Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath - Guitar Tab

Black Sabbath

1970 6:18

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About Black Sabbath

Few riffs in rock history carry as much weight as the opening of this song, and on guitar it all comes down to one deceptively simple tritone figure in G minor. Black Sabbath built the whole track around that interval, which sits at the heart of Heavy Metal as a genre, and learning it teaches you exactly why that interval sounds so unsettling. In E Standard tuning, the riff sits low and heavy, so your picking hand needs to stay controlled and deliberate rather than aggressive. The slow, lurching tempo is what catches most players out: the tendency is to rush the space between notes, which kills the dread the song depends on. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop the main riff slowed down and focus on landing each note with full confidence before moving on. The extended, rain-and-thunder intro also makes a good isolated loop if you want to work on building atmosphere through dynamics rather than speed.

• The central riff is built on a tritone interval, sometimes called "the devil's interval", played low on the neck in E Standard tuning.
• Slow tempo and wide note spacing make timing discipline the real challenge here, not finger placement or speed.
• Practising the riff at half speed with the Practice Toolbar helps you feel the deliberate, heavy attack the tone requires.