AC/DC - Highway To Hell Pt.1 - All Riffs - Guitar Lesson

About Highway To Hell Pt.1 - All Riffs

Few riffs in rock are as deceptively simple and as physically demanding to play well as the ones AC/DC built "Highway to Hell" around. The song lives in A minor, and the magic is in how Angus Young locks a hard-driving, slightly behind-the-beat feel into every chord change. Getting that groove right means resisting the urge to rush the strumming hand, keeping everything tight and chunky rather than loose and washy. The main riff relies on open-position power chords with palm muting, so the real work is controlling exactly how much mute you apply and releasing it cleanly on the accented hits. That release point is easy to fumble at tempo, so use the Practice Toolbar to loop each riff section slowed down until the palm pressure becomes automatic. Once the mechanics are under your fingers, the focus shifts to attitude: a confident, unwavering pick attack that never softens, even on the transitional strums between the big chord hits.

• The signature riff uses open-position power chords combined with palm muting, so controlling mute pressure and release is the core technique to nail.
• Playing behind the beat is essential to the groove; rushing even slightly collapses the heavy, locked-in feel the riff depends on.
• A clean, consistent downstroke-heavy picking approach is key to replicating the driving tone across all the main riffs in this song.