Riff Of The Month: Iron Maiden: Run To The Hills

Run To The Hills

This legendary intro featured on Maiden’s 1982 heavy metal classic, Thenumberofthebeast. After four bars of Nicko Mcbrain’s thumping drums, the bass and two guitars enter, with Dave Murray on lead duties and Adrian Smith holding down the

rhythm guitar on some ‘root-5th’ powerchords. We’ve tabbed out the lead part for you, which consists of notes from the A minor pentatonic scale (A C D E G).

Dave Murray plays all of the notes along the second string and bends up to each one from two frets below – so each bend is a tone wide.

Accuracy is key here; bend too little or too much and you’ll lose the song’s tight-pitched delivery. Try to hear the note in your head before you bend. Practise by fretting each target note without a bend and memorise the pitch before attempting those bends. Eventually, your ear and your fingers will work together.

whatyouwilllearn Whole tone string bending Slick position shifting Accurate vibrato playing