Guitar Songs, Tabs & Lessons

Lou Reed

2 guitar songs · Tabs, Lessons & Tone Guide Rock

Choose a Lou Reed Song to Play

Walk on the Wild Side - Guitar Lesson

YouTube Stats: 64K · 916

GuitarLessons365SongLessons Guitar Lesson

Perfect Day - Guitar Cover

YouTube Stats: 59K · 1.9K

Kfir Ochaion Guitar Cover

Artist Overview

Lou Reed emerged from the New York City underground in the mid-1960s as the driving force behind The Velvet Underground before launching a prolific solo career that spanned from 1972 until his passing in 2013. His guitar work is deceptively simple on the surface, built on droning open chords, rhythmic strumming patterns, and a raw, unpolished approach that became the blueprint for punk, post-punk, and Indie Rock. Reed was never about shredding or technical fireworks. Instead, he showed generations of guitarists that feel, attitude, and song structure matter more than sweep picking. His influence on how people think about the electric guitar as a vehicle for storytelling and texture is immeasurable. As a guitarist, Reed favored open tunings, repetitive two-chord vamps, and a percussive right-hand attack that gave his rhythm playing a hypnotic, almost motorik quality. Songs like "Walk on the Wild Side" revolve around simple chord shapes played with impeccable timing and groove, while "Perfect Day" showcases his skill as an accompanist, using piano-influenced voicings and clean, arpeggiated figures. He could also unleash walls of feedback and dissonance when the mood called for it, drawing from his early experiments with drone music and La Monte Young's minimalist compositions. This range, from delicate fingerpicking to abrasive noise, makes Reed a fascinating study for any guitarist looking to expand their expressive vocabulary without relying on technical complexity. For guitarists learning Reed's material, the difficulty level is beginner to intermediate. Most of his songs use standard or slightly altered tunings and rely on open chords, barre chords, and straightforward progressions. The real challenge is in the nuance: getting the right dynamics, nailing the lazy-but-locked-in rhythmic feel, and understanding when to let a chord ring versus when to choke it with palm muting. His catalog is a masterclass in the idea that less is more. If you are a newer player looking for songs that sound great without requiring years of practice, or an experienced player studying how to serve a song rather than showing off, Lou Reed's work belongs in your rotation.

What Makes Lou Reed Essential for Guitar Players

Reed's rhythm guitar style relies heavily on open-string drones and sustained chord voicings. On songs like "Walk on the Wild Side," the guitar part sits back in the mix with clean, muted strumming that locks in with the bass groove. Practice your palm-muting control to get that subtle, laid-back feel.
His use of alternate tunings was a signature move inherited from his Velvet Underground days. Reed frequently tuned all six strings to the same note or close intervals (sometimes called "ostrich tuning") to create droning, harmonically rich textures that are easy to play but sound massive.
"Perfect Day" is primarily a piano-driven song, but the guitar arrangement uses clean arpeggiated chords with a warm, round tone. It is an excellent exercise in restraint and dynamic control, teaching you to complement other instruments rather than dominate the mix.
Reed's lead playing, when it appeared, was raw and attitude-driven rather than technically precise. He favored bent notes, simple pentatonic phrases, and aggressive vibrato. His solos often feel improvised and urgent, making them great studies in expressive, blues-rooted phrasing without complex scale runs.
His strumming hand technique was percussive and rhythmically insistent, often locking into a 16th-note pattern that he would accent and ghost-note like a drummer. Developing this kind of rhythmic precision in your picking hand will improve your groove playing across all genres.

Did You Know?

Lou Reed studied drone music under avant-garde composer La Monte Young before forming The Velvet Underground, which directly influenced his use of sustained open tunings and repetitive, hypnotic guitar figures.

Reed's infamous "Metal Machine Music" (1975) is a double album of pure guitar feedback and effects. No vocals, no melodies, just layered distortion and overtones created by leaning guitars against amplifiers. It is considered a precursor to noise rock and industrial music.

On early Velvet Underground recordings, Reed and John Cale would tune their guitars to unconventional intervals, sometimes tuning every string to the same note. This "ostrich tuning" technique made it possible to create massive, organ-like sounds with a single finger barred across the fretboard.

"Walk on the Wild Side" features one of the most recognizable bass lines in rock history, played by session legend Herbie Flowers on an upright bass doubled with electric bass. The guitar part is intentionally stripped back to give that bass line maximum space.

Reed was known to use cheap, off-the-shelf guitars in the studio alongside more premium instruments. He believed the guitar was a tool for expression, not a status symbol, and some of his most iconic tones came from budget gear pushed through overdriven amps.

Producer and guitarist Robert Quine, who played on Reed's "The Blue Mask" (1982), was a jazz-trained player who brought a dissonant, angular counterpoint to Reed's open-chord rhythm work. Their interplay on that album is considered some of the best two-guitar work in rock history.

