Our study piece is constructed around four different sections, a verse, chorus, bridge and a middle eight. I have also included a solo in this issue’s track, as I felt we couldn’t look at Van Halen with out laying down a few tapping licks!

Opening section:

The track kicks-off with our chorus section, with a driving aggressive riff that makes use of two note diad chords, performed against a drive palm muted open A root note. Harmonic movement is implied by the triads of C/E, G/D, D and F/C triads that are also performed against the driving A root note. The chorus concludes with the chords of E5, Eb5, D5 and C5 that are performed with heavy accents with the drums and bass.

Verse:

Next is the verse, and this is our chord arpeggio section, including the chords of Am, Asus2, Gsus2 and Fsus2, all of which are performed against a solid driving A root performed by the bass. When performing these chords as arpeggios I would use strict down strokes throughout, as well has tight palm muting. Make sure you keep the picking hand relaxed and the constant eighth note rhythm tight and accurate.

The progression also includes a short melodic fill that is performed in unison with the bass guitar. This section is followed by the bridge, where we see the dynamic of the track lift. This section uses the triads of D/Dsus4, F/ Fsus4 and G/Gsus4, all performed against a palm muted open D string. Really try and keep the palm muted root tight, so that the triads sound strong and accented. This section also includes the chords of G5, F5 and C5, and concludes with the same descending power chords found in the chorus. We then head back to another chorus section before we introduce the middle eight.

Middle eight section:

The middle eight features some partial chords performed with the picking hand fingers. Make sure that you back-off the gain for this section, and don’t be too aggressive when performing the partial chords. This section also includes some natural harmonics and concludes with the descending power chord.