The Pedals Needed to Play Shoegaze Guitar
Shawn Leonhardt
If you like the bands in the music genre of shoegaze guitar, you will need lots of pedals to recreate the layers of sound. That style of guitar playing encompasses a wide variety, but they all share a love of manipulating their guitar signal with a few main effects. If you have these pedals below and take the time to learn them correctly, you will create some amazing guitar textures.
WHAT IS SHOEGAZE GUITAR?
Shoegaze guitar was originally a negative term referring to certain bands that spent much of the stage time staring at their shoes. In reality, they were simply looking at effect’s pedals, as they are as much a part of the song as the guitar and vocals. Guitar pedals became more accessible to the middle class and by the early 1990’s they were staples in metal, grunge, and alternative bands.
The shoegaze genre itself is a huge mix of psychedelic pop, indie art rock, and Britpop and was first inspired by bands like My Bloody Valentine, Lush, Slowdive and more. One of the main differences that set the shoegaze acts apart were in the effects pedals they chose. Grunge and heavy alternative preferred more fuzz and distortion while the shoegaze style bands incorporated more reverbs and delays into their dreamy sound.
While the genre may have started in the early 1990’s it is still an art form that is alive and well under the same and new names as nugaze, blackgaze, and whatever prefix is suitable for the mood! Regardless of the names, all these guitar styles will require a handful of pedals to have at your disposal.
THE NECESSARY PEDALS FOR SHOEGAZE GUITAR
Essentially every guitar pedal is going to have a place in the shoegaze and dream pop world. If your goal is to manipulate the guitar signal, then all pedals may have a constructive part in your music. However there are a few that are essential.
Overdrive
The overdrive pedal works on a distortion principle by clipping the guitar signal, and most electric guitar genres use this pedal. Blues and rockabilly will use a light overdrive, while it is turned up the heavier our song gets. Some shoegaze is on the overwhelmingly distorted side while other songs are a little less overdriven.
Fuzz
Fuzz is another effect that uses distortion, this time though it clips the guitar signal so much that it creates a square wave. This change creates a fuzzy sound and can also be dialed in for how much fuzz is necessary. If you really want to be a great shoegaze guitar player pay close attention to how these signal changes mix, as they are a part of the genre recipe.
Modulators
This includes a variety of pedals like chorus, flanger, phasers, and others that are doubling and mixing your guitar signal. These pedals essentially help create a fullness that the shoegaze genre is known for. Chorus like effects will have more of an additional instrument’s vibe while the flangers and phasers will sound more surreal with whooshing and shifting of the sound. There is a lot of experimentation to be done with these signal modulating pedals.
Delay
Delays and echo pedals use analog or digital methods to loop the sound back however many times you want. Short delay is used for pop and rock vocals to add a little bit of depth to the voice. By adding even more time delay, we can thicken and enhance the sound even more. Remember the point of shoegaze is to create a massive mix of sound and to simply make the band sound larger than it is, and delay will help with that illusion.
Reverb
Like delay, reverb is also a time-based pedal effect, it helps create a bigger space for the music to exist in. Even if you are not playing in an open stadium or space you can still simulate how your signal will sound in such a situation with a reverb pedal. For great shoegaze guitar we want some distortion, but we can’t overpower the world of sound created by the delays and reverbs!
HOW TO PLAY SHOEGAZE GUITAR
Of course there are pedals that mix the above effects and many other sound modulations. And there is no specific order to put them in, unless you are trying to cover an old song. Being a shoegaze guitar player is a little mix of guitar and synthesizer. Just like an electronic musician you must spend time getting to know your knobs and how the signals change.
And as for music theory the songs need not be that complicated. Of course they can be composed masterpieces, but simple riffs and guitar chords often work fine. Remember there will be lots of delay and reverb and signals mixing so you want to make sure certain note intervals do not mix harshly. We generally want ethereal distortion but not dissonance. Play simple chord progressions into your pedal chain and see how they sound and mix. You can always use a guitar chord chart or a chord finder to help find chords that work together.
In a way shoegaze is a great style for a new electric guitarist because very amazing sounds can be created with simple playing and these pedals above. Simple power chords that reverberate and echo through a wall of distortion will sound great and make you look like a way better player! But don’t forget it’s not all about the guitar signal!
While this article has focused on guitars, the genre of shoegaze is often defined by manipulated vocals too. Often in the same manner with distortion and time-based effects. The whole point of the genre is to get a small band to sound huge and dreamy with many layers of sound. And the best way to do that is to use as many effects as possible to build it.
Learn your analog and digital effects units inside and out, and you will be able to manipulate your guitar signal to create great music like shoegaze. Even if you do not care for the label, it is the perfect approach for anyone looking to turn a guitar into a bigger instrument. With the right pedals you can play lush and loud songs that sound more complicated than they really are at times. Your guitar is your brush, and the pedals are the canvas, paint away!
By Shawn Leonhardt for Guitar Tricks and 30 Day Singer.