Reed was an early adopter of the Fender Jazzmaster, an instrument originally designed for jazz players but embraced by noise rock and alternative artists partly because of his influence.

Essential Albums for Guitarists

Transformer 1972

This is the essential Lou Reed album for guitarists learning his catalog. "Walk on the Wild Side" teaches tasteful restraint and groove-focused rhythm playing, while "Satellite of Love" features beautiful clean chord work with subtle melodic embellishments. The guitar parts are accessible for beginners but reward careful attention to dynamics and tone.

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The Blue Mask 1982

Widely considered Reed's best guitar album, "The Blue Mask" features raw, dual-guitar interplay between Reed and Robert Quine. The title track is a masterclass in building intensity through feedback and dissonance, while "My House" showcases clean, jangly rhythm work. This album teaches you how two guitarists can occupy completely different sonic spaces.

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New York 1989

A stripped-down, guitar-forward album where Reed's rhythm playing is front and center with minimal production. Songs like "Dirty Blvd." feature crunchy, riff-driven guitar parts that are perfect for intermediate players working on their overdriven tone and rhythmic tightness. The sparse arrangements make every guitar part clearly audible and easy to learn by ear.

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The Velvet Underground & Nico 1967

The album that started it all. "I'm Waiting for the Man" is built on a relentless, pounding two-chord vamp that teaches rhythmic stamina, while "Heroin" demonstrates how dynamics can take a simple open-tuning drone from a whisper to a roar. Essential listening for understanding how Reed's guitar philosophy developed.

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Tone & Gear

Guitar

Lou Reed was most associated with the Fender Jazzmaster, which he used extensively from the Velvet Underground era onward. He also played various Fender Stratocasters and Telecasters throughout his career. In later years, he was spotted with Gibson ES-style semi-hollows and various custom instruments. His Jazzmasters were typically stock, and he favored their warm, slightly honky single-coil tone for rhythm work. The Jazzmaster's floating tremolo also suited his experimental leanings.

Amp

Reed used a variety of amps over the decades, including Fender Twin Reverbs for their clean headroom and chimey sparkle. During the Velvet Underground era, he was often plugged into smaller Fender combos and Vox amps pushed to breakup. In later years, he gravitated toward cleaner setups that let his picking dynamics and guitar character come through without heavy saturation. A Fender-style clean amp with a touch of reverb gets you into Reed territory quickly.

Pickups

Reed primarily relied on single-coil pickups, particularly the distinctive Jazzmaster pickups which are wider and flatter than standard Strat single-coils. These produce a warmer, rounder tone with a pronounced midrange that sits well in a band mix without being too bright or thin. The lower output of vintage-spec Jazzmaster pickups responds beautifully to picking dynamics, which is central to Reed's expressive strumming style.

Effects & Chain

Reed's effects usage ranged from completely dry to extremely experimental. For his well-known songs like "Walk on the Wild Side" and "Perfect Day," the guitar is essentially clean with a touch of amp reverb. However, he was an avid user of distortion, feedback, and tremolo when exploring noisier territory. During the Velvet Underground era, he experimented with early fuzz pedals and cranked amps for sustain and feedback. For most of his classic material, the signal chain is simple: guitar straight into the amp with volume knob dynamics doing the heavy lifting.

Recommended Gear

Guitar

Fender Stratocaster

Lou Reed played various Strats throughout his career, appreciating their single-coil brightness and versatility for both clean passages and driven tones. The Strat's snappy response complemented his dynamic picking style when he needed sharper articulation than his beloved Jazzmaster provided.

Guitar

Fender Telecaster

Reed used Telecasters for their cutting single-coil tone and straightforward durability across decades of touring and studio work. The Tele's bright character provided an alternative to the Jazzmaster's warmer midrange when he wanted more presence in a band mix.

Guitar

Fender Jazzmaster

Lou Reed's signature instrument, the Jazzmaster's wide single-coils deliver the warm, rounded midrange tone that defines his rhythm work on Velvet Underground classics. Its responsive pickups let Reed's volume knob dynamics and subtle picking nuances shine, crucial to his expressive strumming approach.

Amp

Fender Twin Reverb

The Twin Reverb's clean headroom and lush reverb gave Reed crystalline, spacious tones for songs like 'Perfect Day' and 'Walk on the Wild Side.' Its forgiving headroom let him control dynamics entirely through picking and volume knob, core to his minimalist approach.

How to Practice Lou Reed on GuitarZone

Every Lou Reed song page on GuitarZone includes a built-in Practice Toolbar. No app to download, no account needed. Open any song, then use the toolbar to slow the video to 0.5× speed, set an A/B loop around the exact riff you're working on, and jump between song sections instantly.

The toolbar appears automatically on every guitar tab, lesson, and cover page. Pick a song below, hit play, and start practicing at your own pace.

Practice Perfect Day - Guitar Cover Practice Walk on the Wild Side - Guitar Lesson