Riff Deconstruction Crazy Train Video Lecture - The Ultimate Guitar Course

today we are going to deconstruct the
main riff from the song crazy train a
classic song if for no other reason than
rewarding us with this amazing picture
and basically the main riff if you don't
know it sounds like this
so awesome riff and the reason I think
one of the reasons it's so brilliant is
it utilizes every single note from the
minor scale so if you don't know the
minor scale is it we're gonna do it in
f-sharp
so the second fret I'm low E string is
gonna be our root note we're gonna play
the F sharp minor scale and I think this
is a good lesson in kind of seeing the
power of scales and how they can help
you memorize riffs and maybe you
transpose them and stuff like that too
so basically we start with our pointer
finger here alright and if it minor
scale we go to four five down a string
to four or five down string to four okay
so now the beautiful thing about this
riff it uses all seven of these notes
now one two three four five six seven
eight
the first in the eighth one are the
exact same note right an octave apart so
if we number these notes one two three
four five six seven eight we can just
come up with a sequence of numbers to
understand the intervals the spaces
between these notes to make the ref
right so for the riff
we're kind of pivoting on this root note
right so again this is one and the next
step we're gonna play is here which is
one two three four five so really get
these numbers on one two three four five
six seven eight we have one one five one
six one five one okay one one five one
six one five so you can think that is
maybe like the first part of the riff
then we go to
after that we're gonna go to your
one-two-three-four the fourth note four
three two three four three two seven now
it seems weird because we did the the
scale one two three four five six seven
right this is an E no again doesn't even
necessary you don't necessarily need to
know what the names of these notes are
very helpful but not essential so this
is the seventh note but below this is
gonna be an opening so whenever you have
a root note you can go two frets
backwards and find the seventh note in
the minor scale so again we've got one
one five one six one five one four three
two three four three two seven back to
the beginning right so really cool riff
Randy Rhoads is a god it utilizes every
single note in the scale I would be so
presumptuous to say not a lot of riffs
can do that while sounding so catchy and
like compact now another thing we can do
is kind of like see the relationship of
this between other scales right like if
we take the major scale you may have
seen some videos online like what metal
would sound like in a major key or
something like that one of the ways you
can kind of achieve that is by applying
these same interval numbers to a
different scale so like we said we have
a one one five one six one five one four
three two three four three two seven now
if we're to do those same numbers but in
the major scale on the same root note it
was something like this and first let's
just kind of do the major scale now a
lot of times I'll do a major scale in
middle finger position right but for
this we're gonna do a different way
we're gonna go one two three four five
six seven
okay so this is the F sharp major scale
now if we did the exact same numbers it
would sound like this we go one one five
one six one five one so is the first one
the six is different in the major minor
scale so one one five one six one five
one four three two three four three two
seven right so you can tell there's a
huge difference between major and minor
[Music]
and this is kind of like a good lesson
and maybe how the intervals between
major and minor can affect can
drastically affect the sound and it's
always good to kind of know the theory
behind some of the most famous proofs
out there again I'm not saying Randi
Rose was thinking like I've got to use
every note in the minor scale I'm sure a
lot of it was by ear but kind of seeing
the theory behind how really popular
songs are songs that you know what they
sound like is a really good thing to do
because it's so helpful with your ear
training because eventually you just
know the sound of like a 1 to a 5 or a 6
in the minor scale and stuff like that
so definitely any song that you know it
doesn't have for you classic one just
always maybe a little more thoughtful
about it try to understand the theory
behind it and it'll make you a way
better player