In celebration of UK rock band Muse selling out the new Wembley Stadium in June, I’m going to be looking at the playing style of singer/guitarist Matt Bellamy, paying to particular attention to the band’s “Showbiz” and “Origin of Symmetry” era.
After forming in Teignmouth Devon in 1994 Muse have managed to become one of the biggest rock bands on the planet, although many would have thought their mind blowing headlining set at Glastonbury 2004 would have been the peak of their career, Muse have once again raised the bar for what it means to be the ultimate live band.
I’ve written a short song that incorporates many of the ideas that Bellamy has used in his songs, I’ve broken it down into five sections and in each we’ll be looking at some theory, technique as well as referencing songs where the ideas have come from.
Drop-D Tuning
Before beginning to play any of the examples your going to have to put your guitar into a drop-D tuning, to achieve this all you need to do is tune your low E string down a whole tone to D, this is a very common tuning and enables you to play power chords with only one finger and gives an overall heavier sound. There a many songs that use this tuning but some examples are “Walk” by Pantera, “Spoon Man” by Soundgarden and “Naked” by Reef.
Heavy Intro Riff
A big feature of Muse’s songs are their heavy yet catchy riffs, this first example takes influence from songs such as “Dead Star” and “Hyper Music”.
During the 4 bar count in there is pick scrape leading into the riff, to recreate this sound you just have to scrape the side of the pick down the E and A strings to create metallic scratchy sound. The riff itself is based around a chromatic run using power chords and ending with a dissonant Db5 which adds more tension. It is fairly basic to play, although a key point to remember is to only use down strokes throughout to give the sound more attitude and heaviness.
Clean Arpeggio Verse
This clean chord part is taken from songs such as “New Born” and “Citizen Erased”, this creates a stark contrast to the heavier riffs and adds atmosphere. Again the idea is based round chromatic runs giving which doesn’t sound too far from the James Bond Theme. The half first uses a basic 1st position D minor chord with the notes on the B string running chromatically from D to C and back again. The second half uses a basic D shape Dominant 7 chord throughout and again runs chromatically from E7 down to Db7.
To play this part you can use alternate picking as indicated on the score or you could use you fingers, although if you were going to play something like this live you need to allow to time to grab a pick before launching into the heavy chorus! With practise it is possible to hold your pick with your ring finger and pinky, keeping it handy for any parts requiring a plectrum.
If you play this using finger style, use your thumb for the G string, index finger for the B string and middle finger for the E string, keeping a strict rolling pattern going.
Heavy Chorus
Muse are known for their catchy apocalyptic chorus` and are often sang over basic but well thought out chord progressions, this is obvious is songs such as “Plug in Baby” and “Showbiz”.
The chord progression here is simple, Dm, Bb, F and A, all of which are diatonic to the key of D minor, there are also small embellishments on the chords to give a more anthemic feel.
Again this part is fairly basic to play and as with the intro riff try and use down strokes throughout until the very last 16th notes of every other bar, which requires a quick alternate strum leading into the next chord change, this is shown on the score.
I`ve included a full backing needed to play all of the parts described above.
Guitar Solo!
Many of Bellamy’s solos are very classical based and like his vocals almost operatic, as with other aspects of his playing the feel and attitude are more important than clear cut technique. So this solo is very heavily based on songs like “New Born” and Showbiz”.
This solo is based entirely round the D natural minor scale and is played entirely on one string; if you’re used to playing pentatonic scales and have trouble breaking out of the “boxes” then is a great way of breaking down some of the barriers and getting used to using the whole of the fret board.
The solo starts with a basic tapping pattern that climbs up the D minor scale an octave up whilst using the lower D at the 3rd fret as a pedal note. To tap out the notes use your middle finger whilst keeping hold of your pick with your index finger and thumb, this may seem tricky as first but just keep practising and it’ll become much easier.
The second half of the solo again just climbs up the D minor scale using tremolo picking, tremolo picking is basically just playing the string as fast as possible using a constant up stroke/down stroke pattern. A key thing to remember here is not to tense up and keep breathing (you’d be surprised how easy it is to forget to breathe when playing an intense guitar part such as this), keep your wrist relaxed and just go for it!!!
I’ve included another backing track with the chorus guitar included so that you can practise the solo over it as well as improvise and write your own.
Recommended Listening and Watching
Muse
“Showbiz”
“Origin of Symmetry”
“Absolution”
“Black Holes and Revelations”
DVDs
“Hullabaloo: Live at the Zenith
Paris”
“Absolution Tour”
Jeff Buckley
“Grace”
Radiohead
“Pablo Honey”
“The Bends”
Rage Against the Machine
“Rage Against the Machine”
“Empire of the Sun”
more articles by Kenneth Robertson
August 4th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
This is one of the best things I’ve ever read. You are one amazing guitarist too! Keep it up.
November 29th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Yup - not seen anything more useful about MUSE than this page. Please write more about music theory!!!