Where Is My Mind - Pixies

The lead line were learning today is from "Where Is My Mind" by The Pixies. It's another case where the lead line is actually easier than the chords to this song, because we do have a couple of bar chords.

Two Notes from E Major

This lead line goes between two notes on string one and string two, and these are actually two notes from an E major chord. If we think about this as actually a D major chord shape moved up two frets - here's D major, move it up two frets and these are the notes from an E chord. All we need are the two notes on the thinnest two strings, which we'll play string one with finger one, string two with finger two. This is fret four of string one, fret five of string two.

Proper Technique

We need to play those two notes with your fingers really curled over, because we're going to need them both to ring out. If we have them really flat, string one isn't going to ring out, so we want it to be on the tips like you would play a chord. We're going to play it with the first two fingers, thumb just sitting on top of the neck giving us something to hold on to. Again at this side of the fret area rather than the other side - if we're at that side we're going to get buzzing and have to press down way too hard.

Alternate Picking

I'm going to encourage that we pick string two with a down pick and then string one with an up pick. This is just a small extra detail for those who want to work on technique. But ideally down pick and then an up pick, which is both using alternate picking but is also very economical as well because we're always moving in the direction of where we want to be next.

The Full Pattern

We hold down these two notes at all times. Pick string two, string one, string two, string one. We do that four times. Please try and make sure you're resting your thumb of your picking hand on the thicker strings or the pickup area, keeping a small motion as possible. Once you've done that, the middle finger then wants to move to fret four, the same fret as finger one. This is going to be a little bit of a squash, but this is the best thing for beginners or anyone new to lead guitar - we're going to slide. Then we move the middle finger back to fret five. First finger lifts off and gets ready to go down on string two. We're actually strumming both strings together - a little strum of the thinnest two strings. Then to the first finger back to the middle finger.

Practice Goals

Hopefully that's something you can do - it will take a little bit of practice. You want to be aiming for being able to play four times through without making a mistake - do the whole thing, do it again, do it again, do it again. That's very hard but it's something to aim for. Let's play at 50% tempo and then 75%. That was based on two notes from an E major chord, and we had some alternate picking in there.