Guns N' Roses - Locomotive - Guitar Tab

Use Your Illusion II

1991 8:42

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About Locomotive

Few tracks on Use Your Illusion II ask as much of a guitarist as "Locomotive." Running close to nine minutes, this Guns N' Roses epic shifts through multiple distinct sections, each with its own rhythmic feel and chord vocabulary, all rooted in E minor. The challenge is not any single riff in isolation but stringing those sections together cleanly at full pace, maintaining the tight, slightly aggressive picking attack the song demands throughout. Slash moves between tightly syncopated rhythm work and melodic lead passages, so you need to be comfortable switching roles quickly without losing the groove. Pay close attention to the rhythmic subdivisions in the heavier chug sections because rushing them collapses the tension the song builds. Use the Practice Toolbar to set an A/B loop around whichever transition gives you trouble, then work it slowed down before bringing it back to tempo. The outro stretch in particular rewards patient, deliberate practice.

• The song is built in E minor and moves through several contrasting sections, making section-to-section transitions one of the main technical hurdles for rhythm guitar.
• Slash's parts mix syncopated palm-muted chugging with open melodic lead lines, so practising both picking styles cleanly is essential before running the full track.
• At nearly nine minutes, building stamina and consistency across the whole arrangement is as important as nailing any individual riff.