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Hello all. I thought it was about time for another Smiths lesson. The track I've chosen is Girl Afraid, which was the B side to the more familiar Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now. I won't pretend this is an easy one to play but, for me at least, it was a really rewarding one to learn. 

And I think that even if you're not a huge smiths fan you could get a lot out of learning one or two of these riffs. They're all such good exercises in pick control and accuracy when arpeggiating chord shapes. 

Here's the link - 

https://youtu.be/9Xe9bhyZNsI

I've tabbed it all out below. In a couple of spots where the notes are impossible to discern I've used my own judgment as to what going on. Because of the capo, chord names refer to the shapes used rather than the actual pitches. And I've included some of the Instagram variations at the end for anyone who wants them. 

Have fun! Backing track coming right up in the next post. 

Comments

Mark Orr

Wow! Amazing! Thanks so much for this.

Jordan

Thank you, Adrian! I know you receive tons of requests, but may I add one more to the list? Would absolutely love a lesson on Dead by the Pixies!

Stéphane Mineot

Yeah !! Absolutely great Adrian ! I've been fascinated by this song for years and decided one day to find out what was going on with the guitar. And as you said, it's really hard to find out by listening the original track. I finally was helped by the live video at the rockpalast. He kind of does a mix of the guitars heard on the original. I invite you to have a look at it and the whole gig as well.

Mark Plunkett

Two years ago I tried to learn this, and struggled but came up with my own take. In the last year, HGP posted his excellent tabbed version, and then the JM Instagram video dropped. I knew I would eventually have to finally learn to play it correctly. You taught me This Charming Man, Back to the Old House, Headmasters Ritual, and now I will finally play Girl Afraid correctly. Thank you so much Adrian!!!

Gary Ainsworth

One of those tunes I never thought I’d be able to learn but you make it so accessible. Cheers for this Adrian you’re a star for all the tracks you produce, tabs etc all high quality. Much appreciated. Ever thought of producing any I Am Kloot guitar lessons?

Scott Rees

Ditto what Mark Plunkett said above. An absolute dream to get a chance to play these all time favourite Smith's songs. Beautiful job - along with locking down those backing tracks! Sorry... going sideways somewhat, I've sure been enjoying those Alain Whyte at home videos of all those great Morrissey songs. Seasick, Yet Still Docked, Tomorrow, National Front Disco...and on. And his live version of Southpaw. Some mighty fine guitar playing.

anyonecanplayguitar

Yes, great song. I'd like to do another Pixies lesson. Will add this to my list of possible tracks to look at.

anyonecanplayguitar

Yes, the Rockpalast performance is incredible. That's helped me out learning quite a few Smiths songs. Really interesting the way he approaches playing some of those songs live. And the whole band is so great.

anyonecanplayguitar

My pleasure Mark. This seems to be one of those mysterious, holy grail Smiths tracks that a lot of people are keen to learn, so it's nice to be able to help people with it.

anyonecanplayguitar

My pleasure Gary. I've liked the I Am Kloot stuff I've heard, but I'm not deeply familiar with them. Any songs/albums you'd recommend checking out?

anyonecanplayguitar

Yes, Alan Whyte's fantastic. Might well try and look at some of his his stuff at some point.

Gary Ainsworth

BBC Radio 1 Peel Sessions a good album covering their work. Tracks Storm Warning, Titanic, From Your Favourite Sky and Proof a few of my faves.

Yiannis

Great choice once again Adrian, thank you. I second what Scott wrote about Alain Whyte.

Drew Broomhall

Great timing Adrian, I took delivery of a shiny new CE-2w last week and was working through every song I knew that uses chorus! Another fantastic one to add to the repertoire, thanks.

anyonecanplayguitar

Fantastic, such a good pedal! I'm actually tempted to pick up the Waza version myself too as well since it has the extra CE1 mode which sounds awesome. Not that I need yet another chorus pedal...or maybe I do.

Deron

Hi Adrian. Wow. Thanks for digging into this one. It *is* tricky. And challenging for me — I’m not able to do this at full speed, I’m struggling at 1/2 speed (which of course is frustrating because I want to play along…). ANYway… My favorite part of your lesson is where you say “but…somebody has to do it, I suppose, and it may as well be me .” Very meaningful. On one hand defeatist — by overwhelming demand you end up being the one who has to do it — on the other, a bit of a victory lap! because you can do it and nail it! A while back I was taking guitar lessons in person from a very competent guitar rocker — had a band and he wrote very intricate and dark guitar parts. He still liked my more 80s post-punk, 90s indie stuff and would tab stuff for me. I once asked him to do “Still Ill” — not as challenging as “Girl Afraid” — after about 5 minutes he got really frustrated and refused to go on! Heh heh. He got so mad. It was really funny. He and I were good friends, and I never asked for another Smiths song from him. ANYway, thanks!!

