TNT

Tuning and key

Whenever we learn a song we should first of all know what key we are in. This will inform much (or all) of the chord changes and the scales we use to solo and for riffs. It's one of the main ways to go from learning a song 'by numbers' to having a full understanding of what's actually happening! In this song we're in the key of E.

Now, in reality this song is in the key of Eb, as the guitar is tuned down a half step. This can be done for a number of reasons, including making the part fit a vocal range, or even just to sound a bit heavier! Whatever the reason here, you'll need to detune your guitar if you want to play along with the record. If you're unsure how to do this check out this diagram:

This means that if you strum an open E chord the chord you hear will actually be an E flat.

Once you know the key and the tuning it's usually a good idea to break a song down into repeating sections, so you know what you've got to remember. This song is made up of four sections arranged like so:

Now we know what we're up against, let's start at the beginning.

The intro

This song jumps straight in with a big E major open chord. That's it! Strum it once and let it ring out over the drum part that cues us in for the verse riff. Here's the shape we're using:

The verse riff

This is the riff that carries a lot of the song, and we start with that same E major chord. AC/DC songs are very dynamic, which means we really need to think about when a chord is playing and when it isn't, and what we do to stop chords ringing out. After this first E chord we need to mute the strings, which you can do by placing the side of your right hand on the strings over the bridge pickup. It's important to mute the strings at exactly the right time too, so we keep that groove going! Don't worry, once we've covered the chords we'll write out the riff with the timing of the mutes too so you know exactly where everything goes! Let's get the rest of the chords first. They are an open G5 and an open A5. Here are the chord diagrams:

Once we've got to the A5 we round the whole thing off with a nice part that goes between the A5 and a G note with a slight bend and a little bit of palm muting too. Here's the rhythm for that whole part:

For the last time before the chorus we just hang on the first A5 chord, and don't go back to that slightly bent G note. Hold that chord until beat 4 of the next bar!

The chorus riff

There's an interesting part to look out for here, that bridges the verse and the chorus. We have a half length bar just for this bridging part, but it is repeated in the main chorus riff (but it fits nicely into a full length bar the rest of the time!). It coincides with the lyrics 'T N T' so listen out for that when you're playing! If you prefer to count it, think of it as a bar of 2/4 and we play an A5 on the '1' and the slightly bent G note on the '2'. From there we go into an open E chord on beat 1 of the next bar and we're back to a normal 4/4 count!

When we're in 4/4 again we have the E on the 1, then rest for a whole bar, and then A5 and G on beats 3 and 4 respectively of the following bar. Here is is written out in 4/4 so you can see it all:

On the fourth time around, to end the chorus we use the pushed G and A5 from the verse riff, but hang on that A5 for 2 bars until the verse starts again

The outro

The outro is a chromatically climbing part using the E major barre chord shape, but starting with the open E major. We start off giving each chord a full bar (4 beats), then as we get to the G# each chord gets half a bar (2 beats) and then from the C each chord gets a quarter of a bar (1 beat) and then when we get to around the F# area you can let loose and just fast strum all the way to the top before finally landing back on the E open chord!

Conclusion

And there we have it! That's all four main sections of this song covered, the intro, the verse, the chorus and the outro. As you've probably noticed, the vast majority of this song is verse and chorus, so spend your time mastering those parts, listen to the song lots, and have fun with it!