Arctic Monkeys for Beginners: Songs, Effects & Riffs

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This stream was all about Arctic Monkeys, with Fraser showing off a custom Tele-style guitar he built at a parts caster course near Brighton - perfect for that single coil sound Arctic Monkeys are known for.

For beginners, "505" is a great starting point - just D minor and E minor the whole song. Add some delay (around 200 milliseconds) and it sounds properly dreamy. "I Want to Be Yours" uses C minor, F and G with slow strumming, while "Don't Sit Down Cause I've Moved Your Chair" is a nice intro to drop D tuning.

The later Arctic Monkeys stuff like "Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High" has that desert rock vibe - lots of tremolo, spring reverb and delay. The riff sits in F# minor pentatonic shape one, and once you know that scale position their riff-writing becomes pretty formulaic.

The stream finished up helping a viewer with "Hold the Line" by Toto - power chord movements, string muting, and that legato playing style with hammer-ons and pull-offs.