Guitar Songs, Tabs & Lessons

The Church

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Under The Milky Way - Guitar Lesson

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Band Overview

The Church emerged from Sydney, Australia in 1980, establishing themselves as one of the Southern Hemisphere's most distinctive Alternative Rock acts. Fronted by Steve Kilbey's ethereal vocals and anchored by guitarist Peter Koppes' shimmering, texture-driven approach, The Church carved out a sound that blended post-punk angularity with atmospheric, effects-laden guitar work. What makes them essential for guitarists is their mastery of layered, chiming tones and their refusal to play it straight: where others might deploy power chords, The Church deployed subtle voicings, delay trails, and unexpected harmonic choices. Koppes is the primary architect of their guitar sound, working alongside Marty Willson-Piper (who joined in 1982), and both players brought a melodic sophistication that elevated the band above standard New Wave fare. The Church's difficulty for guitarists spans the entire spectrum: their rhythm work is deceptively simple (often relying on clean, arpeggiated patterns), but capturing their tone and understanding when to use restraint versus when to build texture requires years of listening and experimentation. Their 1988 album 'Starfish' and the iconic 'Under the Milky Way' became their commercial peak, but their entire catalog from 1980 onward remains a masterclass in how to make electric guitar sound haunting, modern, and deeply human. If you're learning The Church, you're not just learning songs; you're learning a philosophy of tone as songwriting.

What Makes The Church Essential for Guitar Players

Layered arpeggios with heavy reverb and delay: The Church's foundation is often built on fingerpicked or lightly picked arpeggios running through digital reverb and analog tape delays, creating a shimmering wash that acts as a second melody. Practice playing sparse, open voicings in the upper register while letting the effects do the heavy lifting rather than trying to fill space with notes.
Restrained lead phrasing over long sustain: Instead of rapid-fire soloing, The Church's guitarists favor sustained single notes with heavy vibrato and reverb tail, often bending into notes or letting them ring across multiple bars. This teaches you the value of space and dynamics, forcing you to think about emotional impact rather than technical flashiness.
Clean, bright single-coil or semi-hollow tone as default: Most of their essential work comes from bright, jangly single-coils or semi-hollow guitars through clean or very lightly overdriven tube amps, avoiding the thick mud that heavy gain can create. This approach demands precision in picking hand technique and muting to avoid unwanted feedback and noise.
Unison double-tracking of rhythm guitar lines: The Church frequently records the same guitar line twice on separate tracks, each with subtle tone or timing variations, creating a wider, more organic stereo image than any single guitar can achieve. Learn to play the same part twice with intentional (not accidental) variations in touch or tone to understand how thickness builds from subtlety.
Harmonic ambiguity using open tunings and non-standard voicings: The Church often uses dropped tunings, modal chord voicings, and open strings to create a floating, atmospheric quality that doesn't anchor to a strict major/minor tonality. Experimenting with alternate tunings and learning to hear how an open G or D string can recontextualize a simple chord shape will expand your harmonic vocabulary.

Did You Know?

Peter Koppes pioneered his signature shimmer tone in the early 1980s using a Fender Jazzmaster run through a Fender Twin Reverb, creating a paradox of clarity and dreaminess that influenced countless post-punk and alternative acts. The Jazzmaster's offset body and uniquely voiced single-coils gave him high-end gloss without the shrillness of a Strat.

The Church recorded 'Under the Milky Way' with producer Waddy Wachtel using relatively simple miking and minimal overdubs compared to the dense, layered approach they'd use later, proving that their atmospheric sound comes from tone shaping and arrangement, not studio tricks alone.

Marty Willson-Piper, who co-leads with Koppes on many tracks, brought a more fingerstyle, classical-influenced approach to rhythm guitar that contrasts with Koppes' plectrum-driven style, creating textural interplay that rewards careful listening on headphones with your eyes closed.

The Church's use of delays and reverbs was deliberate and pre-digital: in their early years, they relied on tape delays and spring reverbs, which have natural saturation and decay characteristics that digital delays can't quite replicate, shaping their warm, organic spaciousness.

Steve Kilbey's lyrics often reference ocean, sky, and dissolution, and the guitarists matched this aesthetic by avoiding the bombast of '80s rock; instead, they created music that feels like watching fog roll in, teaching guitarists that subtlety and atmosphere can move listeners just as powerfully as volume or speed.

The band's 1981 debut album was largely ignored commercially, but it established Koppes' core tone and approach: minimal distortion, maximum reverb, and an almost chamber-music-like respect for silence and arrangement that their later records would refine.

