Are AC/DC riffs easy to play? Not as easy as you thought
When I was eleven and learning my first chords on the guitar (enough to play ‘Wild Thing’ by The Troggs), I was obsessed with AC/DC. I longed to play those gigantic riffs to cement myself as a pre-pubescent rock god. The songs all seemed fairly accessible, which made the whole dream feel a little bit more realistic.
Angus Young and co. almost always seemed to be playing in 4/4 time, utilising simple, open chords and pentatonic scales. Within ten minutes of trying to learn ‘Back In Black’, I realised I was way over my head. Why?
Well, beneath the surface simplicity, there’s something much more complex at work. Malcolm Young was a dab hand when it came to creating syncopated riffs with unusual phrasings. Take ‘Thunderstruck’, for example. It’s a hugely famous riff, frequently appearing in early lessons – and for good reason.
On the whole, it’s fairly easy to play. That is, until you get to the final riff. Nestled in an E Minor Pentatonic, the lick is basically a descending run down the scale. Simple enough, right? Wrong. Young’s phrasing is swung in a very unusual way, making it a real pain to master. The final bend has left a fair few pros utterly bemused. Most people think the ‘Thunderstruck’ riff is played using a series of hammer-ons and hammer-off, but Young is actually picking 16th notes in the original recording.
The sliding riffs on ‘The Razors Edge’ are similarly deceptive. The guitar part that kicks in after the lead guitar intro is a pretty a-typical AC/DC riff. To play it right, you must leave the open strings ringing and simultaneously slide around the fretted notes on your G string. That means your hand position is incredibly important.
Without the right wrist angle, you’ll find yourself muting the strings that are supposed to be singing out. You also need to consider the groove, which depends on you hitting straight 16th noted with absolute accuracy to get that neat triplet feel.
‘Riff Raff’ is also annoyingly hard to get right. The galloping riff in this song is based on a simple chord shape with one moving note. Again, the problem isn’t the notes – it’s the way they’re phrased. The lick comprises 16th and 8th notes, with two 16th notes rubbing against a single 8th note to create a galloping feel. The riff also contains several time signature changes, which shift from 4/4 into 2/4 and 3/4. What is this, Stravinsky?
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