Queen - Hammer To Fall - Guitar Lesson

About Hammer To Fall

Few Hard Rock riffs from the 1980s hit as hard as the one that opens this track, a driving, palm-muted power-chord figure in E minor that immediately sets the aggressive tone. Queen built the song around that riff, so getting it locked in tight and rhythmically precise is your first priority. At 120 BPM in E Standard tuning, the tempo is not brutal, but the riff demands clean muting and consistent pick attack throughout, and any sloppiness in your right hand will show up immediately. The chord shapes themselves are not complicated, but the stamina required to keep the palm muting controlled and punchy across a full performance is real. Pay close attention to where the muting lifts and the open chords ring out, because that contrast is where the energy of the song lives. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop the main riff slowed down until the muting and the accent pattern feel automatic before you bring it back up to full speed.

• The main riff is built on palm-muted E minor power chords in E Standard tuning, making right-hand muting consistency the key technical challenge.
• At 120 BPM the tempo is approachable, but sustaining clean, punchy palm muting across the full song requires serious pick-hand stamina.
• The riff's dynamic contrast between muted chugging and open ringing chords is the detail to practise closely before running the whole track.