Off Beat Study

The rhythm guitar part has been kept very simple here. The aim is to practice playing off the beat. There is only one strum per chord and, except for the first, all strums are on an off-beat. If you keep your hand swinging up and down, those off-beats would be strummed on an up-stroke. However, the style requires down-strokes for all chords. So aim for that after you have the timing clear in your head.

The chords are easy too. There are no string changes and the same shape is played throughout, so just concentrate on where your first finger lands.

Basically,
D5 and Bflat5 for 2 bars each with C5 played between.
The phrasing (and drum track) is taken from Bruce Dickinson's "Cyclops", while the chords are the "All along the watchtower" chords in the key of Dm.

|.1.&.2.&.3.&.4.&.|.1.&.2.&.3.&.4.&.|.1.&.2.&.3.&.4.&.|.1.&.2.&.3.&.4.&.|
|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
|-7---------------|-----------5---3-|-----------------|-----------5---7-|
|-7---------------|-----------5---3-|-----------------|-----------5---7-|
|-5---------------|-----------3---1-|-----------------|-----------3---5-|
|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
  D5                          C5  Bflat5                          C5  D5

The lead guitar is played muted.

The riff idea was originally based on the final part of Iron Maiden's "Genghis Khan". But I didn't want to post an out-right copy in the MIDI file. So I've changed it, playing the riff kind of back to front and added an extra bit at the end. But the original works too.

In either case, it does go at a moderate tempo which I wouldn't expect a beginner to be able to manage.

|.1.e.&.a.2.e.&.a.3.e.&.a.4.e.&.a.|.1.e.&.a.2.e.&.a.3.e.&.a.4.e.&.a.|
|---------------------------------|-----------------6-5-6-----------|
|-6-5-6---6-5-6---6-5-6---6-5-6---|-6-5-6---6-5-6-8-------8-8-6-6-5-|
|-------7-------5-------7-------5-|-------7-------------------------|
|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|