New Song: Thunderstruck for Guitar, Bass, and Singing

Alright, let’s learn this powerful rock classic! This song has great examples of musical “hooks” – short repeated ideas that catch your ear and draw you in. Think about the “Thun-der!” in the intro or the fast high guitar part that repeats throughout the song. If you pay attention to these hooks when listening to music, it’ll help you recognize how songs are put together, and help you learn to play songs because you’ll notice all the repetition. “Thunderstruck”, made famous by AC/DC, is now available in Yousician for Guitar, Bass, and Singing.

Thunderstruck for Guitar
by: James Neilson, Music Education Designer for Guitar

In the main riff exercise (level 5) you’ll play a simplified version of the rhythm guitar parts, using power chords and single notes. In the intro, you’ll also be playing the backing vocal melody, since the original recording has only lead guitar for the first minute of the song.

In the full rhythm exercise (level 10) you’ll be playing Malcolm Young’s iconic guitar parts – it’s an excellent lesson in rock rhythm playing! Look out for the main syncopated riff, as the timing is very tricky to nail. You may want to experiment with different picking directions, or even try using hybrid picking (pick & fingers). In the intro, the rhythm guitar doesn’t play for the first minute, so we’ve added an arrangement of Malcolm’s memorable backing vocals to keep you rockin’.

In the full rhythm & lead exercise (level 12) you’ll be playing Angus Young’s awesome guitar parts – it’s a great challenge! In the intro, try picking each note like in the recording (start slow to build speed and stamina!), but if you get worn out it’s also possible to play with hammer-ons and pull-offs. You’ll notice that in the recording the intro lick continues throughout the whole song, but when playing live Angus changes to a rhythm guitar part during the second half of Verse 1 (then starts running around the stage), so that’s what we did here.

Thunderstruck for Bass
by: Vellu Halkosalmi, Music Education Designer for Bass and Ukulele

The basic bassline exercise (level 2) is a great platform to practice your alternate plucking. Whenever you see a steady stream of notes, walk your fingers to pluck the string, and try to get similar sound and timing to happen with both your index and middle fingers.

Full bassline exercise (level 5): This exercise will test your ability to maintain a solid groove throughout the song. It has a 2 minute streak of 8th notes to start with, and even though it may appear to be easy and boring to just play the same note, it is actually not that easy to do. Strive for perfect, full sound and solid timing with every note, and once you get to the groove, it is a quite hypnotic feeling to be there. And when the song finally gets to the other sections and the bassline starts to move around, you will feel wonderful liberation of musical power.

Thunderstruck for Singing
by: Sonja Patrikainen, Music Education Designer for Singing

This is a song you cant sing without attitude! Try to imagine your body is filled with energy when you sing this song. You can also activate your muscles by doing jumping jacks and pushups.