5 Spooky Licks for Halloween

Halloween theme

We kick off with the theme from the classic Michael Myers series. This one is quite simple to play if you a) have enough frets (!) and b) don't get too hung up on the interesting time signature. The riff is based around a powerchord shape way up on the 19th and 21st frets. The entire riff lasts for ten 8th notes, but you can group it as two groups of three notes, then a group of four notes. Here are the notes on the fretboard:

From there all we have to do it take the whole thing down a semitone and play it again!

Ghost Town by The Specials

This is certainly the most questionably spooky song on the list, but it's got ghost in the title, and it's a great tune to learn! We start off with a C diminished 7 chord and then keep holding that shape and move it up a semitone at a time until we reach the F diminished 7 chord. So, if you learn that one shape you can play the whole first part! Here's that shape:

From there we're into the ska rhythm where we're playing the top three strings of a C minor chord followed by the top three strings of a D diminished chord. We also went for a little bit of almost slapback delay on the tone too. Here are those two shapes:

We then finish off with the horn melody played on guitar. This is of course just an approximation, and we're adding in an octave above to thicken the sound. Here are the low notes on the fretboard:

Ghostbusters intro

We're breaking down the riff that sits under that main melody first. It's all based around B major and starts with a B5 power chord. We then run up a B major arpeggio then slide down to an A5 followed by an E/G#. The E/G# is very simplified though, and we end up playing a 'stretched' power chord shape. Here are the diagrams:

We of course have to cover the main melody too! We're still in B (B mixolydian to be specific) but from a practical point of view we're taking all of the notes from a very convenient box! Here it is:

Ghostbusters solo

For the lead/breakdown section we modulate to B minor which gives us a little more edge. We're in B minor pentatonic box 4 with a chromatic note added too. Here's that box for you:

For the curious, the chords we're playing over are B5, A5, E/G'# (that same 'stretched' powerchord shape) E5. It's a fun one to try in a band!

Spooky, Scary Skeletons

Finally, we're on to the hardest song on this list. Coincidentally, we're still in B minor, and we start off with a melodic intro that stays on the B string. It's worth noting that this song is in 6/8 and definitely has that 1 + a, 2 + a feel associated with that time signature. This is important to remember as we get into the faster sections since the notes tend to be grouped in threes. Here are the first notes:

After that we go into a descending B minor arpeggio sequence, it's a big jump in speed and crosses strings a lot.

Here are the notes in that run:

Then we run back up the B minor arpeggio and when we get to the G string we move to a G major arpeggio sweep, followed by an F# major arpeggio using exactly the same shape, just down a semitone. Here's the G major arpeggio which you can then move around:

This is another speedy part! I chose to combine sweep picking with legato techniques wherever possible to get the speed up. It's possible to pick every note but that is hard!

And last but not least we play the vocal melody on the guitar. It's a nice chance to slow down a bit! All of the notes are in B minor and covered in the video. Good luck!

Conclusion

We hope you've enjoyed these halloween licks! They're a lot of fun to play and have lots of great things to practice for all levels of electric guitar player!