lordphobos

Phantom Racer (Verse)

In celebration of being on tour with The Protomen, here's more of Phantom Racer!

This verse is a joy to play. I'd say it's intermediate in terms of difficulty. There's lots of different parts here and not a ton of repetition, so the best approach is to break it apart measure by measure, and then slowly put it all together.

Pro Tips:

- There's an 8th note palm mute feel throughout. What's key is the various accents which play different 2 note chord...

Believe in Your Dreams (Shred Part)

Read on if you wish to become a shred master. But enter at your own peril, this one is not easy!

Pro Tips:

- Alternate picking mandatory - one must switch between downstrokes and upstrokes to maximize efficiency and speed.

- When changing strings, the direction of your pickstroke must continue alternating. Resist the urge to 'sweep' the pick onto the next string and pick 2 strings using the same stroke direction. Down, up, down, up - always.

Tactile Sensation (Verse)

This week's part is unique. The reason why is because it's not one, but two parts!

Thanks to a little studio magic (also known as overdubs), we recorded both a low single note part, and a high chordal part. The two parts compliment each other because they're in different octaves on the guitar neck, so they each have their own musical space.

There's some songs where there are two or more guitar parts, but they play at different times so I am able to do both live - like the clean gu...

Food Bar (Chorus)

What do you think of this crunchy, protein packed riff?

...

Pro Tips:

- Typically for the power chords on the bottom 2 strings, you'd use either your 1st and 3rd fingers, or 1st and 4th. I use my 2nd and 4th, but I don't recommend it (just a weird habit). When you reach for the third power chord on frets 2 and 5, you'll definitely want to use your 1st and 4th fingers since the stretch is wider.

- The big 5 string chord in measure 5 is a G major - it's ...

Business Tips (Verse)

More like guitar tips, am I right?

...

Pro Tips:

- Play the whole riff in the 5th position, and hop down to the 3rd position to play just the last 3 notes.

- Sometimes my right hand keeps picking even when there's no note played. This can create a cool percussive sound if your left hand is muting the string.

- Like any of the riffs you see on this page, start slow and focus on accuracy. Playing it up to speed with the recording won't happen overn...

Life Party (Pre-Chorus)

Life is precious. Party. Yeah!

...

Technique Talk:

- shake 'em. That's right, apply vibrato on the notes to make them sound wiggly. How is this done? Wrap your thumb over the top to get some leverage, and rock your hand back and forth, using the side of the 1st finger on the bottom of the neck as a kind of pivot. Slow this video down and you'll see the mechanics of it a bit better. Don't worry if your attempts sound like a sad cat's meow at first, it takes s...

Food Bar (Verse)

Do you like food bars?

Do you like this riff?

Let's go!

...

Pro Tips:

- The first 3 bars are all 5th and 7th fret. I use my index finger and pinky, but others might use their first finger and ring finger. Do whichever feels right.

- You can optionally get sassy on some of the notes if you wish. You'll see me viciously apply vibrato to certain notes, particularly around measures 4 and 8.

- The bent 7th fret 3rd string happens fast. It'...

Time to Shine (2nd Section)

Hello everybody!

Next up is Time to Shine, 2nd Section.

PS - If you ever decide to post a video of yourself playing one of these riffs on Instagram - who knows, maybe I'll just have to repost it! Honestly, I would also love to see how you're all doing with all these riffs. @lord.phobos

Pro Tips:

- This is pretty loose, but palm mute if you'd to. I think it enhances the slightly groovy detective feel. Sometimes I won't palm mute the very last...

Legendary Space Knight (2nd Section)

Listen up, TWRP-lings. It's time to shred!

Left Hand Tips:

The left hand is in position 11 for measures 1 and 3, and position 9 for measures 2 and 4. Partway through measure 4, I slide my left hand up to position 14 to finish. 

Take a close look at the video to get a feel for how this all goes down.  Also, if you click the gear at the bottom of the YouTube video, you can slow the video playback down all the way to quarter speed.

Th...

Time to Shine (One of the Many Middle Parts)

Hope you all had a wonderful new year! It's only January 2nd and I'm already back to work in the tone zone / lick library / shredgistry office, ready to deliver you spicy hot riffs.