The Church has remained active for over 40 years with only occasional lineup changes (Koppes and Kilbey are constants), making them one of the longest-running alternative rock acts and proof that a distinctive, non-trendy approach to guitar tone has permanent value.

Essential Albums for Guitarists

Starfish 1988

This is The Church's peak commercial and creative statement, anchored by 'Under the Milky Way', which teaches you how a simple, repetitive arpeggio pattern becomes hypnotic when combined with the right reverb, delay, and arrangement. The album's mixing is impeccable, with every guitar element clearly heard but never muddy, making it an ideal reference for learning how to layer clean tones without causing frequency masking.

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Heyday 1985

Heyday showcases the early Church at maximum creative ambition, with tracks like 'Almost With You' and 'The Unguarded Moment' featuring intricate dual-lead interplay between Koppes and Willson-Piper that rewards close listening. The album captures their post-punk roots while pointing toward the atmospheric accessibility of Starfish, making it essential for understanding how they evolved from angular to graceful.

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The Church 1981

The debut introduces Koppes' foundational approach: dry, articulate picking through minimal effects, letting the Jazzmaster's natural character shine. Tracks here are less produced than later work, exposing your playing more directly, which is why it's invaluable for studying how their tone comes from technique and instrument choice rather than studio production.

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Remote Luxury 1986

This album sits between the rawness of early work and the polish of Starfish, featuring some of their most inventive use of alternate tunings and harmonic experimentation. Tracks like 'Hotel Worm' demonstrate unconventional chord voicings and sustain-based lead work that push you toward more experimental, less blues-based playing.

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Tone & Gear

Guitar

Peter Koppes is primarily known for a Fender Jazzmaster, prized for its bright, articulate single-coil voice and natural jangle without shrill treble. The Jazzmaster's wider neck spacing and offset body also provide comfort for fingerstyle work. Marty Willson-Piper frequently used semi-hollow or full-hollow guitars to add warmth and acoustic resonance to his lead lines. Both players favor single-coils or semi-hollow designs that cut through clearly without the compression of humbuckers, essential for their texture-driven approach.

Amp

Koppes' core tone came from a Fender Twin Reverb, the gold standard for clean headroom and built-in spring reverb that became integral to their sound. The Twin's 85 watts of clean headroom and dual 12-inch speakers provide the sparkle and natural breakup needed for The Church's style. Recording sessions often involved running the amp into a mixing desk to capture that reverb tank saturation without needing to crank volume, a technique that preserves clarity and definition in layered arrangements.

Pickups

The Jazzmaster's stock single-coil pickups (typically around 5.5-6k output) are bright, with a vocal midrange that sits perfectly in a mix without muddiness. This lower output compared to overbuilt modern pickups preserves the guitar's natural dynamics and articulation, allowing the player's touch to shine. Willson-Piper's hollow and semi-hollow guitars naturally emphasize treble and midrange, giving his lead work a singing quality that pairs with the Jazzmaster's jangle.

Effects & Chain

The Church's essential effects are reverb and delay, often used as primary tone shapers rather than decoration. Koppes relied heavily on the Twin Reverb's spring reverb and added tape-based or digital delays to create the spatial, floating quality that defines their sound. Rather than a heavy pedalboard, their approach was minimal: the reverb and delay trails were often the only artificial processing, allowing the guitar's natural voice and arrangement choices to carry the song. This teaches you that tone comes from instrument and amp choice, not effects count.

Recommended Gear

Guitar

Fender Jazzmaster

Peter Koppes' primary instrument delivers the bright, articulate single-coil jangle essential to The Church's layered textures. Its natural clarity and wide neck spacing enabled the fingerstyle precision that cuts through their intricate arrangements without muddiness.

Amp

Fender Twin Reverb

The Twin Reverb's 85-watt clean headroom and built-in spring reverb became the sonic foundation of The Church's spacious, floating aesthetic. Koppes recorded by routing the amp directly into the mixing desk, capturing the reverb tank's saturation while preserving clarity in multi-tracked arrangements.

Pedal

Boss DD-3 Digital Delay

The DD-3 provided The Church with repeatable, tape-like delay trails that shaped their spatial, dreamy sound alongside the Twin Reverb's reverb. This minimal effects approach kept focus on the guitars' natural dynamics and arrangement choices rather than heavy processing.

How to Practice The Church on GuitarZone

Every The Church 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 Under The Milky Way - Guitar Lesson