Ultimate Rhoads

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He plays partial chords a lot (Randy called them broken chords). Those are double stops he is playing there. The double stops are the root and 5th of the chord played on adjacent strings with an open A pedal tone playing against them.

Here is the tab.

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wareagle wrote:i dont quite understand what ur saying. i know the tabs, there wrong if you want to play it the right way, if u want it to sound right. thts diff. u know the vids, can u tab ou the chord ur talking about?

What in the tab is wrong?

Randy plays double stops with his index finger... Watch the After Hours video and you'll see him doing just that, just like the tab.

By the way, playing "the right way" is exactly the same as playing it to "sound right". The exact same notes occur in multiple places on the neck. Randy would be the first to tell you to play in whichever position is most comfortable for you.

As for what I mean about double stops, look at this:



An "A" chord is A, C#, E so the double stop played in I Don't Know is A and E. if you look at the chart, that is E (2nd fret, 4th string) and A (2nd fret, 3rd string). the Open A note (5th string) is the root note while the 2nd fret/3rd string A is the root doubled an octave higher. You can also double the E an octave up by fingering the 5th fret/2nd string, if you want.

On a side note, I'm sure Randy would laugh about the insistence on playing this song in what you call "the right way". Randy made songs his own and so should you. He did not play Paranoid in 12th position, E string as Iommi says is "the right way", he played it in 7th position on the A string - same exact notes, different position.

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The chords in Crazy Train are inversions, which was also a Randy trademark. For example, the "A" chord is A C# E, right? So the first inversion is C# E A (where C# is the lowest note) and the second inversion is E A C# (with E being the lowest note). With inversions, you take the lowest note of the chord and move it up to the next octave.

Take the verse to Crazy Train, for example. You start at the 7th fret, 4th string which is "A", 6th fret, 3rd string (C#) and 5th fret, second string
(E) which gives you a standard A chord. Now if you make a full barre chord with 6th string root at the 5th fret, you'll see that the three strings I mentioned are a part of that barre chord. Instead of playing the full chord, Randy played part of it, fingered differently to get the sound he wanted and to help incorporate the open A pedal. The next chord is an E in the 1st inversion (G# B E) played 6th fret 4th string (G#), 4th fret, 3rd string (B) and 5th fret, 2nd string (E) the next chord is a D chord, 1st inversion - F# A D (same shape as the E chord only 2 frets lower) and then Randy resolves to a standard open A chord. So, as you say, it's A, D and E chords, but it doesn't sound "right" unless the same inversions are used.

Ultimately, there is no "right" way, but I understand that you are wanting to know how Randy did it to help you understand how he played things. I've been studying how Randy played stuff since I was 14 and I'm 42 now, so I know where you are coming from.

Just Play it how it goes.. It's not a pinch, It's a Squeel..

at 30 seconds into the After hours clip it looks like he is playing the first 4 strings in an octave shape of the root 5th in the tabs so the index is barring the 3rd and 4th strings at fret 4 then next to fret 5 and the pinky is barring the 1st and 2nd strings at fret 7 then next to fret 8. Of course you can do this on the A chord as well at the 2nd fret and the pinky at the 5th fret