This week's riff is the 2001 alt-rock classic by Muse, 'Plug In Baby'
The riff is something of a finger-twister, but this makes it a good exercise for developing fret hand coordination. The easiest way to keep track of the constant flow of notes is to use a one-finger-per-fret approach. This takes the guesswork out of choosing which fingers to use. The only time you'll need to drop out of this approach is in bars 5 and 6, where you'll need to move about a bit.
Picking-wise, you can take either an alternate picking approach or, if you prefer, there's no reason why you shouldn't use all downpicking.
The tone isn't easy to recreate. Use a fuzz distortion into an overdrive channel on your amp and use a flanger or phaser set very slow. This is more for harmonic enrichment rather than hearing the actual sound of the modulation effect itself.
Click here to download the 'Plug In Baby' preset for the Peavey Vypyr VIP-2
'Plug In Baby'
© 2001 Muse
Tutor: Chris Bird
Videographer: Martin Holmes
Check back every Friday at 16:00 (UK time) for a new riff
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