Discovering Indie Guitar Riffs: An Ultimate Guide for Guitarists
Learning the ins and outs of Indie guitar riffs
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Discovering Indie Guitar Riffs: An Ultimate Guide for Guitarists · Source: Brett Sayles
Elevate your sound with these indie guitar riffs! Unlock unique indie songs with these techniques and tips.
Indie Guitar Riffs:
Discovering Indie Guitar Riffs: Where to Start?
Welcome to our guide on indie guitar riffs. Here, we’ll be counting down some cool tracks while showing you how to play them with simple and effective TABs.
If you’re unfamiliar with indie music, then let’s take a closer look at what they’re all about. Usually a combination of rock and pop genres, indie music aims to defy convention about musical and lyrical ideas. The name being shorthand for independent music, the subgenre started in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Luckily for us, most songs in this genre are guitar-driven and feature some creative chord progressions. Comprising strange chords with single-note rhythms, let’s check out these indie guitar riffs.
Take Me Out – Franz Ferdinand
Kicking us off, we’ve got this early 2000s festival anthem. Not only benefiting from a catchy main riff, but we’ve also got an intro perfect for mastering single-string riffs.
The second single from their debut album, Take Me Out is a wicked guitar track. With lots of tempo changes, it’s just one of those songs that you can’t help but crank the volume when you hear it.
Here, we’ve got TABs for both the verse and the main chorus riff. The verse features complete bars of 1/8th notes that can be played with either alternate picking or just down strokes. Moreover, the chorus riff is somewhat more challenging by comparison, but nothing too strenuous.
Float On – Modest Mouse
2004 was a good year for indie guitar riffs, as we have another here from Modest Mouse. With a clunky bass line and a repetitive feel, this is undeniably an indie track.
Here, we’ll be looking at the chord progression rather than the opening riff. From a guitarist’s perspective, these alternate chord shapes are more beneficial to learn compared to the simple riff.
This comes back to the idea of defying convention. It’s not exactly a song fuelled with political angst, but the open and unusual chord shapes give this song a strange and yet typically indie feel.
To play this track, we need to place a capo on the 6th fret of the guitar. If you don’t have one, fear not! Here are a few personal recommendations from *Thomann.
Do I Wanna Know – Arctic Monkeys
Thirdly, we have one of the most mainstream records in this look at indie guitar riffs. The whole point of independent music is that they’re subtly under the radar and respected by a select crowd.
Do I Wanna Know comes from the Sheffield star’s 5th album back in 2013. The 12-string guitar riff follows a bass drum and clap drum intro. Coupled together, they create a mysterious groove that gets better and better throughout the song.
This indie guitar riff is rather mysterious. This is aided by being played almost entirely off-beat, adding in some slides and hammer-ons. Overall, it fits well into the group’s rockabilly revival from that period of time and is a perfect addition to any guitarist’s repertoire.
12-string guitars can be expensive. Luckily, there is a huge range of them on Thomann to suit any occasion or budget. Whether you want a real deal Rickenbacker, or you’d prefer a value Harley Benton. You could even go acoustic if you wanted to.
Homesick – Catfish And The Bottlemen
Another British group here. Despite their album, The Balcony, going platinum in 2016, the group are lesser known in the grand scheme of things. However, in indie circles, they’ve been one of the big hitters over the past decade.
The song begins with just guitar and vocals. The riff is stripped back and is played in tandem with the vocal line. A very sedate start precedes a loud and energetic chorus before returning to another chilled-out verse. Great examples of dynamic contrast.
Yet again, we’ve got a capo on the 6th fret. The shapes are reminiscent of arpeggios, but you’ll want to treat this as a standalone riff. Crank up the volume and the reverb, and you’ll have the perfect tone that is both clean and on the edge of breakup.
`Catfish And The Bottlemen frontman, Van McCann, plays a very tasty-looking Fender Telecaster. Complete with twin humbuckers and an all-black finish. There are a couple of options to look at to replicate this cool look:
Where Is My Mind – The Pixies
To conclude our pick of indie guitar riffs we’re back to the late 1980s with The Pixies. From Boston, this group had a large influence on bands such as Nirvana and Weezer. Bringing alternative and indie music onto mainstream radio.
The riff follows a candid acoustic guitar intro and repeats throughout the song at various intervals. This riff has a really nice overdriven tone, and contrasts beautifully with the clean and composed acoustic guitar and percussion.
Overall, the riff isn’t overly complicated. I like to play down and up picks across the B and high E strings to be as efficient with my picking as possible.
To get that cool and collected overdriven sound from this riff, you may wish to invest in an overdrive or distortion pedal. This will take your clean tone to the next level!
Indie Guitar Riffs: Different is Good!
As we can see, a lot of these guitar songs are just that little bit more alternative compared to your typical rock riff. We’ve still got some repetition, and the hooks are just as memorable. However, they just hit differently and have an overlying glum mood about them.
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