Marilyn Manson - "Sweet Dreams" Guitar Lesson With TABS

It's officially ROCKTOBER, so that means I've got to give you something spooky. I figured what better song to teach than “Sweet Dreams” by Marilyn Manson? Years ago, before I even knew who Manson was, I first heard this song in the movie House On Haunted Hill. I was mesmerized by the harrowing sound of a song I originally knew to be more upbeat–that being the version originally performed by Eurythmics. Much of that bone-chilling audio sensation had to do with the guitar. I'm excited to share with you how to play this haunting tune so you get to produce the same feeling for yourself and anyone you perform it for. I'll set you up for success with an overview, which includes a run through my tone setup, and walk you step by step through the verse and chorus riffs. Grab your axe and let's get ready to ROCK!

Overview

This song is in the key of C minor.  It largely uses the C minor scale, but we also get quick tastes of other modes. If you wanna dive more into the nerdy aspects of this tune, you'd probably be interested in one of my older lessons that gives this song a music theory breakdown.  

If you're a traditionalist and you keep your axe tuned to E standard, you're in luck. This song uses standard tuning, so you won't have to alter your tuning posts in the slightest.

If you're a tone-chaser, my setup is fairly simple.  I'm running my guitar through my interface, which then plugs into my computer. Reaper is my digital audio workstation. In this case, I'm using the SLD-100 in Amplitube 5 as a digital amp simulator.

Main Riff

Reference the tab below to learn how to play the main riff. It's super recognizable in the sense that all it takes is a few notes for someone to instantly know what song you're playing. For technique, you can either use all downstrokes when picking, or you could use this riff to practice or showcase your alternate picking. I personally tend to favor alternate picking for this song as it helps me stay in time better.

Chorus Riff

Reference the tab below to learn the power chord progression that makes up the instrumental chorus of this song. Unlike alternate picking in the main riff, I tend to favor downward strumming exclusively for the chorus. Contrary to my reasoning for the main riff, I find it easier to keep in time when using downward strumming for these killer power chords. Something about the energy makes downward strumming feel better, plus it sounds superior to any other method in this circumstance.

Conclusion

Now that you've learned how to play both major riffs of this song, it's time to practice and commit the song to memory. Fortunately, if you keep your guitar to the traditional tuning, you won't have to worry much about adjusting your guitar to a different weird tuning because this song is played in E standard. While this song has more of a beginner-level difficulty, players of all experience levels should take whatever time they need to learn this iconic tune. Stick in and stay consistent with locking this song down so that way you'll have something haunting and spooky to play whenever the moment calls.

Watch the full lesson here: Marilyn Manson - "Sweet Dreams" Guitar Lesson With TABS