RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE

TESTIFY

Like most of Rage Against The Machine’s drop-d tuned tracks, this one is delivered on Tom Morello’s Sendero Luminoso Telecaster set to its neck pickup. The riff is made up of a D7#9 chord and D minor pentatonic notes, played mostly along the sixth string, so, as a result, there are a few position shifts to contend with. We recommend breaking the riff down into short fragments so you can familiarise yourself with the fret-hand position for each phrase.

Once you have all the notes down, cycle through the riff slowly to develop the coordination, muscle memory and accuracy required to bring it up to speed. Take note of the hammer-on and pull-off notes between the 3rd and 5th frets, and the 12th and 10th frets. These articulations add to the groove and allow Tom’s phrases to flow. All picked notes are played with downstrokes.

CHEAT SHEET

Appears at: 0:17-0:34

Tempo: 120 bpm

Key/scale: D minor

Main techniques: Position changes, hammer‑ons, pull-offs