Black Dog Guitar Lesson

Let's check out the video where Jed takes us through the parts:

The main riff

This classic riff is based around the A minor pentatonic scale, with an extra major 7th note added in, always as a chromatic passing note. Jed calls it the 'Page' scale! The entire riff covers these frets:

As always when learning parts we highly recommend knowing what the underlying scales and shapes are, as opposed to just learning them as a long series of fret numbers with no context! With that in mind here are the pentatonic shapes we're passing through as part of this riff:

Timing

This song is infamous for it's interesting time feel. You can find explanations of the parts with incredible numbers of time signature changes, but in reality we're always in 4/4 time, sometimes it just feels odd (more on that later!). You can think about the first three notes of this riff as a pickup which simply means we're just hearing the last few beats of a bar, without necessarily counting that full first bar. In this case we're starting on the '+ of 3'.

Call and response

This track is based around call and response between Robert Plant's brilliant vocal and the rest of the band playing the riff. After the first chorus the riff follows on from the beat Plant sets with his vocals from I gotta Roll / Can't Stand Still…. Try to feel the beat as he's singing this line and you'll be able to come in on the and of three and play along with the track. However, for the intro we have to really listen closely, as the band doesn't follow the beat of the vocal! There is a trick though… If you listen very very closely you can hear a drumstick click just before the band plays. This click is John Bonham showing the band where beat 3 is, so you hear that click, then play '+ 4 +' and you should be in time with the record!

Riff 2 and polymeters!

The next section is a continuation of the first riff, using the same idea of this 'Page scale' but dropping down a string, and moving to E minor. On the first listen it sounds very similar to the first riff, but there is something very important to note in this section. It uses polymeters! If this is a new concept it may sound intimidating, but it doesn't have to be! A polymeter (which is different to a polyrhythm) is simply two or more parts that last a different amount of time being looped together. This means as they loop different notes line up each time around. When you listen to music like this you often get the impression that one part is drifting while the other is staying put. In this song it's the riff that feels like it's drifting, as it's a part that lasts for nine 8th notes! Sometimes, if you're familiar with the song, it can still feel natural, but if it doesn't, the best advice we can give is to first learn the part exactly, counting each 8th note in it (remember the last two notes last for two 8th notes each). Try to get it feeling automatic under your fingers, then even if it sounds or feels like it's drifting your fingers will know what to do! Eventually you'll be able to 'feel' it, until then you have to count it! Here's a diagram to help visualise what's going on:

Once we've made it through the tricky polymeter three times we vary the riff slightly to transition back into riff 1, and puts us back into the 4/4 feel (although we never changed time signature!). Check out the video where Jed takes you through this note by note.

Riff 3

That tricky polymeter riff takes us nicely into a new, chord based riff. This riff is all based around an A5 chord with some single notes taken mainly from the A major pentatonic scale. There's also a little slide up to a C5 chord to finish off the riff. Here are the notes on the fretboard, and Jed takes you through the rhythm in the video:

Riff 4

There's one more riff to cover in this tune! It's another chord based riff to give your fingers a bit of a break! We're still basing everything around that A5 chord, but we're also throwing in a G5 to a D to finish it off. Here are those shapes:

The solo

The solo in this song is played over riff 4. As that riff is based around an A5 chord the A major and A minor pentatonic scales both work very nicely! We highly recommend becoming familiar with the scales across the entire neck, but here are a few shapes to get you started:

Conclusion

We'd like to thank Jed for this great video and the detailed breakdown of all the riffs. It's not an easy song to learn so remember to break it down into sections, watch the video lots of times, and of course listen to the track as much as possible!