Welcome back to Guitar Control. Today we have another installment of the pentatonic sequence lick series from Guitar Control instructor Darrin Goodman, aka Uncle D. In this lesson Uncle D breaks down and demonstrates some fun pentatonic licks in the style of Angus Young of AC/DC. Darrin breaks down five Angus Young licks in this one and with the free tabs and video instruction you will be rockin’ these classic pentatonic licks tonight!
Introduction
How’s it going everybody? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing you this video lesson and today I’ve got some fun pentatonic sequence licks for you in the style of Angus Young.
So right now, Guitar Control is giving away this really awesome daily practice routine to improve your lead guitar chops. This was put together by our very own Silvio Gazquez, a two-time Guitar Idle finalist. This routine covers the four main concepts that are necessary for lead guitar; alternate picking, legato, sweep picking and tapping. All the tabs and exercises are all included in this free ebook and there’s a link in the description where you can get yours.
So be sure to click on the link in the description to the tabs and let’s get close up and take a look at these.
Angus Young Lick-1 – Highway To Hell
All right, so this first one here we’re going to look at is the beginning part of the solo for a Highway to Hell. So it’s got this really kind of garden variety like bluesy Rock lick; Chuck Berry kind of thing. Angus Young uses this allot, especially in the older material. So it’s pretty simple we’re just going to take our first finger we’re going to bare here across the fifth fret of the B and the high E string and keep that there and then you’re going to take your third finger put it on the seventh fret of the G string and then I use my middle finger on the sixth fret because we’re going to bend, so I get a little more leverage. So we’re going to bend this up a whole step, so we’ve got… and then we hit the double stop twice, so… That right there… I mean if you get nothing else out of the all of this entire lesson, if you’re a beginner, that right there is a really versatile usable lick. Okay so after he does that one, two, three, four, five times… then we’re gonna do another double stop here. So now I’m just barring the seventh fret of the G and the B string with my third finger. So we’ve got that, we’re hitting that on the very last 16th note of four and then it’s tied to all of beat one plus the downbeat of two; well actually all the way through beat two, but we’re gonna on the downbeat of two we’re gonna bend it and then release it to the and of two. So it’s like one, two, and then down here to the fifth fret on the B and G strings and that will be coming in on the downbeat of three… And then on the and of three we’re going to barre across the seventh fret of the D and the G string this time. So we’ve got this… then the G string, seventh fret again to the fifth fret… So seventh fret of the D string, this is the most awkward part of this here that I struggle and play it where I’m satisfied with it. Seven and then down to the fourth fret with a little bit of a bend… then to the second fret, so you got this… second fret of the A string, pick that and do a pull-off and then finally ending here on the second fret of the G string. So it’s really that tough, but for whatever reason I just have a really hard time getting that timing at the last part of it unless I’ve got something to meter me I just kind of get kind of get out of whack on the timing.
Angus Young Lick-2 – Hell’s Bells
All right, so the next we’re going to look at is from Hell’s Bells and this is like the little part before it goes into the solo. It has this kind of little breakdown part and it’s just coming in off of A and then it comes into this part… So this is like made up of a lot of double stops, primarily of double stops. So we got the first one we’re playing on the G and the B string; so I’m on the seventh fret of the G, but the eighth fret of the B and we’re gonna hit that and then we’re gonna go to the seventh fret on the B string. So there’s a couple ways you can do it because you do that bend and then you’re gonna follow that with the fifth fret of the B string. All right, so probably the easiest way for me to do this, but I’m not really consistent about using my third and fourth finger and then just barre that one… and then we’re going to follow that with the seventh fret on the G string to the fifth fret, a little bend and then that resolves to the seventh fret of the D string… Then we’re gonna do a slide from nowhere here, you know like the fifth fret, one of these little slurred slides or you could do a pull-off and a hammer, but he does a slide on the recording. But I don’t consistently do it the same way, so that being said all of these things the big thing from this is you want to take is just the ideas to try to implement it into your own playing. Whether it be the technique or the note choices or the phrasing, anything like that, just you know use it and experiment with it. Try playing it over different backing tracks and different keys and just making it and tailoring it to fit what you’re playing. Okay so after we do the… we’re letting that that seven ring there with some vibrato on it, same for the D string. Then we’re going to go back up and we’re gonna barre the fifth fret of the B and the high E string and then the seventh fret of the G and B string… Then we’re going to come here we’re going to do a quick bend and then hit it again and then that’s on the and of four and then it’s tied to the first one and a half beats and then while it’s ringing we’re just gonna pull it up there starting on the and of two…
