Strokes/Vaccines playing technique: tips?

fetusrobot · Post by **fetusrobot** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 5:23 am

i've been interested in the Strokes' and Vaccines' music a lot recently, and i wanted to emulate their style somehow (i'm a guitar player), alas my playing technique (mostly my soloing style) is more like Dinosaur Jr.
when i solo i just go back and forth on a major scale, usually C or G or F or D or something i can understand. at least i think it's a major scale, i'm like not musically educated at all. i just hit the notes that draw a power chord (if the notes follow the structure of D5 for instance, i'm playing on the scale of D, as far as i understand it). i've been kind of studying Freddie Cowan's soloing patterns, as well as Nick Valensi, but i haven't really got anywhere. i tabbed the solo for Melody Calling but that hasn't had an effect on my playing. i also struggle with song structures, i don't really know how to write a piece of rhythm (my songs all mostly consist of seventh, suspended and minor chords), and i wanted a more straight forward but still interesting rock coat so. do you guys have any tips. could you maybe explain scales and stuff? or just give me tips on how to practice a different style? thx

Beau · Post by **Beau** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 5:56 am

Learn songs by those artists in between doing exercises from:
http://www.skepticalguitarist.com/skept ... olume1.htm

Music Principles volume one helped me understand a lot of basic theory stuff.

fetusrobot · Post by **fetusrobot** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 6:00 am

i dont really want a formal education, more than a stylistic one.

i mean i've been playing for a while now and i think i've settled my technique/style, i'm just looking to improve it in the general direction that the strokes were aiming for with First Impressions Of Earth. chord shifts, playing dynamics, etc.

Benmurray85 · Post by **Benmurray85** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 7:48 pm

If you're working on writing stuff best advice is to listen to all sorts. You like the vaccines and the strokes. Find out what they liked and check that out. Then work that back. It's just a case of being open to influences and by doing that you'll pick up new bits and pieces on guitar as a byproduct. Learn stuff you'd never listen to. Analyse song structures. Most importantly if you're going to steal, steal from the best. A cliche is only a cliche coz it was popular once if a time so don't be afraid of treading well used tricks and structures. Hope this helps

fetusrobot · Post by **fetusrobot** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 8:23 pm

well yeah. of course i analyze their structures and stuff. i just kind of haven't gotten anywhere and i dont know where to start like. idk theres this thing that nick does when he's soloing where he plays a bunch of notes really fast and maybe i wouldn't be interested in doing that but. i just don't know how to translate that back to me.

idk idk. i was hoping you guys would have some basic exercise or something you know, like, "oh if you like the solo for The Modern Age, try this proggression it's pretty close to the method" which is kind of something i do now everytime i'm playing on the scale of either C or F (play the open G note and then climb across the fretboard and jumping back to open G). all i know about pre FIOE Strokes is power chords and sometimes a few weird chords. and kinda punk rock playing method, very square. when it comes to the Vaccines i know they have this really basic G5 F5 C structure (maybe with other notes tho they use a lot of capos), which is i guess something the Jesus & Mary Chain did as well. i guess i'm mostly asking for bullet points, and some links related to each bullet point.

mixtape · Post by **mixtape** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 9:51 pm

Influences take time. If you've identified the style you're going for, find some tabs, learn and practice them up and down, record a few covers if you really want to immerse yourself, and be patient. If you spend enough time with it, it will work its way into your own style eventually.

fetusrobot · Post by **fetusrobot** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 9:59 pm

you're right, i play way too many Dinosaur Jr. songs. maybe i should try covering a couple of Strokes songs for a while and see where that takes me.

torchindy · Post by **torchindy** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 10:29 pm

It's true... It took me forever to realize that riffs, licks, etc don't translate into a style, and the only way to 'absorb' somebody else's style into your own is to play the hell out of their songs for a while.

fetusrobot · Post by **fetusrobot** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 11:23 pm

YES which is exactly what put me where i am. i played so much Dinosaur Jr. in the past like, 6 months, that i can't tell the difference between J Mascis and me.

singlepup · Post by **singlepup** » Mon Apr 21, 2014 2:46 am

Yup, all those above hit the nail on the head. In college, my fav band was the Cure. I learned how to play tons of Cure riffs. Guess what? Years and years later, I still use arpeggios and drone notes in most everything I do.

fetusrobot · Post by **fetusrobot** » Mon Apr 21, 2014 3:00 am

i recently learned to play The Modern Age (particularly the solo) and tabbed Meet Me In The Bathroom so i guess i'm getting somewhere because last time i picked up a guitar it sounded a wee bit like the intro to Vision Of Division idk. thanks tho