This song has so many sections. I think this one is the 5th section but it all depends how you break the song up. I've settled on naming this 'One of the many middle parts'.

Pro Tips:

The distorted and palm muted feel is Van Halen inspired. Listen to the song Panama - ...

Synthesize Her (Pre-Chorus)

Greetings everybody! I hope you all had the most joyous of holidays! 

Time to circle back to one of my favourite tracks, Synthesize Her. We're going to look at the pre-chorus this week. The guitar here plays a sparse, spacey sounding part.

How to make things sound spacey:

This is more of a textural part than many of the others in previous weeks. That means it's not really in the forefront, but sits in the background and sounds like it's far a...

Strike a Pose (Intro)

Let's all get ready to strike a nice pose this Holiday season.

This is more of an intermediate/advanced one, just a heads up!

Left Hand Pro Tips:

Everything up until the very last measure is in the 10th position. This means that your first finger is going to play any notes on the 10th fret, your second finger covers the 11th, your third the 12th, and your fourth the 13th.

The only exception to the previous note is at the end of measure 6. Th...

All Night Forever (Verse)

Here's a fun one - and it's relatively simple too!

There's two different parts to this verse. The first half (that's low on the neck) we'll call the 'first half', and the second half (high up on the neck) we'll call the... 'second half'. 

And before you begin, may I ask one simple favor? Would you mind trying your best and forgetting the rest? 

Pro Tips:

- Lightly palm mute the notes in the first half.

- In the first half, I ...

Rock n Roll Best Friends (Chorus)

How about this spicy hot riff? A power stance is recommended for maximum tone. 1 power stance = 1 tone.

Pro Tips:

- Down pick every note to keep the attack and volume of every note consistent.

- The first half in the 7th position is palm muted. The second half that takes place lower on the neck switches to open notes. It's also best if you can get the notes to ring together in the second half, it makes things sound a little bit extra cool.

-...

All Night Forever (Outro)

This one was getting requested a lot, so we have to do it!

Pro Tips:

- Overall, most of this riff is just alternating changing power chords with a repetitive single note figure. In measures 8 and 9 (measures are shown above the notation in the TAB), it turns into these big barre chords. If you're less experienced, it might make sense to split it up into the various parts and learn them one at a time, instead of trying to play through the entire thing ri...

Zone of Prestige (Intro)

Welcome to the Zone of Prestige! I would like to take this opportunity to confirm that it is in fact the most prestigious zone.

For those of you who aren't aware, this is a Lord Phobos (that's me!) original track. You can hear it on Bandcamp at: http://lordphobos.bandcamp.com

Pro tips:

- Every note on the 5th string is palm-muted. I would suggest tilting your right hand wrist i...

Atomic Karate (Chorus)

Hey people!

Here's a tricky funky rhythm part. Nunchucks are not required to play it (but they are highly recommended).

PRO TIPS:

- The right hand is the challenge here. It usually just swings back and forth above the strings, in a 16th note rhythm. What you hear as all these different muted rhythms is really just the pick hitting the strings randomly. Otherwise, it's still constantly moving back and forth like a pendulum.

-...

Generous Dimensions (Pre-Chorus)

Here's the pre-chorus for Generous Dimensions. We did the verse a few weeks back as well, check it out if you haven't already!

Pro Tips:

- Apply vibrato to the notes for a bit of extra sass.

- When playing single note stuff on the low strings, the underside of your first finger can lightly touch the high strings, muting them. This is important when you're playing with distortion and feedback is a concern!

- Pay attention to which notes are p...

Makin' A Move (Verse)

Greetings - it's funk time! Play this Nile Rodgers inspired part right, and all disco balls in a 1 mile radius will start spinning.

Pro Tips:

- For each chord, Barre your first finger across the strings and hammer the notes on during the first strum. This gives each chord a nice little flourish at the start.

- Lift pressure off the chord and keep strumming with your right hand to get that classic 'wikki-chikka' sound. The exact pattern I play with...

Typhoon Turnpike (B Section)

Here's part 2 of Typhoon Turnpike! Look back a few weeks to find part 1 if you haven't checked it out already. These melodies will make you move and also make you groove!

