How to Play Guitar Like Peter Buck

Creative use of meat-and-potatoes chords

Few rock bands are as instantly recognizable as R.E.M.--whose signature blend of jangly distortion and impeccable pop smarts have outlasted all trends, from grunge, to hip-hop, and everything in between. Much of the credit comes down to R.E.M.'s guitarist, Peter Buck, whose willingness to experiment and "less is more" ethic remains inspirational to meat and potatoes players everywhere.

Things You'll Need

• Acoustic guitar
• Effects boxes (chorus or fuzz distortion)
• Guitar tab sites (like chordie.com)
• Guitar magazines
• Heavy gauge strings
• Les Paul guitar (for the crunchier '90s)
• Marshall amplifier
• Rickenbacker 360 guitar (for the early "jangle" era)
• R.E.M. albums, CDs, videoS
• Vox AC30 amplifier

Instructions

Tackle the Jangle

1. Understand the different phases of R.E.M.'s work. Like many players, Buck's style can be divided into distinct eras--starting with the jangly yet clean sensibility that characterized their early to mid-'80s work. To pull off that tone, combine a Vox AC30 amplifier and semi-hollow-body Rickenbacker guitar.

2. Check online guitar sites--and early classic albums, like "Murmur"--to get a feel for the chords that Buck favors. Typically, he sticks to major chords (A, C, D, E, G)--leavened by the odd minor ones (A minor, E minor) for contrast purposes--and major scales, on those rare occasions when he solos.

3. 

   Don't confine yourself to basic strumming, and leave it there. When you're holding down chords, allow for the odd open string to ring out for a bigger sound. And, although he rarely solos, Buck is known to pick out arpeggios on individual strings for greater textural variety.

4. Study closely how Buck blends acoustic and electric guitars, which he's done from REM's earliest recordings. Don't worry about recreating them exactly--to approximate the sounds of multiple guitars, employ a chorus delay pedal (as heard on "Life And How To Live It").

Shift Gears for a Later Era

1. Tackling the sound of later period albums like "Monster" (1994), or "New Adventures in Hi-Fi" (1996) requires a simpler, more stripped-down approach. Switch to the classic combination of a crunchy Les Paul guitar, and run it through Marshall amplifiers.

2. Experiment freely with effects and tunings--as Buck did on "E-bow the Letter," whose title references the sustaining device that he combined with a Drop D tuning (achieved by tuning the top string to a D-chord pitch). Round off the sound with fuzz distortion pedals.

3. Consider the quirks of the amplifiers and guitars that Buck uses. For example, nailing the urgency that characterizes an album like "Monster" requires the overdriven sound of a tube amplifier--versus solid state models like the Vox AC30, which tend to dampen the sound. (To get around the latter problem, turn up the treble function.)

4. Try contrasting tempos and textures. Much of R.E.M.'s musical subversiveness is grounded in confounding expectations--such as the cheery chords that ring out on an angry classic like "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" for example.

Tips & Warnings

• Consult videos and magazines, such as "Guitar Player," to get a feel for Buck's latest equipment configurations, techniques and views.

• Deploy unusual instruments whenever the mood strikes--as R.E.M. did on its third album, "Fables of the Reconstruction" (1985), which blended darker textures with instruments more commonly associated with folk music (such as the mandolin).

• Write a bridge, instead of a solo--a technique that Buck recommends for expanding a song's emotional range. See the mandolin breakdown in "Losing My Religion" for further reference.

• Consult online chord and solo charts freely, to broaden your own stylistic outlook, but take them with a grain of salt. Many people write charts that favor their own playing styles, so proceed accordingly.

• Don't confuse Buck's style with that of his cohort, bassist Mike Mills, who's played guitar parts on such later period songs as "Let Me In."

• Play what the song requires, and no more--Buck's style isn't about showing off how many notes he can peel off the fretboard. Approach your soloing with an eye toward building a concise melodic statement.

Resources

• R.E.M.