Stray Cats - Rock This Town Pt.1 - Intro & Verse - Guitar Lesson

About Rock This Town Pt.1 - Intro & Verse

At 180 BPM in E major, the intro and verse of "Rock This Town" throw you straight into Brian Setzer's signature rockabilly picking style, and keeping up cleanly at full speed is the real test. The opening riff sits in standard E tuning and leans heavily on single-note lines played with a loose, swinging feel, so even though the notes themselves are not complex, the rhythmic bounce is easy to lose if you tighten up. Pay close attention to how the pick attack drives the groove: too stiff and it sounds mechanical, too soft and the energy disappears. Stray Cats built their whole sound on that tension between punk rock aggression and vintage rockabilly swagger, and you hear both pulling against each other right from bar one. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop the intro riff slowed down until the swing feel is locked in your picking hand before you push the tempo back up.

• The intro riff is built on single-note lines in E major, making right-hand swing and pick attack far more important than left-hand complexity.
• At 180 BPM, use the Practice Toolbar to slow the verse down and focus on keeping a loose, bouncing feel rather than rushing the sixteenth-note runs.
• Rockabilly-style hybrid picking or a light plectrum grip helps replicate the snappy, percussive tone Brian Setzer brings to this riff.