Learn to play guitar with weekly video lessons & print-friendly guides! Learn your favorite songs & techniques with step-by-step tutorials that actually explain how to get from here to there.
🎸 AC/DC's Back in Black – Acoustic!
LESSON #584
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New lesson today where I’ll get you going with AC/DC’s 1980 classic Back in Black. While you can play this on an electric (as the band does), my lesson approaches the song with an acoustic guitar in mind — which absolutely gets the job done. I’ll show you a few ways to tackle the intro & verse riffs, and also breakdown the tricky rhythm of the refrain.
Don't miss the additional resources for this lesson – including some slow play-along videos, practice notes, and audio drum tracks for practice... at 4 different speeds!
Find it all on my lesson webpage »
Also From 1980... Give Or Take a Year
With almost 600 lessons in my library, I like to showcase older tutorials from time to time! Here's a few songs from 1979 / 1980/ 1981, just around when Back in Black hit the scene.
First is My My Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) by Neil Young — whose opening riff is an absolute blast. This one came out in 1979 on his album Rust Never Sleeps.
A year later, Willie Nelson released Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground from the soundtrack album to Honeysuckle Rose. A bittersweet song, but beautiful just the same – and it has some of the most fun walk-ups you'll ever play:
And finally from 1981, we have Dire Straits' Romeo and Juliet – which was a high school favorite of mine thanks to the Can't Hardly Wait soundtrack. They recorded this in open G, if I recall correctly – but I teach it here in standard tuning:
LAST BUT NOT LEAST...
Power Chords Mini-Course On The Way!
As I mention in my Back in Black tutorial, I'm wrapping up a mini-course tackling everything you may want to know about power chords.
The multi-page PDF guide I have is already available – you can find it at the bottom of the page for lesson #584.
If you have any specific questions about power chords or how to use them, reply to this email and let me know!
That'll do it for today's entry — as always, I hope you enjoy! See you in the next one ✌️
– David
Song Notes by David Pots
Learn to play guitar with weekly video lessons & print-friendly guides! Learn your favorite songs & techniques with step-by-step tutorials that actually explain how to get from here to there.
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