The wonderful thing about Drop D tuning is that you can play 1 finger powerchords. This song is a good example of that. To tune your guitar to Drop D from standard tuning is easy. Just pluck the middle D string and then tune your Low E string down until it matches. To learn more about Drop D tuning click here.
There are 2 guitars here, but they play the same riffs so we have condensed everything into 1 animation so you can easily play it on 1 guitar. Occasionally you can hear the backing guitar do something a little different (just a whammy bar down here or there). Also, it provides backing for the solo (which is why we kept it in).
Verse - This is a short and simple riff which makes up the bulk of the song. There are only 2 chords (F5 and D5) Make sure to use downstrokes to get a bit more beef into the chord stabs. Mute between chord stabs with your fretboard hand to get the choppy stop / start effect.
Chorus - This riff is more fluid, but not much more difficult. Don't mute between chord stabs.
Once you know those parts the rest of the verse / chorus parts are the same but sometimes with little fillers added. Here we point them out:
A octaves - This is an octave chord strike. It's just like a powerchord except the middle note is muted. That means you are playing two A notes together (an octave apart). In Drop D tuning this means you need to use 2 fingers to play the octave chord properly.
Whammy up - Strike the F5 chord and then pull up your whammy bar, slowly, and then return it to the resting position. If you don't have a whammy bar you can slide up the strings and back down again.
Harmonics - Play these 3 natural harmonics. They will be over the fretwires at frets 5, 4 and 10. Although we show each harmonic dot as staying on the string remember that harmonics are just a light touch on the string, pick, remove finger instantly. So you have time to move hand position between harmonics. Don't keep your finger on the string! We show it that way so you can tell what note is sounding out. Check out the Core Skills section on harmonics to learn how to do this technique.
The other song parts are as follows:
Bridge - This riff is a littler harder than the verse / chorus parts, but not by too much. There are a few slides between chords.
Solo - The solo mainly uses the D pentatonic minor and D blues scales with plenty of 'off-bends' (bends that don't quite hit perfect pitch).
Ending - Just after the solo there is a simple variation of the main verse riff. The song ends on the same riffs we've already seen so far, with occasional lead frills thrown in.