Angus Young Lick-3 – You Shook Me All Night Long
All right, so the next one here is from the solo for You Shook Me All Night Long. So this isn’t starting at the beginning, I just really like this particular phrase. So we’re going to start off we’re going to do a slide from nowhere to the seventh fret of the G string. I’m going to use my middle finger because we’re going to follow that with the sixth fret on the B string; so we’ve got… Then we’re going to do the same thing, but we’re going to slide to nine and then eight and when we do the slide to nine we can just start there at seven. We still want to treat it like a slide from nowhere… Then we’re going to go back to the ninth fret of the G string again, to the eighth fret of the B and then to the tenth. So I’m going to keep my first finger there and then drop my second and third finger because we’re going to bend; so we’ve got… Now this is one of the parts I really like, I really like this style of bending. So we’re going to do this bend and while we’re holding it I’m going to take my pinky I’m going to pick up the 10th fret of the high E string. I’m gonna hit that and then pick the B string again and release since you want that to ring out over each other… Then the very last part here and I think this is like one of the really neatest things about this is. It’s got this little melody… but he doesn’t play it like that, he does it with these bends… So we’re going to come to the 11th fret. We’re gonna bend that up a whole step. Then to the 10th fret and do the same thing; so bend, bend, release to 10 and then to eight and then nine on the G string and then back to eight here again to resolve…
Angus Young Lick-4 – Back In Black
So next we’re gonna look at the little lick from Back In Black. So this is the… so we’re just gonna be looking at that. So this particular thing is using these open strings so we’re kind of tied into being, you know, into that key, but I’m going to show you how you can use it; it’s just the box pattern number one. So we’ve got three to the open string and this is on the high E and I’m going to do the same thing on the B string and then we’re going to go to the second fret on the G string and we’re going to do a full step bend and release and pull to the open string…
Okay now if you wanted to do it, say an A minor, so we’re going to be fifth fret and the eighth fret on the high E string and then the same thing on the B string and then we go to the G string and it’s going to be seven, bend and release to seven, to five; so it’s the same… So you can see right there that’s a very useful, cool sounding little lick.
Angus Young Lick-5 – Have A Drink On Me
All right and the very last one this is one of my favorites. I’ve referenced this before in other lessons, but it’s a portion of the little intro melody, kind of main melody line to Have A Drink On Me. So we’re gonna start off, I’m gonna do a slide from nowhere to the ninth fret on the G string and I’m going to use my third finger and then when I slide up to that I’m going to take my second finger and put it on the eighth fret of the B string and let them ring out over each other with some vibrato… Then we’re gonna do that slide to nine eight thing again and then we’re gonna go back to the G string and we’re going to pick that and slide to seven. Now the tricky part here is that when you slide down you want to drop your first finger onto the fifth fret at the same time because then you’re going to pull-off to that and that’s a tuplet… So after you do that pull-off then we’re gonna go to the seventh fret of the D string and then we’re gonna do that Angus Young thing that it’s really, really common that we’ve talked about lots of times is the rolling finger thing. So he ends up here on the seventh fret of the D string and then it’s going to go to the seventh fret of the G string. So instead of moving his finger you just roll it up. So here I’m fretting it on the tip of my finger like how you typically would and then here I’m rolling it up; so I’m actually kind of playing it more with the pad part of my finger. And then to the fifth fret the G string with your first finger and seventh fret of the D string with your third finger and then the open A string… So to get that you might want to practice that separately…
Conclusion
All right, so there you have it, some fun, not too terribly difficult pentatonic sequence licks in the style of Angus Young. So if you like this lesson be sure to give me a thumbs up and leave a comment down below if you have any questions about this or other guitar related topics. If you’ve not already done so please subscribe to the channel and hit that notification bell so you don’t miss any of the content we upload throughout the week. Well that is all I have for you today. Thanks for watching and have a great day.
