Bon Jovi - Wanted Dead or Alive - Guitar Cover

Slippery When Wet

1986 5:09

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About Wanted Dead or Alive

Few Hard Rock songs are as guitar-forward as this one: the opening fingerpicked arpeggios in D minor set the whole mood before a single word is sung, and nailing that intro cleanly is the first real challenge for any guitarist picking this up. The riff sits in E Standard tuning, which keeps everything familiar, but the fingerpicking pattern demands a steady, controlled right hand, especially at 120 BPM where any hesitation shows up immediately. When the song opens up into the heavier strummed sections, you shift from that delicate picking into full chords with real conviction, so switching between those two feels is something worth drilling separately. Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora leaned on a 12-string acoustic sound for much of the texture here, giving the track its wide, cinematic quality that a standard 6-string approximates but does not fully replicate. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop the intro arpeggio pattern at a reduced speed until the right-hand pattern becomes automatic, then gradually bring the tempo back up to match the track.

• The song opens with a fingerpicked arpeggio pattern in D minor that requires a controlled, independent right-hand technique before any strumming appears.
• Richie Sambora used a 12-string acoustic guitar to achieve the wide, resonant tone heard throughout the track.
• Practising the transition between the delicate fingerpicked intro and the heavier strummed chorus sections is the key coordination challenge in this song.