Surf guitar is on the rise thanks to guitarists like Khruangbin's Mark Speer, and it can teach you a lot about attitude and note choice – Arianna Powell shows you how your playing can benefit from catching the wave

The amazing Arianna Powell is back with another great lesson courtesy of Pickup Music. There’s also a video to go along with this article, so check that out if you want to hear how it sounds when played by a pro. Before we get into the licks, let’s familiarise ourselves with the tone, chords and scales we’ll need.

This track is a tip of the hat to ’60s surf rock, paying homage to classic artists like The Ventures and Dick Dale, but it’s not just the golden oldies utilising this sound. Modern greats Khruangbin draw from the well, too.

To emulate this awesome sound, we need a clean, twangy tone and some echo. The bridge single-coil pickups of a Strat or Gretsch’s Filter’Tron-loaded hollowbodies are the ideal starting point. If you’re using humbuckers, bring the treble up on your amp. All that’s needed after dialing in a basic tone is a little tremolo and spring reverb.

Most of this track uses one position of the A minor pentatonic scale (A C D E G), though there are also some notes from the A natural minor scale. Adding those extra notes to your pentatonic shape makes the entire natural minor scale (A B C D E F G). Easy huh?

There’s only one time we stray beyond our favourite pentatonic box shape – a little slide up to the 9th fret on the third string. This note is still in the A minor pentatonic scale; it’s just from a different box pattern.

Chords

Even if you’re only playing lead, knowing the chords is still important! We’d recommend you play along with the chords a couple of times before moving on to the lead tab. Here are some shapes to get you rolling.

If you already know how to play them in different positions/shapes, feel free to use those instead.

Surf-rock guitar licks | 'Mark's Spear' - Arianna Powell | Pickup Music - YouTube

Watch On

Example 1

The track begins with a palm-muted Am arpeggio. It starts on the 5th interval, then goes root, b3rd, 5th, before falling back on that flavourful 9th interval (4th fret, third string).

The arpeggio is followed by some pentatonic goodness, with a slide up from the 5th to 7th fret, then back down. Only pick once for those three notes. The whole lick repeats with slight variation – a classic call-and-response-style phrase.

Example 2

This lick is pure minor pentatonic, and if you’re comfortable with hammer-ons and pull-offs, it’ll be a walk in the park. The trickiest part is moving quickly from the G string to the D string.

If you’re struggling, practise at a slow pace until you can bring everything up to tempo. This phrase repeats four times in an ‘ABAC’ style – the first and third times are the same (A), and the other two are variations (B and C).

Example 3

A little dreamy respite here. This part drifts through some pretty natural minor scale phrases. The exotic-sounding trill that happens at the start on the high E string requires some practice.

You need to strike the 7th fret, then immediately hammer onto the 8th – finally, pick the 8th fret before returning to the 7th. After you’ve learned Arianna’s lines, you could use this section to experiment with the natural minor scale and come up with your own licks.

Example 4

This part is a callback to lick #1, but it doesn’t repeat like the first time – only play it once. Here’s where we use our ‘out of the box’ note on the 9th fret of the third string.

Remember to pick the note on the 7th fret before you slide up. We then slide all the way down to the 4th fret on the G string. You need to switch fingers along the way – changing from your third to your first finger.

• Get access to the world’s best online guitar courses and reach your guitar goals with structured lessons and personalised feedback from pro instructors. Pickup Music even offer a 14-day free trial so you can take a look before you buy.