Chords for Blue Oyster Cult - Don't Fear The Reaper - Guitar Lesson - How to Play on Guitar, Cowbell riff

[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _ _
[G] Hey, [Bb] what's up you guys?
Marty Schwartz here from GuitarJams.com.
Got a classic riff for you, and it's just such a fun song to play.
Sorry I didn't have a cowbell with me.
I don't have one here.
My bad.
Sorry.
But anyway, we'll zoom in.
We'll break this one down.
Also real quick, I appreciate all that extra support besides just watching these videos on YouTube.
I have a link for my website down there.
You know, really appreciate it, plus social media stuff.
So thank you.
Let's zoom in and break it down.
Here we go.
All right, so the opening riff is based basically off an A minor, G, and an F chord.
[E] But we play it a little differently because we're going to be picking out some notes.
The first thing that we're going to do is we're going to kind of act like we're playing
an A minor here, but we're not even going to play or put our finger down on that first
fret of the B note.
We're just going to hold these two, okay?
Then, with the [A] pick, we're going to hit, _ starting on that A string, we just go down.
Do, do, da.
See that? _
Then you take your whole hand [G] off and you play [A] that open G string. _
_ [Em] The reason I'm saying take your hand off is because it's going to be coming over here
to get your ring finger on the third fret of the low E and your middle finger on that
second fret of the A [G] as part of that G chord.
We're never going to get to that high E, so you can just think of these two.
Kind of like how you would for a C chord, but right here. _
_ So when you put [A] those together, _ _ [D] _ _
[G] _ _ _ so when we get to that G shape there, we hit the strings
consecutively.
E, A, D, G.
[A] So watch again.
_ _ [G] _ _ _
The next one's based on that F chord, but there's a cool little thing that [D] you can do.
We're going to play an F power chord instead of an F bar chord.
Playing the F power chord, but we're not barring.
We're going to let the open D and the open G string be in there.
[Fm] But then with the first fret there and the third fret on the A, [C] _ _
_ _ _ the exact same picking
that we did on the [G] G chord. _
[C] _ _ [B] Watch what happens when you put them [A] together. _ _
[C] _ _ [A] _ _ _ [G] _ [B] So you get this G string.
Do, do, da.
[G] Da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, [Em] da,
da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da.
That's ringing out.
And now I'm going to do it real slow [A] for you. _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Fm] _ _
[C] _ _ [G] Back to the G, _ the A [A] minor shape, _ [G] open G, the G chord, F power chord, [D] _ [G] back to the G.
_ [A] _ _ _
_ [C] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [B] And what's helping me with the picking, you know, if you're really good at alternating
your picking every note, like down-up, down-up, down-up, you can try that.
What worked for me on this one, you know, to even play it up to speed is I'm kind of
[G] _ [A] dragging the pick across.
I'm not like going, [Bm] you know, I'm not trying to pick down on every one.
I'm kind of _ raking it [A] across a little bit, like pick _ _ [G] that and then look at the G chord.
_ _ [D] _ [G] And _ [Em] I even have my pinky planted here to help drag across, [E] help, you know, stabilize [A] my hand. _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ [G] _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _
[Em] _ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
[F] _ _ [E] _ [Gbm] So the other change, it's really the only other thing you need, and you can play it
as power chords, [F] you can play it as your regular open cowboy chords.
I'm going to do it as bar chords, and it's going to be F major, then up a whole [G] step
to G major, and then A [Am] minor for twice as [C] long.
So it's F, G, A [Am] minor, _ _ [Cm] then the next time [F] through, F, [Em] E minor, [Am] A minor.
So watch again.
[F] F, G, [A] A minor, twice as long.
[Em] F, E minor, [G] A minor, G, F, G, A minor, G, F, G, A minor, G, F, G, A minor, [F] G, F.
[E] _ _ _ _ And the A [G] minor, G, F, G, A minor [Em] is really the same thing as [G] _ without the kind of riffy
thing, so you could even [Bb] start to throw that in there.
There's two guitars going on in [A] the recording. _ _ _
[C] So, F, [Am] G, A minor, [Em] F, E minor, A minor, G, F, G, A [G] minor, G, F, G, A minor, [F] come and
[Am] take my A minor, G, F, don't be afraid of the A minor, or the G, or the F.
[G] No, [F] no, no.
[A] _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [Am] _
_ _ _ [Ab] _ _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ [Am] _ _ [D] Alright, there it was.
Thank you so much for hanging out with me for the last few minutes.
I really do appreciate it.
I also appreciate that extra support, like going to my website and the link down there,
or liking Guitar Jamz on Facebook, all that stuff.
Thank you so much, [Bb] and we'll see you again real soon, I promise.
See ya. _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ [N] _