“Arguably the most important of the early post-punk hits” according to Wikipedia. Also apparently one of Thurston Moore’s favourite songs…
There’s nothing too technical going on here, but it’s perhaps not as easy as you might think to play. Check out the original first if you don’t already know it –
And here’s my lesson video –
Tab and Backing Track
An accurate tab and my full backing track can be found on my Patreon page.
A Forest by The Cure
This is the first time I’ve gotten around to properly looking at a Cure track. Here’s my take on A Forest, from the 1980 album Seventeen Seconds.
Check out this live version of the song. Some good shots of Robert Smith’s playing, and very helpful to verify some of the fingerings and techniques used in this song. On more recent live versions of the song RS plays it slightly differently or doesn’t play guitar at all.
Music/tab
Can be found on my Patreon page.
Spellbound by Siouxsie & The Banshees
by Siouxsie and the Banshees
Here’s my follow up lesson to Shot by Both Sides: another classic bit of John McGeoch. It took quite a bit of careful listening and study of various live videos to get to the bottom of exactly how this one is played, but I think I’ve more or less cracked it. I’ve written it out below in the form of the various different riffs which make up the song. Just check out the original recording to hear which bit goes where.
There are a couple of great live performances which are worth watching. I used these to check some of the fingerings and details of exactly how McGeoch does it:
Gear
McGeoch’s sound for this is track is heavily effects-laden – this was the 80s after all. I’m not sure exactly what he would have used on the recording, but I’m guessing it was his main Yamaha SG1000 through a whole ton of processing – chorus and/or flange, reverb, delay, compression…
For this video I plugged straight into my computer for convenience and because I didn’t have all my effects pedals immediately to hand. I used Amplitube for the guitar amp and effects simulation: just a Fender Deluxe amp model, with some chorus, delay and reverb. Then I just played around until it sounded acceptably close to McGeoch’s sound.
McGeoch nerds might be interested in this link, which goes into some detail about exactly what gear he used at various points during his career and includes some great scans of old guitar magazine interviews: http://equipboard.com/pros/john-mcgeoch