The Kooks Style

by Gabriel Leopardi

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  • Hi GMC!

    Welcome to my new lesson covering the style of The Kooks, a British rock band formed in 2004 by Luke Pritchard (vocals/guitar), Hugh Harris (lead guitar/synth), Alexis Nunez (drums) and Peter Denton (bass guitar).

    Music Style:
    Their music is usually defined as indie rock/pop while they prefer to define themselves just like a Pop band. Their influences come from 60’s British rock (Beatles, Stones, Kinks) but also from the Post punk revival that included bands like “The Strokes” and “The Hives”. In this lesson I tried to re-create their most “groovy” and “pop” side, which is the one that I consider most characteristic among their music. Clean guitars, Beatles style progressions and very catchy rhythms is what I’ve heard in their music and what I wanted to recreate on this tune.

    Tonality, Chord Progression & Scales:
    One of the most interesting things of their music is the way they combine chords, and how their progressions evolve in the different parts. They don’t use to repeat more than twice a progression on each part, the third repetition usually includes an extra chord, a change or directly goes into another direction. This is smoothly connected by the clever vocal melodies that their singer creates. In this lesson you will see and example how the progressions can evolve every time they are repeated.

    Techniques:
    This lesson is a rhythm lesson very helpful for beginners that want to get into new rhythms and chord shapes, but it’s also suitable for more advanced students who want to incorporate new ideas on how to arrange pop songs, and also about composing and chord progressions.

    Sound:
    I used LePoin plugins to create the guitar tone. These are free amp emulators that are extremely recommended. The head used for this guitar tone is Poulin HyBrit which is a Marshall amp.

    Check out the settings:



    Click HERE to download my Patch.

    I used Cubase to record audio and midi, EZdrummer for drums and Trillian for bass.

    Tuning: standard EADGBE tuning

    Tempo: 120 BPM
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