Hey everyone, I’ve been playing guitar for over three years, but I feel stuck on basic chords, power chords, and simple drop D shapes. I don’t feel creative at all, and I’m not sure how to improve. How do I make my chords sound more dreamy?
Slowdive has been a huge inspiration for me, but I can’t seem to get that ethereal sound with the chords I know.
Any exercises, songs, or techniques I should check out? Do scales help?
I’d love to start writing my own music, so any advice is welcome!
If you want that dreamy Slowdive sound, the first thing is understanding their chord choices.
They use lots of chord extensions like:
7th chords
Suspended chords
Add chords
A cool trick is to take a barre chord and leave the highest two strings open. This creates a lush, open sound.
Try this Aadd9:
e|–0–
B|–0–
G|–6–
D|–7–
A|–7–
E|–5–
Move this shape around the neck and experiment with different positions. You’ll find some dreamy sounds that way.
Effects also play a big role. Slowdive uses:
Delay
Reverb
Distortion
Flanger
Look up their pedalboards to get an idea of how they stack their effects.
And don’t stress if you can’t match their tone exactly—studio recordings have layers of guitars. Just experiment and find your own take on it! Hope this helps.
@Pat
Yeah, reverb is huge for this sound. I just got an EXH Oceans 11 pedal, and it has a bunch of reverb settings. Doesn’t magically make you better, but it’s fun to play with!
Parker said: @Pat
Yeah, reverb is huge for this sound. I just got an EXH Oceans 11 pedal, and it has a bunch of reverb settings. Doesn’t magically make you better, but it’s fun to play with!
For sure! Reverb is a must for dream pop and shoegaze. I’ll check out that pedal, sounds interesting! And yeah, gear helps, but the real magic comes from experimenting and playing around with different settings.