Over the course of their decades-spanning career, the Canadian power trio Rush emerged as one of hard rock’s most highly-regarded bands; although typically brushed aside by critics and recipients of mainstream pop radio airplay, the group nonetheless won an impressive and devoted fan following, while their performance skills strengthened their standing as musicians’ musicians.
Intro Riff
Here you will be playing natural harmonics. To do this, you will need to practice barely touching the strings. It is much easier to do this with an electric guitar. This riff is more of a practice session at natural harmonics than an actual riff, even though it is a catchy song. There is no need to go into measures or what fingers to play where. This is more of a finger exercise for you to get used to playing harmonics. You will probably need to use your 4th finger to play the twelfth frets on the “A” string because that finger is usually less strong than others. That will help you barely touch the string. Also, one big point is that when you do touch the string, the timing of your picking hand is pretty important. You almost want to allow the note to ring RIGHT before you touch the string. That will almost muffle the sound a little, and repeated practice on that will help you along the way. All measures here are the same. You will probably want to use your 1st finger for the seventh fret parts.
Verse
You can learn both the guitar and bass parts for the verse below. Here’s what they both sound like together:
Guitar
Be sure to let each chord form ring until the next. You’ll be using your thumb to play the notes on the 2nd and 3rd fret of the low E string (see video).
Bass
Verse Interlude
Here’s what the guitar and bass sound like together:
Guitar
Bass
Verse 2
Here’s what the guitar and bass sound like together:
Guitar
Bass
