Guitar Interactive – Issue 66 2019

(^52) Guitar Interactive Issue 66
(or six frets) above the root note - hence
“tri-tone”. This device is heard in so
many of Iommi’s riffs, especially the intro
to “Black Sabbath.”
You’ll need to barre across the E and A
strings on the 12th fret to make the pull-
offs work. Also, when you’re executing
the trill in bar 4, try starting slowly and
increasing the speed gradually.
Bars 5-12:
This riff is a tip of the hat to one of my
favourite Sabbath riffs, “Sabbath Bloody
Sabbath,” and makes use of sliding power
chords and play muted open string
chugs. The palm mutes aren’t as heavily
muted as the ones you’ll find in more
modern metal styles - rather, they’re a
gentle dampening to create a darker tex-
ture to contrast the chord stabs.
There’s a tricky little fill in bar 10 that
introduces a “rudiment” you’ll see crop
up fairly often in this session - it’s two
hammer-ons between fingers 1 and 3,
followed by a “grace note” hammer-on
using the same fingers. Spend a bit of
time getting this fill right, and you’ll find
that a lot of the trickier ideas in this ses-
sion feel easier than you’d expect.
TECH SESSIONS_TONY IOMMI
Toni Iommi Tech Session Rhythm Parts