HOW TO PLAY THIS MONTH'S SONGS

This fusion-tinged instrumental showcases Billy's sophistication...

- JIMMY BROWN

TURNSTILE

“TLC (Turnstile Love Connection)”

THIS FAST, HARD-HITTING modern punk song by this popular young band features pummelling power chord riffs, performed with bright, high-gain, bridge humbucker tones by guitarists Brady Ebert and Pat McCrory.

The guitarists stick to their bottom three strings throughout, mostly fretting conventional root-5th-root voicings with individual fingertips. But during the chorus (section C), they play inverted power chords, voiced 5th-root-5th, with the root on the A string and the 5th on the low E string, barred with the index finger. These chord grips are easy and comfortable to fret, but shifting the hand up and down the neck quickly and cleanly at this fast tempo is challenging and necessitates precise, relaxed fretting. Also, note that Ebert and McCrory switch back to the standard root-5th-root shape at the end of bar 15, moving from an inverted G5 voicing to C5.

The guitarists use inverted power chord voicings again during the song's breakdown riff (sections E and F), economically toggling back and forth between B5 and F5 at the 7th and 8th frets with minimal motion during the last two beats of bars 28 and 32.

Regarding the pick hand, both guitarists use mostly downstrokes but employ down-up strums for all the 16th-note pairs and “quads,” which would otherwise be extremely difficult to downpick at this tempo... unless your name is James Hetfield.

The repeating whammy bar dips at section D can be tricky to perform in the even eighth-note rhythm indicated. You'll need to time them to occur right before each strum, to create the desired scooping effect.

Notice how, at section F, the feel suddenly changes from “wide open” to tight and punctuated, as the guitarists apply palm-muting (P.M.) to their bottom two strings during certain strums. This creates a cool-sounding rhythm within a rhythm.