• Tags:  Palm muting, Downstrokes, Alternate picking, Arctic monkeys

Hello guys!

Welcome to the second lesson in series inspired by Indie Rock bands. We are talking about a very wide genre so we will be covering many bands.

Let’s see what wikipedia says about “Indie Rock” :
“Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others.” - Wikipedia

In the previous lesson we covered the style of The Strokes. You can check it here.

In this second lesson I will cover the band Arctic Monkeys. “Arctic Monkeys is an English indie rock band. Formed in 2002 in High Green, a suburb of Sheffield, the band currently consists of Alex Turner (lead vocals, Lead/rhythm guitar), Jamie Cook (rhythm/lead guitar), Nick O'Malley (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Matt Helders (drums, percussion, backing vocals). Former members include Andy Nicholson (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Glyn Jones (lead vocals, rhythm guitar).” - extract from Wikipedia.

Music Style:
This band combines different styles so it’s difficult to put them in one category. You can find elements from Indie Rock, Garage Rock, Post-Punk and Psychedelc rock in their music. In their last album they also included some Desert rock (or Stoner) sound in their music (Check my Stoner Rock Lesson). In this lesson I tried to cover the style of their first albums with that fresh Garage Rock sound.

Tonality & Chord Progression:
The tune is in A minor tonality but it includes chords taken from other tonalities to get that original sound of their compositions. I didn’t follow any theory behind this, I just created progression that could sound like them.

Techniques:
The techniques used in this lesson are palm muting, only downstrokes, alternate picking, bending and vibrato.

Sound:
I used my Pod X3 Live to record this lesson. I used the Treadplate Dual Amp Model with a 4x12 2001 Treadplate Cab Model. The drive of the amp was set in 4 to get this tone. If you want the tone you can ask for it at my personal board. My guitar is a Gibson Les Paul Studio. The drums are Ez Drummer and the bass sound is from the Hyper Canvas. 

Tuning:
I used standard 440. 

Related lessons:

• • 1

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    Indie Rock: The Strokes

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• • 3

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    Indie Rock III: Pixies

    Pixies, Indie Rock, Alternative Rock, Frank Black, Grunge, Where's my mindby Gabriel Leopardi
• • 4

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    Indie Rock IV: Sonic...

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