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How could I have forgotten the cowbell? 
Welcome to Blue Oyster Cult's

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"Don't Fear The Reaper". Most excellent 
and classic rock riff of all time to start

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off my classic riff series. So, uh, let's 
get close-up and check out how to play

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that riff. Okay the first chord we've got 
here is an "A" chord. It's only a partial

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"A" chord. We don't need the whole thing. 
We're using our second finger here on the

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4th string, second fret and the third 
finger directly underneath it on the

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second fret of the third string. We're 
gonna start off by playing the open 5th

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string. Then the 4th string. Then the 3rd
string and then we lift our fingers off

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and play the open "G" string. Just the 
open "G" string on that last note.

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But we lift all of our fingers up to help 
us get to our new chord which is the "G"

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chord. Again we don't have to play like a 
whole "G" chord like some of you might

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have learned like this or whatever. But 
we're just using the 2nd finger there on

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the second fret of the 5th string and the 
3rd finger on the 3rd fret of a thicker

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string, the 6th string. So we got, we got 
we got that little gap there to change and

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we're gonna play just the 6th string, five
four, three.

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Then we do like a little "F" power chord 
here. So first finger in the first fret

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of a thicker string and the third finger
in the third fret of the 5th string. And

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we again play 6th string, 5th string, 4th 
string, 3rd string. Now the 4th string

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sounds a little bit funny out of context 
but it sounds cool in the riff. Um, after

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that we just go back to the "G" and that's
the whole riff.

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The main chords that we're playing in this
are really "A" minor, "G", "F", and "G".

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They've been the chords that you'd play if
you wanted to kind of do a "strummy"

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version. Twenty billion songs with that 
sequence..there's one other little bit in

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the song, so it's doing the riffs a lot. 
Then it goes into "F", "G", "A" minor.

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"F", "E" minor, "A" minor. (Song lyrics) 
"Don't fear the reaper..."

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So it's just that little bit that goes "F"
"G", "A" minor. Two, three, four.

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"F", "E" minor, and then back into the
"A" minor, to "G", to "F".

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He kind of strums it a couple of times and
then eventually it kind of morphs

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into the riff. (Playing ends) The picking 
for this tune is alternate picking.

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I was not really sure to be honest, 
I tried a whole heap of different pickings

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and ended up having to look at YouTube 
and checking out some live videos of

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the Blue Oyster Cult playing the tune and
it's quite obvious when you watch

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some films that he's using alternate
picking. So make sure that you're

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going "Down, Up", "Down, Up", "Down, Up", 
"Down, Up", "Down, Up", "Down, Up",

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"Down, Up", "Down, Up". There's a few
other patterns that kind of seem a

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little bit easier at first but if you do
it this way, it does sound just like

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the record. And if you're gonna 
accidentally hit any strings at least

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they'll be accidentally the right strings

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you know? So, um, like the same strings
that he might accidentally have hit on

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the record. Um, when it comes to doing the
chord part, you can either kind of strum

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so you have to be kind of moving the same
as it was for the riff.

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Live, very often it's kind of chugging 
eighths. So it changes to double time.

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And he's playing power chords often. 
"F", "E" minor, "A minor", "G" to "F".

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And eventually it kind of moves back into
the riff there. So, um, that's pretty much

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the whole tune, well the whole of the kind
of radio edit of the tune because the

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actual tune really longer. Loads of great
interesting parts and really good solos

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if you fancy transcribing them yourself. 
But this is just the riff lesson and I

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wasn't really supposed to do the chord bit
but anyways. Hope you've enjoyed playing

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that and don't forget, more cowbell. 
See you soon, buh-bye!