Highway to Hell Guitar Lesson – AC/DC


In these video guitar lessons we will take a look at AC/DC's timeless classic "Highway to Hell" in it's entirety note-for-note.

The first video covers all of the riffs in the song. As far as AC/DC goes, you will probably consider "Highway to Hell" to be one of the easier songs of theirs to play when it comes to the rhythm guitar parts.

The way I am fingering the opening chords in the video lesson might feel a bit awkward at first, but in this Highway to Hell guitar lesson series I wanted to show you exactly how Angus Young plays it himself.

The chorus consists of big open chords played in a tight rhythm. Make sure you focus on being very precise with the last two chords in the progression because those changes need to sound very tight.

The second video lesson will demonstrate how to play the guitar solo.

The guitar solo for "Highway to Hell" contains mostly blues based licks with not a lot of guitar pyrotechnics going on. Angus Young usually throws a few fast licks into his solos but he chose to lay back a bit with this one and just play blues based licks that compliment the song well.

Don't think that the guitar solo is easy though, because it certainly isn't. There are a lot of bends to contend with and your calluses are going to get a good workout when practicing it.

The main thing to mastering the solo is to not only practice it phrase by phrase, but to also pay close attention to the way the solo licks fit into the groove of the song. Focusing on the rhythmic element of the solo will help you lock into the groove better and memorize all the licks with ease.

Angus Young's soloing style is a bit different than the average blues based player. His solos are almost always composed compositions that contain a lot of melodic ideas that compliment the song well. This type of soloing style is not only very musical, but it also aids in memorizing all the licks since they are pretty much singable throughout.

All in all, the solo that Angus Young created for "Highway to Hell" is a great one to study if you want to learn to craft a highly musical and melodic solo statement even if it is just over a few basic chords.

Have fun guys!

Carl...

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Highway to Hell Guitar Lesson Pt.1 - All the riffs

Highway To Hell Guitar Lessons Pt.2 - Solo

6 Comments

  1. frank nys on August 16, 2015 at 2:23 pm

    geweldige les ik heb de song geleerd in 4 dagen
    met solo

  2. frank paparo on February 5, 2016 at 7:13 pm
  3. Bill degroot on February 24, 2017 at 3:04 pm

    Cool

  4. Ron terranova on August 10, 2017 at 11:58 am

    Hi Carl, I just joined your web-site, sorry about not reading all the information you already put up about re-occurring charges etc. My second question to you I do want to ask is that do you post up the tabs for the songs somewhere on the site. Having a hard time watching the video to see all of the fingerings for songs. Thanks again. Ron Terranova

    • Carl Brown on August 10, 2017 at 6:02 pm

      Hey Ron, unfortunately I am not legally allowed to post TAB for any song that is not in the public domain. 🙁

      I wish I could!

      Carl…

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