Hawkwind Guitar Tuition

Want to sound like Dave Brock? This is an inversion he uses all the time. It's a barre chord that employs the bottom 5 strings of the guitar only. When played at the 7th fret, it yields an E, with this fingering: 77999x

That means the lowest pitched string (tuned to E when open) is played at the 7th fret, the 2nd lowest string (tuned to A when open) also at the 7th fret, the 3rd lowest pitched string (tuned to D when played open) is played at the 9th fret, and so on. The highest pitched string is not played at all.

The index finger barres all the strings at the 7th fret, and the little finger (or pinkie) barres the topmost 4 strings in such a way that the highest pitched string is muted. The two middle fingers are lifted clear of the fretboard. Use this shape for the verses in Master of the Universe, playing 77999x for E, 55777x for D and 33555x for C. It should be instantly recognisable, as this inversion has a distinctive brash tonality, created by the emphasis of the 5th (er, I think - music theory's not my strong point) below the root note of the chord

These two chords are used in "Back On The Streets", in an alternating pattern which will be familiar to anyone who's ever heard any Status Quo, or any other bog-standard 12-bar boogie outfit. (Hawkwind do not use it all that much, so I won't dwell on that....)

"Back On The Streets" employs alternating A7/A6 chords, where they are played at the 5th fret with this fingering: 575655 for the A7 chord (see photo, above left) and 595655 for the A6 chord (see photo, above right). The song also contains E7/E6/E7,where these same shapes are played at the 12th fret, and D7/D6/D7, where they are played at the 10th fret.

To play the A7 chord, use the index finger to barre all 6 strings at the 5th fret. Place the second finger on the 3rd string (the one tuned to G when open) at the 6th fret. Place the 3rd or ring finger on the 5th string (the one tuned to A when open) at the 7th fret. The little finger (pinkie) stays clear of the fretboard. Now, don't move your hand!

To play the A6 chord, keep everything where it is and drop the little finger (pinkie) onto the 5th string at the 9th fret. Voila! Now you can alternate between A6 and A7 by lifting the little finger off the fretboard and dropping it back down again. Might need a bit of practice to make it smooth!

You will also find these alternating Sixth/Seventh chords in one or two other places in Hawkwind songs, most notably on the verses of Silver Machine. Have fun kiddies!

A6 chord

A7 chord

Lesson 3; Chords for 'Space Is Deep"

What on earth, you may ask, do D7, D7sus4 and Am(add11) look like when they're at home?? Fear not, Uncle Starfarer has pictures for you:

D7

A nice easy one, using fingering of xx0212

Put your index finger on the 1st fret of the 2nd string, then your middle finger (the one you flip people off with) on the 2nd fret of the 3rd string. :Last of all, put your ring finger on the 2nd fret of the 1st string.

Don't strum the 5th or 6th strings when you play this chord. And now that you've played it, keep your hand and fingers exactly where they are!

(Guitar shown here is an Ibanez Talman electro-acoustic)

D7sus4

Sounds worse than it is. This chord uses fingering of xx0213

You get to this chord having previously played D7, above. All you have to do to get to D7sus4 is drop your little finger (pinkie) down onto the 3rd fret of the 1st string. Not too tough.

Once again, don't strum the 5th or 6th strings when you play this chord. And don't move your hand till I tell you, boy!!

Am (add 11)

Pronounced as "A-minor, add eleven". Don't ask me why it's called this. The fingering is xx0210

In Space Is Deep, the chord progression is D7 - D7sus4 - D7 - Am(add11) - D7Sus4 - D7. So you arrive at Am(add11) from D7. From that chord, lift your ring finger off the fretboard completely, and you're there.

To get back to D7sus4, put your little finger on the 3rd fret of the 1st string.

Joe Loehr contributed to this lesson, thank you Joe!

Lesson 4: Chords for 'We Took The Wrong Step Years Ago"

More appalling chord names here, C#7/B, C#7/6 and C#7. As with Space Is Deep in the previous lesson, it's not too difficult to play these once you find the right place on the neck and know where to put your fingers. In this song the sequence is C#7/B, then C#7/6 and then C#7, so they're shown in that order below;

C#7/B

We start with the worst one, played as x46467.

First, barre all the strings at the 4th fret. You're not going to play the 6th (lowest-pitched) string, so try to angle your index finger slightly to mute it, as I have in the photo on the right.

