Learn to play the classic Motley Crue song On With The Show from Guitar Control instructor Darrin Goodman. Be sure to get the free tabs to go along with the step by step video instruction
Introduction
Hey everybody how’s it going? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing you this video lesson. Today I want to show you how to play On With The Show by Motley Crue. So this is one of my personal favorite Motley Crue songs; I really like the first two records they did the best out of their entire catalog, but that’s just me. I always really liked this song and I always thought it just really sounded cool; the chords, the technique, just everything they did and I just thought it really flowed well. So be sure to click on the link in the description for the tabs and let’s get close up and take a look.
On With The Show – Part-1
So for this song it uses a lot of barre chords. So the very first one we have here is D major… So what I’m doing basically is I’m barring my first finger here at the fifth fret starting at the A string and then my third finger is barring at the seventh fret on the D, G and B strings. This is heavily palm muted and is probably one of the hardest parts about it is just keeping a consistent palm muting where you’re not over-muted and you’re not under-muted. So starting with this we’re going to start on the A string; we have A, D, G and D. Now we’re gonna go up here to the eighth fret of the B string with your fourth finger and this would make it actually D suspended four (Dsus4) and we’re gonna pick that and do a pull-off to the seventh fret where we’re barring here and then follow that with the G and D strings… so that’s the first measure. All right and then for the second measure we have D over C sharp (D/C#). So what we’re going to do is we’re going to keep this same chord shape but we’re going to move our first finger down so it’s on the fourth fret of the A string and we’re going to do the exact same thing we did in the first measure… so the first two measures… Now we’re going to move down and do B minor; so I’m barring my first finger across the second fret of the E, A, D, G, B and high E strings and then my second finger is on the third fret of the B string and my third finger is on the fourth fret of the D string and my fourth finger is on the fourth fret of the G string and we’re going to do that same type of picking, but there’s no pull-off this time, but it’s still; A, D, G, D, B, G, D and G… so that’s the first three measures… Next we have A major and for this particular one it’s just this open position A major and it’s just a lot easier if you just barre your first finger across the second fret of the D, G and B strings and we’re going to do the same thing kind of that we did with the hammer and pull-off, but this one’s a little bit different. So we’re going to go A, D, G, D and then we’re gonna go to the B string and we’re gonna do a hammer-on to the third fret and then pull it back off on the B string and follow that with the G and D strings… All right, so that’s the first four measures… Then we have a G major, but technically the only note you really need to fret is the third fret of the low E because the rest of the strings are open, but I just put my fingers on for a G chord anyway because I already have muscle memory for that and now we’re going to go; E, D, G, D, B, G, D, G… and then to an E minor and do the exact same picking as we did with G… and then we’re going to go back to the A and these last two measures are exactly the same thing as the fourth measure was with the hammer-on and pull-off… All right so on the tabs I’ve just got this divided as part one, two and three because the song has like the intro and then the verse and the verse in the intro is more or less the same thing and then it goes into the like the pre-chorus and then it goes into a chorus which is very similar to this thing too so we’ll call what we just did there part one.
On With The Show – Part-2
All right so next we have part two and like I said this would this would be kind of like a pre-chorus. So it starts off the same way as the first four measures of this is exactly the same as the first four measures of the verse and then we’re just going to go to a G5; so first finger third fret of the low E string, third finger on the fifth fret of the A string and then your fourth finger on to the fifth fret of the D string. Now don’t have to do that, you can just do the E and the A string because the third fret of the low E string and the fifth fret of the D string are the same note anyway. So we’ve got a whole note of that; one two three four and then to an E5. So low E string open, second fret of the A string and second fret of the D string and I’m just using my first finger to barre that and that is also a whole note and then to A5. So we just move that up so now that the A string is open and I’m fretting the second fret of the D string and the G string and this is; one two three four and on the & of four we’re gonna go to the second fret of the A string and slide all the way up to the twelfth fret which will land on the downbeat of the next measure and that’s a whole note… so that whole thing… and then it would just repeat.
On With The Show – Part-3
All right so now we’ve got part three, this is like the chorus of the song. So for this it’s going to be all of these same chords except we’re just going to do power chords and it’s going to change rhythmically. So we start off with D5; so first finger fifth fret of the A string and then for this case I’m going to use my fourth finger to go to the seventh fret of the D string and it’s like one two and three and four. Then we go to D5 over C sharp (D5/C#). So simply take your first finger and flatten it a half step so now it’s on the fourth fret of the A string, but your fourth finger is still on the seventh fret of the D string and it’s the same rhythm that we just did… so that’s the first two measures. Now we’re going to go to a B5; so we’re going to come down first finger is on the second fret of the A string and then you can continue use your fourth finger here on the fourth fret of the D or your third finger, whichever is more comfortable for you, same rhythm to an A5… so that’s like the first four measures… Now we’re going to go to a G5, E5, A5 and then that same two slide up to 12…. so that whole thing slowly… and then it would just simply repeat.
Conclusion
All right so there you have it. All the parts for On With The Show by Motley Crue. Like I said not too terribly tough of a song to play, unless you’re totally a beginner and you might struggle a little bit with the getting the palm muting and then the fact that it’s got all these barre chords in it. Aside from this just being a cool riff, it is also actually kind of a good exercise for being able to keep up the palm muting and some of the stretches and everything and the timing; it’s just an all around good riff to learn. 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 out any of the content that we upload throughout the week. Well that is all I have for you today. Thanks for watching and have a great day.
For more great tunes from the 1980s be sure to check out Darrin’s course “The 1980s Guitar Song Collection”.
