anyone here got any good tips on playing punk rock?

Chords, scales, or both?

single coil or humbucker?

or anything else you think i might need to know, anything helps, because i dont know ANYTHING

Or...Does everyone here hate punk rock XD

punk rock 101:

listen to 70's and 80's punk, not new crap

With you on that :P

just play and ignore all the bull**


out of curiosity what's new punk(obviously excluding underground bands)

Bowling for poop, fallout boy (not sure if thats actually punk) i would say blink 182 is punk

I've always thought that The Offspring have a very "punk" attitude. Their music isn't always what I would normally associate with the genre, but a good amount of it is.

Depending on what you want to do (which is what punk is about) you could play lots of aggressive, fast, and power chord filled songs or more melodic stuff. Do what you want to do. Give a listen to The Sex Pistols, The Clash, and The Ramones.

@BBT: NO NO NO NO NO NO

Those bands are POP. A big distinction. And put down blink-182 all you want, along with offspring, greenday, rancid and nofx, they put a whole new breath of life into the dying punk scene.

So... the answer. You want to know how to play punk?

Punk is the only pure form of energy. It's not about the chords, the scales, picking patterns, screw all that. Music is all essentially going to be based the same way. You pick up your instrument and do what you want. It's just how you present it. You just play what you feel, and that's as punk as it gets. Check out the album Energy by Operation Ivy, or Fugazi's EP. Also keep an eye out for the Desecendents Two Things at Once. Early blink-182 and greenday were REALLY punky, though they shifted more to pop when they started getting more popular and cashing in.

Generally, punks going to be played fast, loud, and angry. But you could say the same thing about metal. Punk is impossible to explain, but probably the purest form of music simply because it looks at all the rules and standards that everyone else tries to put down, and gives them the middle finger. I don't know, it's hard to explain.

@Crunch: While the Offspring helped breath new life into the punk scene, I would classify them more towards modern rock. They definitely have a huge influence from punk, but they always had a heavier aspect to their music. You can easily hear the metal influence, especially in albums like Ixnay on the Hombre

so much of what was good in punk was distorted and tossed aside by the media's producing and blowing up puppet bands(the sex pistols, the clash and the ramones)

listen to The stooges, Minor threat, Gang of four, Bad Brains, Television, the Germs.

or listen to the original bands out in Washington in the 60s like the Sonics and the wailers(the ones who the kingsmen ripped off damn puppets)


-edit- damn i through out two dc bands by mistake but hey Bad brains and Minor threat are to excellent bands so they stay.

@body-i agree that's why i put just play and ignore the bull**

yeah, but you could turn over and argue what were the original punk artists, but its hard to classify. ive heard people classify david bowie and iggy pop as the original punks, and bowie is about as poppy as they come.

minor threat is good, but i prefer Ian McKaye in Fugazi a lot better. Bad Brains is cool in the fact that along with being one of the first all-black punk bands, they pretty much invented modern hardcore. but theyre by far not one of my favorite punk bands, though its all a matter of personal taste.

punk first took solid form,more then one or two songs, in Washington in 60s before that there were singles and influences(surprisingly calypso is one indirectly) then that influenced notable Michigan and bounced off from there.

i tryed to name one know band, easily found, form each MAJOR place DC, Michigan, new york, England, and cali.

@- Ban Brains they weren't and who the hell cares anyway

Ziggy stardust isn't poppy

well..if what u want is some advise of HOW TO PLAY PUNK ROCK???...u might try using power chords, a lyric about stupid things, or mayb government or some of those things...and get a very "what do u care???" badass attitude XD...have good luck on that

it's more about the attitude then anything. punk originally just started as sloppy rock played way to loud and way to fast. eventually it formed a very complex and intelligent movement, especially in the 80's. it created a new form of music that no one even knew how to react to, except the kids who felt it.