Haroun Haroun

Hey adrian, you should do a Nick McCabe lesson, he's the guitarist for the Verve, and hideously under rated, I reckon he is better than BOTH guitarists from Radiohead, and definitiely one of the best from the shoegaze/britpop era, sort of a cross between Gilmour and McGeoch, lovely textures.

anyonecanplayguitar

Haha good story. Yes, there's no doubt this is a hard one to play at full speed - I can just about do it myself =, but I'm not as relaxed or accurate as I'd like to be. Will keep practising it. and actually figuring out Johnny Marr stuff is always a bit of a challenge, but something I enjoy despite the frequent frustration!

anyonecanplayguitar

Hi Aaron! Yes, I do like Nick McCabe. A bold statement that he's better than both guitarists in Radiohead, I couldn't possibly say, but maybe! Will give a lesson on him some thought. Any particular track you think might be good to look at?

Casey Haley

Probably not a real popular one but The Smiths instrumental tune “Money Changes Everything” would be an awesome lesson

Haroun Haroun

Blue, Drive you home, This is Music, A Northern Soul just off the top of my head! p.s. I've only recently reassessed them, I totally ignored them during the shoegaze days! lol.

steven maenen

Hey Adrian, can you do a sixteen horsepower song ?? Poormouth its open tuning ?

anyonecanplayguitar

Hi Steven. I'm not really familiar with 16 Horsepower. But I'll certainly take a listen to the track you mention. Thanks!

anyonecanplayguitar

Thanks Aaron, I'll have to take a proper listen - I've always quite liked the Verve but never really explored their music properly.

John Dunn

Superb instruction video Adrian, that's some skill you have to work that out and play it so well, been trying to play Johnny Marr for years, very intricate picking which I think is very difficult to play intuitively. Can I ask, how long have you been playing and how much do you practice /play a day?

anyonecanplayguitar

Thank-you John! No doubt this is a tricky one! I've been playing a long time...30 years+ I'm playing a lot every day, teaching, working on videos, recording. As far as actual focussed practice goes I aim for an hour a day but don't always succeed. In the past I've practiced a lot more than that, and I've also had periods where I've not practised at all and just worked on songs and playing with others.

anyonecanplayguitar

Yes, that's an obscure gem of a Smiths track! I'll have to revisit the track and take a proper listen. Can't promise I'll be able to do a lesson on it, but I'll certainly think about it.

Brett Jorgensen

Hi Adrian, just wanted to join the chorus to say thank you and really well done. As usual, an excellent lesson. Both this one and Spellbound are songs that when I've first dug in I've thought 'there is no way' and then somehow it comes together after a few days of persistence. As I've been working on this one it's felt natural to do a bit of hybrid picking with these arpeggios and was wondering if you think that can play? The more I learn of JM's tunes the more I see a connection to fingerstyle players.

anyonecanplayguitar

Thanks Brett. Yes, absolutely try some hybrid picking on this one, certainly makes sense and it might make playing the track at speed easier. I'm sure there's a connection with fingerstyle players in a lot of JM's stuff, even though he's mostly using a pick. I know he's a big fan of fingerstyle guitar and a lot of his arpeggios have that kind of character to them. A really good observation.

Paul Brown

Just What the doctor ordered Adrian and a b side to boot...ah the Smiths! Would love to see you tackle one of Marr's solo efforts too, there's some decent stuff to have a go at.

Chris Maddox

Another superb lesson from you and by one of my favourite bands and guitarist. Many thanks Adrian.

anyonecanplayguitar

Yes, been thinking I should branch out and look at some of JM's solo stuff. Lots of interesting things to choose from - will give it some thought!

Paul Boudreau

When the pandemic hit I made it my goal to learn this song. I've made more progress in the past 2 weeks since you posted this lesson than I made the past few months. Thank you! And thanks also for talking about his Instagram version of the chorus. This new version is much fuller if you're playing solo. Thanks for including!

anyonecanplayguitar

My pleasure Paul. Glad the video has helped you get the song together. The Instagram chorus part is really nice, definitely a good option if you're playing on your own as it fills out both the melody and harmony that you hear on the record.