This is an epic ActionTab....so make sure to use the bookmark feature to help you work through it (or just the parts you like). This is an excellent song for practicing timing and string control. The main riffs for this song are easy, but are played quite fast. You'll get them with some elbow grease, and / or coffee. For those wanting to solo all over it - use the E natural minor scale or E pentatonic minor scale:

E nat minor: E F# G A B C D E

E pent minor: E G A B D E

Song Parts / Quick Links:

Intro

Main Riff 1

Main Riff 2

Funky Riff

Main Riff 2 (again)

Solo Starts easy, gets hot and tough after a while. Skip it if you don't have the skills yet. Instead try picking up the tune again here it soon breaks into the Intro riff again.

Main Riff 1 (again)

Main Riff 2 (again)

Interlude - Outro Cool song ending with a sweet Solo in the middle.

Iommi's solos are very fast in places so don't expect to get them down without work. They are typical Iommi - lots of very fast pentatonic minor licks. If you are new to guitar, forget the fast parts for now and come back to them later when your fingers are more used to speed techniques (go through the practice exercises and jamzone solo licks to work on those).

This is a great song to learn because the riffs are unforgettable, everyone with over 6 inches of hair knows it, and the main riffs are pretty easy. If you know the tune, you'll pick this song up quicker than you think (excluding complex solo parts). Don't worry about adding in the 'fills' at first - i.e. the fast little pull off and trills parts. Just get the chord strikes up to speed first, THEN start adding in the frilly bits! It's better to work on those once your fingers are familiar with the basic rhythm / chord strikes first.

Concentrate on your timing with this song. The rhythm parts are mostly easy E shape Powerchords, but timing is everything here. Take your cues for those fast powerchord strikes from the drums (and your feel for the song if you know it well). Knowing the words will help, because the end of each vocal line is your cue to summon oblivion with those powerchords.

String control is important in this song too. Notice that chord strikes are often muted after being struck - but not always. Also, palm muting is used during the part where Ozzy starts singing about Politicians sending the poor out to fight for them. Things heat up a bit here on guitar. You need to alternate between palm muting the Low open E string, and playing open notes, pull offs, and quick chord strikes.

That part is almost a funky rhythm - similar to Purple Haze and Foxy Lady by Hendrix, except more metal (as you'd expect from Sabbath). But like funk, that means you do need to play with a little more flexibility in your wrist for this part than you do for straightforward powerchord bashing!

So, don't weld your palm edge against the low E string or you won't be able to switch quickly enough to get the pull offs or chord strikes in. Instead, lightly palm mute the low E string and as soon as you play the last palm muted note, raise your wrist from the strings as you go for the fiddly parts. Use the alternate picking strokes we show in this ActionTab. The direction of the pick strokes is especially important to get that part right.

Iommi loves to use the low strings as much as possible for his riffs. That means that instead of playing the many D and E powerchords in this song (using an A shape at frets 5 and 7), he prefers to fly up to the 10th and 12th frets and use the E shape instead. It's kinda unusual, as most guitarists will tend to use an A shape on the 5th and 7th frets instead (as mentioned) because it's easier. This means that there are unusually large fret distances to cover in order to play exactly like him.

To make things easier, we've used occasional A shapes during parts that would otherwise be very difficult. For example, after the first sequence of fast pull offs and trills, it is MUCH easier to play the next D and E powerchords using the A shape. So we do it that way. He does it at the 10th - 12th frets using an E shape, I've watched him. You're welcome to try it, but the way we do it here is much easier and sounds exactly the same.

Have Fun!