i wouldn't call it new it's diffidently a variation but not new. it's kind of like how biologist always argue what's a species and what just a different characteristic. I always refer to miles when this comes up cause i think it's perfect he called it all "social music" he saw no difference between him and Brittney spears.

just an amazing dude

oh i totally agree RA.

genre's are all bull-sh*t anyways. it all depends on the individual artists, and the sum of their work. there's almost no basis for comparison sometimes, because each artist does what they want to do. look at the differences between the clash, the ramones, and the sex pistols. they are called the fore-front of punk, but they each did something completely different.

edit: i like how at the end of the video he says "I'm cool." that made me laugh.

also, this wasn't aimed to be a genre discussion, so i'll bring the thread back on track. check out all types of punk bands, it doesnt matter the era. see what they did, and why they did it. it's such a wide ranging genre that you can't really define a definite style for punk. if your trying to sound like a particular artist or band, then it might be easier for us to give you some advice, but never forget to do what YOU want with it, or your ultimately destroying the point of punk.

to me POP would be Britney spears, etc

thats what we call superpop.

Stick mainly to power chords (I think the only open chord The Sex Pistols ever played was a G). You could stick to a simple I-IV-V progression or mix things up a bit. Sudden chord changes and using chords from "outside the scale" can create a more aggressive feel. Lead wise, octave melodies work well.

Not all new punk is bad, and those bands BBT said are on the very "pop" end of the spectrum. Rise Against are a decent modern punk band.



There are lots of similar bands on the "Fat Wreck Chords" record label.

i've always heard blink 182, fallout boy and greenday described as pop punk.

punks not about musical technicality really its about the emotions and shiz and all those bands do lack musical technicality so meh

I think the whole "genre" thing is cr*p to be honest. Punk rock has so many different forms and derivatives, and the lines between them have become blurred. At what point does normal punk become pop-punk, or hardcore?

Basically, to cut a long story short, listen to as many different forms of punk as possible. See what you like, and what you don't like. Then take what you like and incorporate the techniques into your playing style.

Try emailing Doz for advice. I havn't seen him on the forum for a while but he might still be answering his mail. I believe he was (might still be) a guitarist in a semi-pro punk band.

he still lurks on here every once in a while. i think your right though, he might have some technical advice on punk.

Punk is like heavy metal jazz. You are free to do what you want. When I play punk, I use whatever "dirty" distortion I can find and then turn the volume of my guitar down a little. Then I play chords that don't neccessarily go together but make sure I repeat the sequence fast enough that they sound good together.

Your best bet though as with anything else is to listen to good classic punk: Black Flag, Meat Puppets, Dead Kenedys, Broken Bones, Chanel 3....

Late reply, but that was a really good example RA. Thanks for sharing that video.

The skills within Punk Rock is simple; they don't thrash around and remain all talk and no show like most music these days, they have skill behind their work. They always focus their music on melody and harmony! It's important you really study music and come to understand that they also compliment their chords, harmonise their solos, and have the most amazing vocal hamonies.

It really does depend on what type of bands you're inspired by, but they'll all follow the hamonies. It wasn't all about rebelling, they made music that actually sounds good and truly works because that's what they felt was decent enough to thrash around to.

I agree with Maverick! It wasn't that they were poor musicians, they mainly wanted to play something fast, aggressivly compassionate, and simple. It was simply a way for them to excert thier anger and aggression and they wanted their fans to go nuts and excert thier aggression in the pit. So it doesn't really matter what your influences are or how you go about playing it. Just play it fast, play it raw, and sing about something that makes you happy or pisses you off.

i will admit there are some really crappy punk bands though.

also, punk uses a lot of down strokes, except in ska punk like operation ivy, which makes major use of upstrokes while downplaying downstrokes.

You can use any technique you want, but make sure your say what you mean, and mean what you say.

to my point of view, punk is more an attitude than a genre, so come up with something new, write a lyric for it and you might call it punk as well as you might call it classic rock or blues, but remember, genres are there for people that dont know what youre talkin about feel they know something bout it

alf