And we must mention the bass vi.

People criticised Robert Smith for his limited fret hand work, but on the early albums his right hand speed and accuracy was one of the best in the business, up there with Lindsay Buckingham.

I LOVE The Cure so so much. It's always been more about the sound of their guitars that does it for me. It's those hollow, dark and melancholic tones that define their sound and style. It's omnipresent, even in the more upbeat songs - there is always that amazing Cure sound. It's truly brilliant.

I saw Robert Smith play but not with The Cure it was when he played with Siouxsie and the Banshees in the early 80s

As a huge Cure fan, I loved your video. Great demo. I think Robert Smith is very much underrated as a guitarist. His style is unique- punkish but at the same time esoteric as well. Sometimes they are very Indian, sometimes Japanese and evokes sounds from music heard in Eastern cultures. Well, overall The Cure's music sounds like that- even in the bass playing, it is a very unusual style. Also sometimes, Robert would play guitar like a bassist (especially in more atmospheric songs).

Robert Smith appears to be a self-taught guitarist like myself because I have been using these techniques from back in the late 70s / early 80s even before I listened to The Cure and became a huge fan (I was late comer to The Cure b/c I was focused on more pure punk rock bands). I understand scales, but don't often use them as a trained guitarist would. The sliding up the string, or drop sliding on a string has a particular sound effect that can be most satisfying. I also like to mess about with altering the timing of the riff notes so they don't fall on straight lines, either hanging on them a moment too long, or coming in early, or what have you. Also using an open string or strings to constantly ring out while playing other strings is a hallmark of psychedelic rock and shoegaze styles; REM's Peter Buck did this a lot and I picked that up from seeing them a couple times on their first two tours. Smith does all this stuff, too. It gives the riffs a certain groove that just swings. I had no idea Smith used Boss pedals - if you look @ my pedal board it's probably close to 40% Boss all mounted on my old school 80s skateboard.

Thanks for this. I love The Cure. I sat with Robert’s parents at a gig once and went to the after show. They were all so very nice, sweet and humble. Forever grateful. ❤

I stumbled across the "chord strumming with melody" when I took a chord the wrong way, some 35 years ago. It sounded familiar, and I soon heard it both in The Cure and in The Smiths. I just hadn't listened closely enough to the guitar before.

Marr is the absolute master of playing melodies by quickly modifying and also completely switching chords.

I'm still, 35 years later, trying to come up with new ways I can "mess up chords" in that way when playing. 😀

Just discovered you channel - Thank you for explaining Rob`s techniques in a way a layman can also understand.
I love Robert`s approach in keeping things quite simple yet transferring alot of emotion in his melodies.

Now that I hear his technique in isolation, I'm getting a lot of Persian music vibes. The untuned drone string, sliding up and down the neck, non-Western approach to scales

Robert Smith is my master on guitar 🌹

He had such a huge impact on how I play guitar.

Great video!  I’m a 40 year fan of the band and just saw them recently here in the States.  Absolute perfection.

I've seen many studio pics with Robert using an Electro Harmonix Electric Mistress Deluxe flanger... so I bought one. It is HANDS DOWN the very best flanger I have ever used. Incredibly versatile! A worthy addition to any pedal board!

Great video! Just saw them a week ago.  Always been fascinated by Simon's bass playing but was super impressed with Robert's guitar work in concert.  Love the Linux and web development books in the background.

Like this vid. The Cure were the reason why I started to play guitar in the early 90ies.

Late 80's to late 90's it was the best sounding The Cure in my opinion.

Love this🎉

Nice thanks!

I am currently learning A Forest ...very helpful