Check out this free Killer Riff From “Killing in The Name” By R.A.T.M. guitar lesson from Guitar Control instructor Darrin Goodman. Be sure to click on the link for the tabs so you can easily follow along with Killer Riff From “Killing in The Name” by Rage Against The Machine.
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Introduction
Hey everybody how’s it goin? This is Darrin Goodman with GuitarControl.com bringing you this video lesson. Today I want to show you a Killer Riff From “Killing in The Name” by Rage Against The Machine. This guitar player is really interesting and weird things. Anyway this is just a fun drop D riff and I hope you enjoy it. Be sure to click on the link in the description for the tabs and let’s get up close and take a look at Killer Riff From “Killing in The Name”.
Drop D Tuning & Intro Riff
All right, so we’re not going to be going through this entire song, we’re basically gonna be working on the intro and then the one main riff. The Riff is in it is drop D so you’re gonna have to tune your sixth string from an E down to a D.
Alright so it starts off with just this D5, so just gonna be playing the six in the fifth strings open as whole notes so and then the guitar at this point actually rests for four measures and it’s just the bass and some percussion stuff. So after we do that rest then we go into this next riff that is just unusual, there’s a lot of notes that are kind of dissonant and stuff but I just really kind of like the way that it sounds.
So start off with just the six string open play that three times and then we go to the fourth string and I’m just using my first and second finger and we go eleven twelve and then to the third string eleven twelve; also that’s one measure and it does three measures of that… okay so after you do it three times then on the fourth measure it’s just slightly different and we go to the third string to 12 and we do a full step bend and release. So that whole four measures, which is repeated, so you do the whole sequence twice. All right, then that leads us to the next section, the next staff starting at measure 13 and this riff right here is actually what the bass is doing during that part where you rest for the four measures; so you can actually just play this part right there if you wanted to so you’re not just sitting there twiddling your thumbs for four measures.
Now with this again, we got this kind of dissonant thing going on here. So we’ve got the sixth string open and it’s an eighth note, but we rest on the & so it’s like one &, two &, three &, and then on the & of three we go to the 6th fret of the fifth string and we pick that note and then we have a rest, so that’s one measure and each measures is the same except for the fourth one. Then on the fourth one we just hit that 6th fret and we slide out of it and then from there it goes into the main riff, probably the most recognizable riff from the song, the one that if you play this people will probably recognize it, like I said it’s fun to play and this is like said just the intro, but they do play this riff during the verse as well.
Killing In The Name Main Riff
So after you slide out of that 6th fret, then we’ve got 6th string open and then we go to the third fret of the fifth string and we’re gonna pick that into a hammer-on to the fifth fret and then the sixth string open twice again, but we’re gonna palm mute it, so then we go to the fourth string third fret with first finger and we’re gonna pick that and then do a hammer-on to the fourth fret with our second finger.
So the first measure and then from there we follow that with the fifth fret of the fifth string with your third finger and then the sixth string open again. Then I go to the second fret and we’re gonna bar our first fingers across the six and the fifth strings and we’re gonna go to the second fret. So you can pick that or you can slide it back and forth. What I like about riffs like this is it’s got a little bit of a swing to it, so it’s really fun to kind of mess around with that timing and the technique of what you’re doing and just make it sound kind of however you want.
So that’s the first two measures, measure 17 and 18 is the riff and then measures 19 and 20 is just the same thing and then it repeats, so you just end up doing this entire sequence like four times and that’s it for the whole intro and then from there it goes into the verse and like I said the verse is the same thing but, he just kind of palm mutes.
Conclusion
Alright so I hope you enjoyed Killer Riff From “Killing in The Name” and you got something out of it. If you liked the video give me a thumbs up and leave a comment down below if there’s something you’d like to see covered by myself or one of the other instructors at GuitarControl.com do in a future lesson. That’s all I’ve got for you today. Have a great day!