Pro Tips:
-  Measure 1 is in the 6th position, and then you'll shift up to the 7th position all the way until measure 6. The only exception when you're playing in the 7th position is that your pinky will slide up and hit the 11th fret on measure 4.
- The slides into and out of notes, as wel...

Starlight Brigade (Chorus)

Here's a greatest hit for you all!

Pro-Tips:

- I play this with the thumb over the top of the neck, but you can leave it behind if that makes it easier. Over the top does allow you to apply vibrato a little easier. Gotta make those notes sing!

- Sometimes when playing single note stuff on the high strings, the low strings will start ringing out on their own. To stop this, angle your right hand wrist so that it rests on the low strings, muting them.

2019-10-17 14:36:09 +0000 UTC View Post

Generous Dimensions (Verse)

Here's a little piece of 6-String Theory for you. As everyone knows, there are 6 Generous Dimensions in the known universe, one for each guitar string.

This one starts off with the same chord shape The Hit (Chorus) began with. It's one of my favourites. If you have a guitar with a whammy bar, you can try out the lil' dips - that's right, lil' dips.

In between the big whammy bar chords there's some palm muted power chords. Lift your left hand after each n...

Typhoon Turnpike (A Section)

Here's some lead guitar for you all! Despite this song sounding completely bonkers, this part isn't as hard as it sounds.

Pro Tips:

- On the 2nd and 1st strings (B and E), your left hand should be in the 9th position. This means your 1st finger plays the 9th fret, 2nd finger plays the 10th, 3rd plays the 11th, and 4th plays the 12th.

- When you play on the 3rd string (G), your hand will shift and play in the 8th position. Here, your 1st finger plays the...

Synthesize Her (Verse)

Here's a guitar part that delivers some serious spank. If you haven't seen the Chorus TAB for this tune, scroll down a few posts and check it out!

Pro Tips:

- The easy thing here is that literally every chord is played by your first finger, which barres the same fret on the top 3 strings. 

- You'll see that my other 3 fingers rest on the lower strings to mute them. This way they don't accidentally ring out. Because of this, you'll see my righ...

Phantom Racer (Chorus)

I hope you ate your shreddies for breakfast this morning, because we're about to shred through a serious rock riff!

Pro Tips:

So, you'll probably want to brush up on your barre chords for this. The 3rd finger is going to hold down the upper 3 notes of the first and the second chords. The only difference is that the first chord has your pinky added in on the 10th fret 2nd string. These shapes then slide around to different positions on the fretboard. The...

The Hit (Chorus)

It's time to revisit TWRP's #1 chart topping hit, The Hit!

We already covered the verse in a previous week, so if you learn them both you can now perform a large portion of this song. Pretty neat, eh?

Pro Tips;

- The very first chord has a muted note in the middle, on the D string. You can accomplish this by angling your 1st finger so that as well as fretting the 5th fret A string, the underside lightly touches the D string.

- Usually when p...

Synthesize Her (Chorus)

BETCHA CAN'T PLAY THIS! (But I hope you can)

Here's a tricky one for all you funksters in the audience!

A little bit about the part:

There's a call-and-response thing happening between the single note phrases and the chordal phrases in this part. I'm playing them together here, but in the studio we actually split it up and tracked it as 2 separate guitar parts.  If you listen carefully to the recording you'll hear that even the tones are diff...

The No Pants Dance (Chorus)

Here's a classic. If TWRP ever releases a greatest hits album, you know this smooth jam will be near the top!

Because this song already has so much going on rhythmically (have you noticed those frantic bongos?), I wanted to write a guitar part for the chorus that is sparse and airy sounding. To accomplish this, I use these big extended chords with the open high E and B strings ringing out. The chord I point to at 0:52 is actually a chord that Andy Summers from The Police uses a lot in t...

Believe in Your Dreams (Outro)

This is one of my all time favourites. Practice it slow at first, and only raise the tempo up when you're ready!

TWRP - The Hit (Verse)

If you know power chords, this one should be fairly straight ahead. There second chord is a big stretch - if you can't reach it, play the 7th fret 3rd string on the 5th fret 3rd string, and it'll still sound correct. 

TAB is downloadable as a PDF or a Guitar Pro file.