Psychobilly Guitar Tips For Beginners

by Kevin Nightingale

So now you know what gear's gonna set you off on the right foot, but that won't make you the next Reverend Horton Heat just yet baby. If you wanna play like the masters of Psychobilly it takes more than just the right tone, you need to learn the playing style to match. Luckily I've got a few tips to pass on that'll help get the old school purists on your side. Old hands will see these as no brainers, but if you're a young punk, metalhead or even an emo kid, who has just discovered this quirky underground genre and want to get involved then those two finger power chords, two handed fret-tapping solos and drop c-tunings aren't gonna cut it by themselves so this could make the difference between sounding like a psychobilly band or just Green Day with an upright bass.

Tip #1: You remember those weird chord shapes your guitar teacher kept trying to drill into your head when you first started playing but quickly forgot about because you never heard Linkin Park or My Chemical Retards using them? Turns out they aren't just for old fogeys to play Bob Dylan tunes on their acoustic guitars so get used to making those tricky D's, G's, majors, minors and 7ths.

Tip #2: Start at the beginning and take it slow. The rockabilly and rock and roll of the 50's holds more influence over psychobilly than any genre it's inspired, so learning a few simple oldies and practicing them regularly on your own and kicking up the tempo as you get confident playing them at your own pace. here's 3 obvious easy choices that will help you master a few key techniques.

    •    "Brand New Cadillac" - There isn't a single psychobilly band on the planet that doesn't have at least one song that uses this Vince Taylor masterpiece as a template, it uses a classic 12 bar blues structure and a riff that captures the essence of rockabilly perfectly.

    •    "Mystery Train" - I've heard so many versions of this song I couldn't tell you who done the original without checking Wikipedia first to make sure, but I do know when it comes to learning how to do the Travis Picking technique (not to be confused with folk style picking), accept no substitutes. This style takes some getting used to so don't give in, if you don't master it straight away, just keep it simple and play slowly till you get used to alternating your picking fingers.

    •    "Peter Gunn Theme" - Not strictly a rockabilly or psychobilly song, it's closer to early 60's big band swing jazz, but it has Duane Eddy playing one of the most instantly recognisable and badass Gretsch twang single note melodies with expert use of the Bigsby vibrato and if you've been following our advice so far and got yourself a Gretsch 5120 or a Pro Jet then that's what you got the dang thing for, right?

Tip #3: So now you've either got the hang of those or you're a cocky git and you think you're ready to start peeling off some greasy, hot rodding guitar solos. Well for starters you need to be at the very least practicing those old pentatonic blues scales regularly until you know what notes work with which chords in your sleep, then you can at least bluff your way through a solo if you get lost (old stage guitarists trick, that way if you mess up, the audience just thinks you're showboating with some improvisations).Obviously there's more to a good Rock/Psychobilly guitar solo than scales, they're just the base for any good lead guitar work, wether you're a Setzer or Satriani. And that's where Tip #4 comes in...

Tip #4: Learning the licks that make a solo go psycho. As I've already stated back in Tip #2, the best way to learn is from the oldies, wether it's Mad Sin or Meteors, Cramps or Demented, any time you hear those guys take a solo i guarantee there'll be an element of one of these 3 classic leads in there somewhere.

    •    "Johnny B. Goode" - If you don't know this already then I'm amazed how you ever learned to play a guitar, but study that solo Chucks knocking out from his Hollowbody Gibson religiously. Those  bends and double-stops (2-note chords) have been the blueprint for Rock 'n' Roll since Marty Mcfly Rocked the Enchantment Under The Sea Dance way back in 1955. Now, you can too!

    •    "Rock Around The Clock" - As solos go this one is pretty short but don't let that fool you, the guy who came up with this could probably run circles around any of todays virtuoso players. Seriously, playing this might not wow the pants off someone who knows nothing about guitars but anyone who has played it will tell you the run down the scale at the end of this makes Van Halens "Hot For Teacher" feel like "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", once you can play this note for note you can handle any garden variety guitar solo.

    •    "Stray Cat Strut" - OK, not technically an oldie but gimme a break, it's about 30 years since The Stray Cats hit big with this, and it's one of the first rockabilly songs i taught myself to play since I fell in love with this type of music and not only is it really fun to play but shows just how it's possible to make something as simple and generic as rockabilly music sound unique and original yet still faithful to it's roots. Brian breaks things up with jazzy chords and whole tone scales mixed perfectly with the traditional rockabilly bag of tricks shown in the examples above.

Tip #5: This is not so much of a tip as it is a friendly advice, and that is, once you've got down the basics and you're ready to start writing your own stuff, remember that this is just groundwork and not a "how to do psychobilly properly" article. Start from here and take it in any direction you want, throw in elements from different genres. That's how psychobilly started, by taking rockabilly and fusing it with punk. Take a leaf out of Link Wray's book, experiment, find your own sound, if you like it chances are someone else will too.