Any chord-melody. I only took lessons for a few months but, in addition to Wipe-Out, Pipeline, and Misirlou, he pretty much only taught me chord melodies of known songs.

These taught me which notes complement the chords and, more easily than rote, showed me where I could place my fingers and not sound dissonant.

This is a technique I've used to develop the melody for most any song I've ever written.

Red Sunrise was one of the important ones for me, I hadn't been playing for too many years when I learnt it by ear, that was a big step for me.(what sweeps?)

The Jurassic Park theme can't be overlooked when it comes to great songs to help one's musical vocabulary. It has a beautiful tempo, the melody is absolutely near the apex of man's greatest achievements, and the dynamics...

The big thing is, I've been a surf guitarist my entire guitar playing life. I need to learn some new tricks to compliment my style, which will never not be the surf guitar style. It is adding in what makes the 1% of greatest surf guitarists so great, that is what we need to get to.

But honestly, don't learn other songs to make you better. Learn other songs to develop your ear, listen to and write about music to learn about composition, and to become a better musician explore the boundaries. Experiment with picking super aggressively or barely touching the strings with the amp dimed. Playing nothing but double-stops for a month, learn a simple melody and then add in passing notes, get crazy on the trem, hammer on-off the notes, finger pick, arpeggiate, etc...

I think my playing improves when I learn a new technique for elaborating a tune – my own tune or more frequently a borrowed one. I mean working out arrangements to propel a melody &/or chord sequence to become a song that's satisfying to the listener.
Recently I took a tune, a national anthem (great source for singable melodies with hooks) and worked out a surfy way to play it. Then I took a few chord changes and melodic fragments from it to make an original 'intro' or prelude/coda to it. Working out ways to get two guitars to mesh for a rich texture (bottom chord voices + top melodic voices)shows me a lot of reharmonizing opportunities yielding variant melodies, sort of a jazz technique.
Now I am thinking of working out a legato single-string rendition of the melody in addition to the chord-melody way I already blocked out. Thus I will have a way to play the tune and its prelude/coda in a staccato, harmonic way (double & triple-stops across the fretboard) and in a more soloistic way up and down the neck. So this short tune can be rendered interesting by expressing chords & melody two ways.

Squink Out!

Nitro - right hand / left hand coordination

Edit: Disclaimer - I can't actually play it consistently but the riff is a great workout

Last edited: Aug 04, 2014 12:41:50

Tagged in order to vacuum up the nuggets.

I'm still in kindergarten after a 20yr layoff, so anything that turns on the "Ah-haa" light can get me going down a rabbit hole to research what I'm listening to vs. what I initially think I'm hearing. An example was the role tango & other Latin rhythms play in surf music. After doing some research (one listening example ) this helped me in being able to focus on rhythm movements when doing a song for the wife's car consumption.

Probably basic stuff for most but it took me to a new place, which also let me pass on some new-found things to #3 grand-daughter who likes to bang on sticks, blocks & deep-bellied tupperware containers. It also showed me it's ok to get out of my comfort zone and come back without falling off the planet & gave an appreciation for what it takes to lay down a rhythm track that could stand alone carrying the percussive rhythm of the song.

Again, basic stuff probably to most here; gotta start somewhere. Sometimes now I listen to a song from another genre and wonder "how would that surf?" The diverse nature of surf has simply made me a better guitar player.

Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel

DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.

Get a copy of "Let's Hide Away and Dance Away with Freddy King", and learn every lick on there. Your phrasing and electric guitar vocabulary will greatly improve. Most of it is very applicable to surf music too. Many of these songs were done as surf tunes by The Lively Ones and many other first wave bands.

https://www.facebook.com/coffindagger
http://coffindaggers.com/
http://thecoffindaggers.bandcamp.com

ncgalt1984 wrote:

Ivan, I'd love to see a list of songs that you think are important for any guitarist to learn...

Kevin, thanks for asking, but I'd be hard-pressed to come up with any sort of a list! I've learned many different songs from many genres over the years - my first public performances were playing with a classical guitar quartet, when I was about 18, and my first band played '80s hair-metal so I played everything from Kiss to Poison to Ratt to White Lion, etc.. My second band was a classic rock covers band, playing Sultans of Swing, Hotel California, Tom Sawyer, YYZ, etc.! From there I went into original music, initially the fusion-kinda stuff (never really liked that, but I had friends that asked me to do it) to alternative music to pretty extreme alternative music (My Bloody Valentine and 'shoegazing'-type of stuff in general), and from there to surf music. All along I was always learning and playing songs by the Shadows, too, and once I got into surf I learned dozens and dozens of the classics. So, I guess the only advice I can offer is to learn as many different kind of styles as you can and try to cross-pollinate them a bit (but always being aware of what is tasteful and appropriate for each genre). That's all I've got!

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
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The Madeira Channel on YouTube

Last edited: Aug 05, 2014 17:58:56

I was hoping a thread like this would get started. I have been learning a lot of venture's songs. They use almost every technique I could want. tremolo picking, holding the vibrato bar while playing, double stops, hammer on/off, muting, chord picking etc. However, I have no idea how to do the the hammers used in this song. Any one know how to? www.youtube.com/watch?v=myHZLnbjSmE

For surf, Misirlou was a big one for right hand technique. From there I moved on to The Wedge for string crossing. Rumble was another one. Getting the intensity of the piece, and not over playing were the lessons learned from Link.

When I play with the Fabulous Venturamas, learning entire LPs sure shed some light on arranging. A lot of Venture pieces have unusual musical twists.

Rev

Canadian Surf

http://www.urbansurfkings.com/

I agree with CrazyAces about writing your own material. I feel like I had a "growth spurt" after I started writing and arranging my / our own Surf songs.

METEOR IV on reverbnation

I started learning guitar about 3 years ago. Over that time, the two main places I've been able to say have helped me was John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton album, and learning the solos from just about every song of "Disraeli Gears" by Cream. I wouldn't say learning a song would improve a musician, but rather just sitting about on a rainy day and messing around with the guitar and seeing what songs you're able to decipher- it worked for me atleast.