In The Style of Angus Young (AC/DC)
part 4

Lyle: In this lesson you'll learn a guitar solo that's in the style of the Mighty Angus. Listen to this lesson sample, you'll hear the solo you will be learning:

Lesson Sample

Lyle: Key of G for this groove. The background is made up of 3 simple chords: G, C and D.

G chord


C chord


D chord


Lyle: Here's how they lay out as far as the chord progression goes:



Lyle: You want to cut short the sustain of some of the chords. Use your right hand to mute the strings. Watch this video clip and you'll get the idea:

strum pattern

Lyle: Strum down for the G chord, then strum up for all the C and D chords. Now try playing the rhythm riff with this jam track:

Looping Sound Clip 1

kenny_jr:  Which pickup are you using, the Bridge or Neck pickup?

Lyle: For the tone of the rhythm part, use the bridge pickup and not too much distortion. Don't use any other effects. Angus plugs straight into a Marshall for his tone.

Lyle: Let's move into learning the solo from the Lesson Sample. This solo uses the G minor Pentatonic scale. Angus is the pentatonic King.



Lyle: Now I'm going to send you a dozen riffs that all go together to make the solo from the sample above. Use this jam track which has the rhythm guitar in it to practice the riffs with:

Looping Sound Clip 2

Lyle: Ready! Here we go:



solo - riff 1

Lyle: Nice, fat bends with heavy and fast vibrato is a key element to the Angus sound.



solo - riff 2

Lyle: Try to play riff 1 and 2 back to back with the jam track.

Lyle: This next riff has a heavy vibrato on the last note, first finger. Be sure you're listening to the audio clip of each TAB file.



solo - riff 3

solo - riff 4

vbisbest: Is there any trick to bending the string that far?

Lyle: You'll see in the video clips when I'm bending a string, I grab it with several fingers at a time for better control and strength.

Lyle: This next riff uses a sliding technique:



solo - riff 5

Lyle: The next 2 riffs you'll want to notice the slight difference between them.

Lyle: Here's the first of the two:



Lyle: Now the second:



Lyle: Watch this video of riffs 6 and 7 played together:

solo - riffs 6 and 7

Lyle: The next lick changes your position on the neck to help setup for a killer ending to the solo.



solo - riff 8

Lyle: Notice how you started the solo down low on the neck and here we are, near the end of the solo, playing high up on the neck. This is what I like to call good solo composition.



solo - riff 9

Lyle: Lots of licks here. You might not be able to memorize all of them, but at least try and memorize the ones you like.



solo - riff 10

Lyle: This next riff is a little tough. It combines bends, vibratos, bends with vibrato, hammer-ons and pull-offs:



solo - riff 11

Lyle: And now the final riff of the solo:



solo - riff 12

Lyle: Remember that you don't need effects other than bit of overdrive for the Angus sound.

Satch: I have this digitech thing called rp200 and it has an effect specifically for angus young but there is barely any distortion on it?

Lyle: Right, Angus doesn't use much distortion sometimes.

Lyle: All the rhythm parts to these lessons are in the Malcom style too.

Lyle: Hope you all learned a few new Angus style riffs tonight! If you would like further study on this topic or any other topic, email me at Lyle@theguitar.net for info on how you can get your own customized guitar lessons like this using Riff Interactive technology. Your private lessons can be downloaded to your pc for anytime, anywhere study. Thanks and see you at the next lesson. - Lyle