The Church - Under The Milky Way - Guitar Lesson

About Under The Milky Way

Few songs in Alternative Rock lean so heavily on atmosphere, and on guitar that atmosphere lives almost entirely in the arpeggiated chord work that opens and runs through the song. Playing it well means resisting the urge to strum: the picking pattern needs to stay clean, even, and unhurried at 96 BPM, letting each note ring into the next. In A minor and standard tuning, the chord shapes themselves are not exotic, but keeping the pick attack consistent across a full performance is where most players slip. The verse and chorus figures sit in a similar register, so tone and dynamics do most of the work in separating them. The Church built the whole piece on restraint, and that is exactly what the guitar part demands from you. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop the opening arpeggio figure slowed down until the picking hand feels automatic before you bring it up to tempo.

• The signature guitar part is an arpeggiated picking pattern, not strummed chords, so right-hand consistency is the main technical challenge.
• Playing in A minor on a standard-tuned guitar, the chord shapes are relatively approachable, but smooth voice leading between them requires careful fingering.
• Practise the recurring arpeggio figure in short loops using the Practice Toolbar to lock in the picking pattern before adding dynamics and feel.