I think the bridge riff in Back in Black is AC/DC's most underrated riff. I'm not even a massive AC/DC fan. I like the songs as much as anyone, but I'm not a super classic rock fan. I just think this riff is great, and really instructive as a guitar part.
It forces you to work on three things: one finger per fret, synchronisation between your hands, and muting. Get all three and your riff playing, and your playing in general, should improve.
The riff everyone forgets ▶ 0:40
Everyone thinks of the main Back in Black riff, and that's a great riff. But the one I'm talking about is the bridge riff, with that driving snare beat underneath it. I think people forget it exists because the song has such a great opening riff and such a catchy chorus. The main riff doesn't teach you as much as this one, though.
One finger per fret ▶ 1:07
The first part of the riff spans four frets: the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th, with fingers 1, 2, 3 and 4. So you're playing it one finger per fret.
You could cheat it by moving your hand and avoiding the little finger entirely. But why do that? A lot of people avoid using their little finger, and this is a great riff to work on that with.
If you find that four-fret span difficult, and you notice your hand moving around a lot, practise frets 2, 3, 4 and 5 on every string, then come back to the riff. Focus on keeping each finger over its fret as you go across the strings, so the fingers stay in line.
e|-------------------------------2-3-4-5-| B|-------------------------2-3-4-5-------| G|-------------------2-3-4-5-------------| D|-------------2-3-4-5-------------------| A|-------2-3-4-5-------------------------| E|-2-3-4-5-------------------------------|
Another way to train it: just tap frets 2 and 3 as you go down the strings, but keep your little finger hovering over the 5th fret, and ideally your third finger over the 4th. Those are the fingers that tend to wander off first, so you're training the first two fingers to move while the other two stay nice and close to their frets.
Synchronisation: snap to each note ▶ 2:28
With sequences like this it's very easy to lose synchronisation between your hands, again, particularly with the little finger.
So first, set up a metronome and check each hand on its own. It sounds obvious, but make sure you can evenly alternate pick in time. Then make sure you can tap the notes with your fretting hand in time. They don't need to be legato, just tap them.
Then put the hands together. Apply a bit of snap with your fingers and keep them stretched over the frets. Rather than trying to flow through the notes, snap to each one. Your fretting hand should be snapping onto every note as you go.
Muting the low E string ▶ 3:25
This is one of the trickier parts, and probably one of the most overlooked: the first two notes. You go from the low E string to the A string, and you need to make sure the low E stops ringing when you hit the A string. If you play it without muting, you'll hear the two notes overlap, and it doesn't sound very nice.
There are two things you can do:
- Drop your palm onto the low E. As you hit the 5th fret on the A string, the base of your picking-hand palm lands on the low E string.
- Use the tip of your little finger as a safety net. It's not totally necessary, but it can help. Let the tip of your little finger touch the low E string to mute it.
Between the two, that low E gets killed off cleanly.
Bonus: inside picking ▶ 4:31
As a little bonus, there's some inside picking at the end of the phrase, depending on how you pick it. I pick that bit down, up, down, up, down, up: the A string with a downstroke and the low E string with an upstroke. It's not too difficult, but you still have to get it right.
Moving it across the strings ▶ 4:47
Then you do exactly the same thing on the A and D strings, and then come back to the low E string. So the riff moves around, and you have to play it consistently quite a lot of times through the song. It's going to make you work.
Take each element on its own first: the four-fret span, each hand against the metronome, then the muting. Then put it all together and have a go at the riff.