Now drop your 2nd finger down on the 4th string at the 6th fret, and put your 3rd / ring finger on the 2nd string, also at the 6th fret. Your first three fingers are now where they're going to stay for all three of the chords in this progression. Drop the little finger / pinkie onto the 1st (highest-pitched) string at the 7th fret.

C#7/6

This is easy to get to from the preceding chord. All you have to do is slide your little finger down a fret, from the 7th fret to the 6th.

Note in these pictures how the 3rd finger, which is also at the 6th fret, is pulled back a little way from the fret, making some space for the little finger to slot in alongside it. These photos were taken with me playing a modern Strat, which has an average width neck. My hands are on the delicate side because I'm so artistic (!), but I'm also a pretty mediocre guitar player. So if I can do this, you can too.

This chord can be written out as: x46466. (See Lesson 1 at the top of the page for an explanation of this.)

C#7

A piece of cake. The fingering is x46464.

From the previous chord, just lift your little finger off the fretboard altogether - this means the 1st string is now being fretted at the 4th fret by the barre.

You can, in fact, just use C#7 alone instead of this chord sequence, - it'll sound OK as the vocals carry the melody line. If you're going to do this, an easier fingering is 9_11_9_10_9_9: use the index finger to barre all strings at the 9th fret, put your second finger on the 3rd string

Lesson 1; Fundamentals

Lesson 2; Space Boogie

Guitar used here: thick-necked Yamaha SG3000S

Lesson 5: Alternate Chords for 'We Took The Wrong Step Years Ago"

Thanks to Joe Loehr who came up with the following chord progression for 'We Took The Wrong Step Years Ago'. It requires the use of a capo on the 1st fret and provides an easier way of playing this number, for those who found Lesson 4 to be an uncomfortable stretch. It also has the side-effect of changing the key of the song from C#7 to C#, and I actually prefer the way it sounds as a result, even if it's "wrong".

I am going to describe the fingering for each chord ignoring the existence of the capo. Where you see the number 1 given in the fretting sequence, you should think of that as an open string, since the capo is taking care of it for you.

C#7

This, the first chord of the sequence, is played as x43421.

C#6

This is played as x4x321, which is easier than it sounds. You get here from the preceding C#7 chord by moving your middle finger from the 4th string to the 3rd string, where it stays on the 3rd fret. This is a very simple move. Simultaneously, you lift your little finger clear of the fretboard.

Now, there is one more thing you have to do. Note that the 4th string is not played on this chord. As the two strings either side of it are played, you have to mute the 4th string. This is very easy, because all you have to do is nudge your middle finger very slightly forward, i.e. towards your face. You're still going to be fretting the 3rd string at the 3rd fret with this finger, but will nudge the finger (and the string with it) forward until your fingernail makes contact with the 4th string, thereby muting it. If you look carefully at the photo to the left,

C#

Really easy to get to from the preceding C6 chord. All you have to do is pick your middle finger up from the 3rd string and plonk it down on the 4th string, still at the 3rd fret. Nothing else changes. The fingering is x43121.

Now, look back over these three chords, and in particular at the notes that are being played on the 3rd string. These actually carry the melody. In Lesson 4, we carried the melody on the 1st string, going from the 7th fret to the 6th to the 4th. The corresponding notes are B, Bb and G#.

Here, we are playing the 3rd string at the 4th, 3rd and 1st frets respectively. The notes to be found at these frets on this string are B, Bb and G# - in other words,

the same as in Lesson 4 (although pitched an octave lower). Joe tells me that he actually picks the notes in these chords rather than strums them...

There's one last thing to point out in connection with this lesson. Because of the slight key change we've introduced into the song, you will need need to use B and C# chords for the chorus, rather than B and C#7. Use fingering of 22444x for the B chord, with the index finger barring at the 2nd fret and the little finger barring at the 4th fret - this is the same shape as shown in Lesson 1, above. The C# chord is x43121, played exactly as shown in the previous photo.

you can just see the edge of the 3rd fret dot marker slightly in front of my middle finger. You can see that there is contact between the fingernail and the 4th string.

Place your index finger on the 2nd string at the 2nd fret. Then put your middle finger on the 4th string at the 3rd fret. Place your ring finger on the 5th string at the 4th fret and your little finger on the 3rd string at the 4th fret.

at the 10th fret and your ring finger on the 5th string at the 11th fret.