Back In Black Riff Guitar Lesson | AC/DC Tutorial With Tabs

In this Electric Guitar riff lesson James breaks down the main riff for AC/DC’s Back in black. This iconic Electric Guitar riff used E, D and A chords with an alternating pentatonic and chromatic riff in the Key of E.

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Back In Black Riff Guitar Lesson | AC/DC Tutorial With Tabs

The song is in E and begins with a short sharp stab on the E major chord. Remember to play this with a downstroke and then use the palm of your hand to mute it. Use this time to then move your fingers to the D shape.
Once playing the D chord strum the chord three times using a down up down strumming pattern. Once again after playing all the D chords use the palm of your hand and then change to the A major chord. Repeat the pattern like you did on the D chord with 3 strums followed by a mute.

The first of the two alternating licks walk you down the open position of the E minor pentatonic scale. Start with the 3rd fret of the high E string followed by the open E string. Repeat the same pattern on the B string.
Once you get to the G play the 2nd fret and bend the note and then bring it down in the same motion. Remember to keep the pressure on the string throughout the whole motion and try to not bend the note more than a whole tone. After the bend play the open string.

The open position lick is followed by the E, D and A chords played exactly like they were in bar 1 rests included.
Following the second batch of chords is a chromatic walk up from G sharp to B with an alternating pedal note on the 2nd fret of the A string. Make sure to use alternate picking. I opt to play the 4th fret of the low E string with my ring finger followed by Pinky on the 5th and 6th frets. I then play the 7th fret (Bnote) with my ring finger. Players are to slide into and out of this note hence why i am using a more dominant finger. There are no c...