 Hello everyone and welcome to Blackstar Potential. My name is Lee Fuge and I'm here today with MusicTeacher.com and in this lesson we're going to learn another classic riff. The riff we're going to look at today is the riff from the Van Halen track Unchained. So the riff we're going to learn today is in a drop tuning. The studio version of the track was tuned down half a step and then the low E string was dropped down a full tone from there. This gives you drop D down a semi tone. Today I'm just playing in a standard version of drop D tuning so D-A-D-G-B-E. If you've never played in a drop tuning before there's a video on the Blackstar channel where I explain the basics and the principles of drop tuning so go check that out first of all. All the tones that you're hearing are coming directly from the Blackstar IDCore V3 which is going straight into my DAW over a USB connection. The patch for this is also available on the Blackstar Architect website and there's a link for that down below in the description so if you want to take this patch sound and put it into your own IDCore amps you can download that patch and do so. So there's a lot of different things going on with the tone for this riff. I'm using the OD2 voice which is quite a high gain voice and I've got the gain at about 60% of the way up. I've got the mids pushed to the max and the ISF just leaning over on that British side it's set to about 2 o'clock. You're also hearing a vintage 4x12 cabinet with a condenser and there's also a bunch of effects going on so I've got the noise gate on to suppress the hiss of the gain. I've got a flanger effect which Eddie Van Halen would often use to make his riffs move and sort of shift between the stereo field on the speakers. I've also got a short tape echo delay for some space and slapback and a plate reverb so all of this is in the patch. When you download that all of these things will be preset for you. So here's the riff in full and then we'll break it down. So this riff sounds a lot harder to play than it actually is. We're actually moving a chord shape around here. So the chord shape we're playing is this bar across the DG and B strings. So I'm starting out on the seventh fret. And what I'm doing is I'm playing that and then I'm adding my third finger on to the eighth fret of the B string. And then I'm doing four palm muted low D notes bringing that shape down here to the third fret and I'm playing it on the DG and B strings once again. Then I'm adding my third finger to the fourth fret and pulling off to the third. Then I'm coming up to the fifth playing that again and doing the pull off from the sixth with my third finger. Between those two I'm actually putting another open string. I'm leaving this third fret chord hang just slightly longer than the fifth. Notice I'm coming in on that one a bit quicker. So here's that first half around. The second half of the riff follows the same theme so we're starting off in the same place. Then I'm coming up to the ten doing exactly that same movement as I have been. Then I'm doing another open followed by the tenth fret chord once more and then this C major triad which is the ten on the D, the nine on the G and the eight on the B. So that little shift is a little bit tricky at first. I would recommend playing the first part with your first finger and then as you hit that low D switching to the third finger here. It makes getting into that triad a little easier. So here's the second half of the riff. So while there are some tricky moments in this riff you're actually just moving a very similar chord shape up and down the neck. So once you get used to that rhythm it's a very easy riff to start playing. The trickiest part in my opinion is that bit right at the end there where you go from that bar across the tenth fret to that C major triad. That's where changing your finger on the second part of that really comes in handy. So here's the riff in full slowly. I also forgot to add right before the slow play through. If you're doing the repeat there's also two open low D strings at the end of that C major triad. Right back into that repeat. So here's the riff now at full speed once more. So there you go there is the intro riff for the Van Halen song Unchained. Let me know down below in the comments how you guys have gotten on that riff and if there are any other classic riffs and licks you guys want to see in these videos throw those down below as well. Don't forget to check out Blackstar Amplification on YouTube for more videos just like this and like I said if you're new to drop tuning there is a video on the Blackstar channel where I cover the basics of how to drop tune your guitar and also what type of things to expect when you're playing with drop tuning. And if you're looking for a guitar teacher please head to musicteacher.com and check out the Music Teacher Database. There's a network of teachers all over the country waiting to help you guys out. Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you soon.