I've always loved the purity and directness of Asleep with it's solo piano accompaniment, but as a guitarist I felt left out when it came to playing along. I wasn't content with just strumming the chords, so I came up with a fingerpicking arrangement that has a good approximation of the piano's melody and bass lines. I think it captures the feel of the piece quite well.

At the time of recording it was the only guitar version I'd ever heard of 'Asleep', so I had nothing to compare it to for accuracy, but I feel like it sounds convincing enough.

Guitar TAB

After recording, I uploaded it to YouTube so that others might learn from it. It became one of my most popular videos with over 70,000 views, encouraging comments, and endless requests for me to post the guitar tab so that the viewers could play along.

Other videos

Johnny Marr is an incredible guitarist and is famous for his detailed, melodic, and intricate riffs. His parts are notoriously difficult to play. Some famous guitarists get away with sloppy playing by hiding behing heavy distortion and effects, but Marr is a master of playing with precision and clarity.

The popularity and comments on my Asleep video encouraged me to record myself playing a few other Smiths songs. My hope was that people could use my videos for educational purposes. I scoured the competition on YouTube and chose songs that people were clearly playing wrong. I'm not saying my renditions are perfect either, but they did raise the bar a little and the comments I've received on them tend to agree.

The Smiths - Girl Afraid

It took me a good few years to get the speed, accuracy and flow just right on this one. Unlike many of my Smiths covers, there is actually published guitar tablature for this song. However, due to the difficulty of this piece, I thought it would be beneficial for beginners if they could see it being played. It sure would have helped me back in the day!

The Smiths - Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others

My recording is based on the live version, but in the key of the album version – my favourite way to play it. I play it a little different to other people on YouTube, and probably a little different to Johnny Marr as well.

The main difference is I've added a few extra bass notes here and there to fill out the sound and drive the melody along. Marr didn't need to do this because he had Andy Rourke backing him on bass.

Purists might not approve of my additions and alterations, but I think it's faithful enough to the spirit of the original. Watch out for the subtle melody variation at 00:35, it's on Marr's live version too. I love playing that bit.

The Smiths - The Headmaster Ritual

There's an absolute dearth of decent Johnny Marr guitar tablature out there, and I always struggled working out this one by ear. Then I read an interview in a guitar magazine where he revealed I needed to tune my guitar to an Open-D chord and put a capo on the 2nd fret. After that, it all clicked.