How to play Voices, Sturgill Simpson
This week’s post is a special request from one of our YouTube subscribers, and I couldn’t be happier to teach you how to play Voices by Sturgill Simpson. This song comes off of his 2014 album Metamodern Sounds In Country Music, and the guitarist was Laur Joamets. Laur is a monster guitar player, and if you haven’t heard of him, go to YouTube and search for some of Sturgill’s early performances. Joamets, or Lil’ Joe as nicknamed by Sturgill, will blow you away. His slide playing sounds like he could be playing a pedal steel.
Today we’ll review the acoustic guitar introduction, chords, and strumming patterns for how to play voices. Then we’ll dissect what Laur Joamets is playing in the background. This is difficult to hear on the record as the producer did a fantastic job mixing the piano and electric guitar. The blend between the two instruments is perfect.
Check out our YouTube video lesson for the acoustic and electric guitar parts, and scroll down for chord charts and tablature!
Gear Corner
Electric Guitar
This may be one of my favorite ‘Gear Corners’ in a while. Why? Laur Joamets uses a Telecaster (oh…yeah) and a Fender Champ on the record! I love Champs and I love Tele’s so this setup absolutely makes my day. If you’re unfamiliar with Champs, or love Champs like I do, check out our review of the Fender Champ! We run through the different tones you can get with Fender & Gibson guitars. It’s very common for players to use Champs when recording, and our review shows you why! Check it out here: Review of The Fender Champ (smellytele.com)
There’s a little more to it than just plugging in and cranking the volume. During the verses and chorus, Laur is using a clean tone, and to replicate this you can use the bridge pickup on your Telecaster. In the video lesson, I’ve rolled the tone knob back and used Line 6’s Pod Pro Deluxe Reverb modeling amp. This darkens up the usually bright and snappy tone of a Telecaster and makes the guitar sound slightly more balanced. This balanced sound blends in well with other instruments and is likely part of the reason why Voices has such a great blend of sound between the guitar and the piano.
For the guitar solo, you can keep the Tele out, or you’re probably safe going into your closet and grabbing a guitar with more gain like a Gibson. I think the Tele does a great job of capturing the tone on the record, and I recommend you find a small Tweed amp, or a Champ, and really turn the volume up. You want to get some distortion and a bit of natural compression going. Also, make sure you have a reverb pedal or other reverb effect to get the slide work to sound airy.
Acoustic Guitar
I believe Sturgill is playing a Martin HD-28, maybe an HD-28V. You may ask what’s the difference between the two models. On the HD-28V, the X bracing below the top has been shifted forward and the neck has a V-shape. The shift in the bracing results in more volume, full bass sounds, and clearer ringing highs. It also comes with a higher price tag, but I’m digressing. If you’ve got an HD-28, pull it out. Me, I’ve got my trusty Martin Custom D Classic Rosewood (smellytele.com) with an LR Baggs Anthem (smellytele.com) pickup, and it sounds just fine.
Acoustic Guitar Chords
Nashville Numbers
This is an easy three-chord song, so learning how to play Voices is going to be a cinch. Voices is in the key of D, and we need to grab the I-IV-V (1-4-5) chords from our major scale. If you assign one number to each note of the scale in ascending order, your first note is D, the second note is E, the third is F#, the fourth is G, and the fifth is A. Taking the first, fourth, and fifth notes from the major scale, we get a D chord, G chord, and an A chord!
During the verses, Sturgill will use a I-V-IV (1-5-4) pattern, so the chords will be D, A, and then G.
Then when you get to the chorus, the pattern changes slightly, and he leads off the chorus with a IV (4) chord, or a G chord. He alternates between the G and D chord, or the IV (4) and I (1) chords, before throwing in an A chord, or V (5) chord, at the very end. Check out the chord diagrams below and get strumming!
Acoustic Guitar Intro
There is some very simple fingerstyle work at the beginning of voices. It’s hard to hear the individual notes behind Sturgill’s vocal track, but you can make out some of the intricacies in there. Here’s a quick tab for how to pick out these notes, and how to strum with the record. If you need help, please be sure to watch the lesson video! it breaks down how to use your right hand to pick and strum the chords!
Lead Guitar Work!
This is probably the most challenging part of learning how to play Voices. Laur Joamets, while he does not play this song with any speedy licks, uses some simple chord shapes. This will stretch your hand a bit, and make you a better guitarist. He makes use of a C chord shape a lot in the verses and chorus, but simply slides the shape up two frets to make a D chord. You’re going to see this in the tablature and recognize it when you begin stretching your hand to reach these notes.
The lead guitar will lay out for the first part of the song. You want to come in with the band after Sturgill sings the first few lines. Note, this song is in drop D tuning, so you need to tune your low E string down a whole step to D. Easy to do, and it helps make some big sounding chords!
You’ll notice that the notes played here do not vary too much from the verse to the chorus. Laur’s ability to play different licks using the same chord shapes makes him one of the best players out there. It shows how creative you can be without needing to learn six or seven ways to play the same chords! Now on to the chorus tablature!
Guitar Solo! With a Slide!
We are breaking ground here at The Smelly Tele today with our first slide guitar lesson!! This is a very simple guitar solo, and if it’s your first time using a slide, this is perfect for you.
Here are some helpful tips if you’re a beginner. When learning slide, move the slide between the notes quickly. I find most beginner slide players will slide slowly from one note to the next note. This creates a lot of tones that clash with the chords and music backing and supporting the slide work. If you slide quickly from note to note, it focuses the listener’s attention on the note you are playing.
You might be thinking that the “slow slide” sounds great, but this is counterintuitive. While the slide sound is fresh for you, a casual listener will hear a slow slide and be turned off. But a fast slide gives the listener enough information to say, “this is slide guitar, not fretted notes.” It’s natural for the beginner to over accentuate the slide because the “sliding” motion is new and exciting.
Instead, a quick slide is all you need. The listener hears the slide, but hears the musical note you want to play instead of hearing the slide effect. Like anything, too much effect will work against you rather than help you. A little goes a long way. There may be times when a slow slide or slow bend fits better artistically, but that’s the exception to the rule. All of that said, let’s play some slide!
That’s IT!
You know how to play Voices!! If you’re looking for other easy country songs to strum on your acoustic, check out our lessons for Willin’ by Little Feat (smellytele.com) or Starting Over – Chords & Lyrics! (smellytele.com)! They are great for beginners, and if you’re an intermediate player, they have some challenging elements to them too!
Remember, if you would like to support this webpage, please become a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/smellytele! A perk of being a patron? I will make a video lesson specifically for you! If there’s a song you want to learn, but you can’t find a lesson for it, tell me! I’m here to help!
Also, go check out some of our other electric guitar lessons! We have lessons for All Night, Brothers Osborne (smellytele.com) and Only Daddy That’ll Walk The Line (smellytele.com)
And if you liked the guitar we used in today’s video, check out our full review of the Martin Custom D Classic Rosewood (smellytele.com) and the Fender Classic Player Baja ’60s Telecaster (smellytele.com).
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