System Of A Down - Aerials - Guitar Lesson

About Aerials

Few songs in Alternative Rock ask quite as much of your right hand as "Aerials." The song shifts between a delicate, arpeggiated clean intro and heavier, palm-muted rhythm passages, so you need to stay light and controlled one moment and locked in with a firm pick attack the next. Everything is tuned down to Eb Standard, which loosens string tension slightly and gives the low end that characteristic weight, so make sure your guitar is tuned before you start. At 95 BPM the song sits at a moderate pace, but the transitions between the soft and heavy sections can catch you off guard until the arrangement is fully in your memory. Use the Practice Toolbar to isolate those transition points slowed down, especially where the dynamics shift suddenly, so your pick hand learns to adjust without hesitation. System Of A Down wrote the song in Db major, and that tonal center gives the clean arpeggios a slightly ambiguous, floating quality that rewards precise fretting to keep each note ringing clearly.

• The song is played in Eb Standard tuning, dropping all strings by a half step, which gives the rhythm sections extra low-end weight.
• The clean intro relies on arpeggiated chords in Db major, where clean fretting technique is essential to let each note ring without buzzing.
• Sudden dynamic shifts between clean and heavy sections are the main challenge, and looping those transitions slowed down will help you nail the timing.