The Lightning Quick Thunderstruck Riff

by Ariane Cap 26 Oct 2023 2 minute read

Thunderstruck by Bass Technique?

(pssst: hey guitarists, we bass players can play AC/DC riffs, too!)

 

AC/DC’s Thunderstruck provides us with a perfect opportunity to use that iconic riff to work on speed and technique. 

It’s a bit intimidating at first glance, but employing the 8 tips and drills that I demonstrate in this Talking Technique episode, will get you past the “scary factor”. It will not only help you nail the riff, but it’s a practical blueprint that you can use to improve your technique and handle challenging lines on any tune with a quick tempo, like Thunderstruck.

And by the way, no shortcuts here. Some think that Angus used hammer-ons to play that fast and clean, but that’s just not the case. He is picking every note at 133 BPM!

And so can you! Tune in and grab the free PDF.

This video was originally posted on notreble.com

 

Gear Geeks: Played on my Consat Marleaux Bass

Keep Rockin’ with bass tips for Zep’s Good Times, Bad Times

You may also like Aerosmith’s Sweet Emotion and Al Green’s Show & Tell

Looking for more speed? Read about this speed trick

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Bassist, author, educator.

Groove enthusiast and learning nerd.

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Hi. I'm Ari.

As a bassist, I have toured/played/recorded with a variety of rock, Jazz, and funk bands, I have worked with some incredible producers (Keith Olsen) and musicians (Paul Hanson, Muriel Anderson) and I toured Brazil with Stu Hamm as a duo.

 

As a bass teacher, I have taught at London Bass Day, Gerald Veasley’s Bass Boot Camp, SBL, Truefire, notreble… I even ran my own music school for a few years before gigs took me back on the road.

 

One thing to know about me is that I teach because I am absolutely fascinated with the learning process. And I am obsessed with helping others realize their musical potential.

 

When I started playing bass, I excelled very quickly because I had an amazing teacher who taught me using a powerful method. This method transformed my playing so quickly that I passed a bunch of high-level university auditions and even tested out of entire classes at university even though I had been playing for only a very short time.

 

That’s what, many years later turned into one of my books, co-written with Wolf Wein, called “The Pattern System for the Bass Player”. I created entire systems of learning based on some of these ideas and wrote books and created courses together with Wolf. Our bass books have sold over 30,000 copies and garnered rave reviews.

 

I started teaching online in 2009 and have embraced technology as a powerful learning tool since then, never losing sight of the importance of providing feedback and personalized guidance to learners.

 

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