Hammer To Fall Rhythm Guitar by Brian May

Hammer to fall I'm going to do it on acoustic first before showing you on electric I just think it's easier to hear the the accents and when I talk about accents I'll be using a a power chord real easy and putting my second and third fingers down on those spots just like the classic uh classic rock move and I'm going to be using the back of my right hand as a mute now everybody usually does it this way with they rest the back of the hand on top of the strings but I'm actually going to change that somewhat so in just think of it this way if I did it count it out 1 and 2 and 3 and four and 1 and 2 and 3 and four and see how it's just like resting on the strings well I'm going to do it differently now I'm going to do 1 and 2 and 3 and four 1 and 2 and three and four what am I actually doing there is creating another accent if you think of cheap tricks song um what was that now um maybe maybe The Car [Music] Song wasted all my time that one is pretty well all straight with the back of the hand against the strings but this [Music] time do you see what the difference is that time I'm putting the the accent on the second beat now not that I'm doing that in the song but it's that technique's actually going to help so let me explain uh let's see Hammer to fall that that's on the one and two and three and four and on the end is split up to so one and two and three and four 1 and 2 and 3 and four and so I'm back on on the third time that's one for the next bar I'll use my foot to [Music] stomp now notice I'm holding it down so I'm muting on the second [Music] bat now try this remember I was talking about keeping the hand down and I think he does that later on in the song but that's a good exercise just to make sure that you're you're going to be hitting right on the beat and I think the song goes a little faster probably this speed now when he when he goes up here two bars to this e with a a base he resolves actually to this foring here and he does that because he wants to slide down so [Music] it's and another voice he uses with this pinky on the fifth fret on the first string okay now if I didn't do all that that that part it would sound just like the way he does it [Music] mute okay so you got those variations going we're going to have this a voicing here and I'm just going to pluck the strings just so you can hear the Rhythm a little more clearly then I'm going to pick it so and I'm going to pluck that the uh bass string again for the next chord which is the E with the a base 1 2 3 4 see what's happening there I'm going down on on the first beat and on the up of the second beat I hit that base again so so down [Music] up and immediately after that I start the new but I'm choke it at the second beat and then the a again so it's 3 4 again two that's that's the whole bar right there two bars 3 4 [Music] two 1 2 okay so uh let's see let's try that again 1 2 3 [Music] 4 okay now I'm going to play that whole thing and I'm going to leave Another Empty bar before I repeat the same [Music] thing 2 2 3 4 1 2 3 [Music] 4 2 2 3 4 [Music] four so actually when I get to that a I should count three four not one two I don't know why I was doing that so again 1 2 3 4 3 4 1 2 3 [Music] 4 3 4 2 3 4 so that one 2 3 4 that I'm counting not doing anything that's actually the second part of this Rhythm and uh so we're going to have to go back to some Basics um but before I do that let me challenge you let's do that one more time but faster 1 2 3 4 4 1 2 3 [Music] 4 3 4 1 2 3 4 4 1 2 3 4 3 okay so um the next [Music] part you've heard that before right it's basic rock and roll back beat it's basically what I did when I did now what if I just did that with a power chord [Music] see what's happening mute and that a comes on the end of the second [Music] beat now if I count it properly this is the four and B to the A on the third string [Music] [Music] that da da da da actually takes up a whole bar and after I do I count three four on that [Music] too 3 4 3 4 so [Music] four okay let me try it little faster 1 2 3 [Music] 4 3 4 3 4 3 4 more now the variation to that is uh a little bit trickier because you're not playing that chord twice you're just playing it once so it's and then you start with that line so instead of [Music] doing right notice I went up twice I'm going to do just once and then I'm going to start into a [Music] and then do that oops 4 e Four 3 4 3 four okay and faster it sounds well let me do the first one and then I'll do the second one [Music] 4 four now [Music] faster [Music] 4 4 4 okay and I think the the real speed is a little bit faster than that four four now it's going to be kind of hard to hear that because you know you get all the singing on top of that so let me try from the first part to the uh let me just do the first four [Music] bars 3 Four 3 4 okay did you count that right let's try it again a little slower 1 2 3 4 3 4 3 [Music] 4 3 [Music] 4 3 4 little faster 1 2 3 3 [Music] 4 [Music] 4 okay now let's try and do the first four and then the next four so the next four we're going to do with the second variation the one it goes okay 1 2 3 4 3 4 3 4 oops I didn't count the last one that's why I didn't turn out and it's very important to count it because if you're not if you're going to miss it you're going to miss the timing for that whole verse or that whole chorus okay so let's try one more time and maybe at be 1 2 3 4 4