Breaking The Law Guitar Lesson – Judas Priest

Released in 1980 off of Judas Priest's British Steel album, "Breaking The Law" went on to become one of Judas Priest's most well known songs known for it's signature guitar intro riff.

On a technical level, there isn't anything very difficult to play in this one. Most upper beginner level players and above would be able to get this song under their fingers in no time.

In this Breaking The Law guitar lesson video, I will demonstrate how to play all of the guitar riffs and chords that make up this classic metal masterpiece.

The well recognized opening guitar riff is minor based and just uses single notes. It is pretty easy to just break that riff down into a series of repeated 3 note riffs. The rhythm of those notes does change, but if you know the sound of the riff (which I am sure you do), it won't be very difficult to follow along.

Also towards the beginning of this lesson video, I will show you the upper octave version of this riff that is heard during the final chorus. Once again this riff is rather simple and just uses the exact same notes as the opening riff albeit an octave higher.

We then make it to the verse which is a series of simple power chords. Pay close attention here because there are two different versions of these verse chords. The second verse of the song is slightly different and it can be easy to miss if you don't watch out for it.

Also within this verse riff, you will find some quick rhythmic muted strums within the chords. This is pretty easy to do but may take a little bit of practice to get the timing down if you have never played that sort of thing.

The pre-chorus is also very simple and leads us straight to the chorus. The chorus consists of a simple muted A string 8th note rhythm along with some quick chord stabs. Those chords are actually layered on the original recording, but I will show you how to combine them to play all the notes on one guitar.

Hopefully this one will be a fun one to learn! I suggest you give it a try. 🙂

Carl...

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Breaking The Law Guitar Lesson - Judas Priest