How to Play Back in Black Tabs — The Real Way
The main riff is straightforward, but the drum fill timing and Angus Young's palm muting make most tab learners sound like robots. The song sits in E, and the riff circles around E5 to A5 back to E5. It's one of the most taught songs on guitar, so there are thousands of tab versions online, and most of them miss the nuance. Here is what actually works. The opening riff runs like this: e|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| B|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| G|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------| D|-----7---7---5---|-----7---7---5---|-----7---7---5---|-----7---7---5---| A|---5---5---5-----|---5---5---5-----|---5---7---7---5-|---5---5---5-----| E-|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|-----------------|
That third bar is where people mess up. They play the same pattern instead of sliding from the 7th fret on the A string back down to the 5th. Play that slide clean and it sounds like the record. Skip it and it just sounds like another E-A chord progression. The verse follows the same chord shape. It goes E5, A5, E5, A5 with a similar rhythmic pattern but slightly different note placement. The rhythm guitar is what makes the song feel heavy — tight palm muting on the downstrokes, opening up on the "and" counts. Most tab sheets don't tell you this. They just show notes. Try writing the strumming pattern above the tab yourself. You will catch the groove faster.
The Solo
The solo is largely pentatonic E minor with bends. It starts around the 12th fret on the G and B strings. Here is the opening phrase: e|-----------------12---14---| B|-------------12----------14| G|----------13----------------| D|--------13------------------| A|-----12---------------------| E---10-----------------------| The bends are full steps, not half. Beginners often underestimate them. If you bend a half step where Angus bent a full step, the whole thing sounds wrong. Tune your guitar properly before attempting this solo. The original album is tuned very close to standard, but even a quarter tone off makes bends sound mushy.
Get the Full Details
I spent about an hour last year trying to nail the drum fill between the riff and the verse. The tab versions online either leave it out entirely or transcribe it as a guitar fill. It is a drum fill. Bonham. If you try to play it on guitar, you will either muck up the riff or play something that has nothing to do with the song. The workaround is simple: mute the strings completely during that fill. Don't try to play notes. Let the drums carry it, hit the next riff cleanly, and move on. It saves time and sounds better.
Common Tab Mistakes
Most free tab sites get the intro riff wrong because they transcription it by ear without reference to the original mix. The Hi-Hat and snare hits are often notated as guitar notes by accident. A good way to spot this is to compare any tab you find against the actual track. If the tab has a run of 16th notes that doesn't line up with the guitar, it's probably a drum transcription error. Another issue: a lot of tabs use E major instead of E5 power chords. Power chords are just the root and the fifth. Adding the major third turns it into a regular chord and changes the whole feel. The song is built on those raw power chords. Keep it simple. The tempo is around 138 BPM. If you're learning this for the first time, start at 90 BPM and build up. Most people rush it. The song sounds faster than it is because of the driving straight-eighth rhythm. Slow practice makes the difference between sounding like AC/DC and sounding like you're playing air guitar in your bedroom.
Where to Find Reliable Back In Black Tabs
Ultimate-Guitar has a verified version that is close to accurate. Songsterr lets you slow it down and loop sections, which helps with the solo. If you want something free and reasonably correct, check the community tab threads — the ones with high upvotes tend to be the most accurate. The official sheet music from Hal Leonard is the most precise option if you need it for teaching purposes. One more thing. Don't obsess over getting every single note perfect on the first pass. Angus Young wasn't playing surgery. He was playing hard, loud, and in time. Nail the rhythm first. The notes will follow.
