"Sunflower" Lead Guitar Exercise (Vampire Weekend)

Lesson #497 • Jun 4, 2023

Description

Here’s a four-part lead guitar exercise inspired by the riff heard in “Sunflower” by Vampire Weekend. This arrangement is played capo 6th fret, which simplifies things and lets you play along with the band’s recorded version.

Full Playthrough & Overview

Walkthrough of Each Line

When learning this, I recommend tackling it one line at a time before moving on to the next. In these videos I’ll give a walkthrough of each, with a few helpful tips included.

Line 1 of 4:

Line 2 of 4:

Line 3 of 4:

Line 4 of 4:

Backing Tracks

Here’s some drums-only backing tracks you can use to practice with. Four different speeds. Use a metronome if you need a BPM that’s slower, faster, or more specific than the options below! See my video lesson for tips on how to use these.

Fast (120bpm) (download):

Moderate (100bpm) (download):

Slow (80bpm) (download):

Very Slow (70bpm) (download):

Additional Videos

Vampire Weekend’s recording of Sunflower:

Video lesson on how to play it without a capo:

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