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Everything you need to know before playing ‘Supersonic’

One of Britain’s most successful songwriters, Oasis’ Noel Gallagher mixes soaring guitar melodies with musical ‘tips of the hat’ to his favourite influences. A chaotic catalogue of crazy offstage shenanigans helped propel the Gallagher brothers on a meteoric trajectory to the top of the 90s music scene.

Supersonic was the lead single from the band’s groundbreaking debut, Definitely Maybe, released in 1994. There are two main guitar parts to learn and we’ve tabbed both. The first is the driving rhythm part played by Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs that mostly uses powerchords. The second is, of course, Noel’s lead part including the solos and lead melodies.

Though fairly easy to play, the arpeggios in the main riff will benefit from careful playing and the bluesy bends in the solos also require a deft touch. The key things that set this apart are the tone, timing and laidback feel.

For the Definitelymaybe sessions the band mainly recorded with Epiphone guitars, though Noel also used a 1960 Gibson Les Paul on loan from ex-smiths guitarist Johnny Marr. To recreate the in-your-face sound of this track use a humbucker-equipped guitar set to its bridge pickup and dial in plenty of gain on your amp. You’ll need reverb and delay for the solo. Dial in three or four repeats with a quarter-note delay – that’s 583ms to match the tempo of the recording, though aim closer to 520ms (115bpm) if, like Oasis, you play the track faster in live performances. Delay

Time: 583ms Feedback: 3-4 repeats Mix: 50%