Chords for The WRONG Way to Play "Lay it Down" By RATT - How to Embrace Mistakes

My go-to riff when demoing like a really juicy 80s style high gain tone forever has basically been
Lay it down by rat.
Warren Demartini.
What an absolute god of the guitar super underrated as well
Everyone talks about Lynch and Van Halen and Sykes when they talk about the 80s and poor old Warren kind of gets overlooked
And anyway, I've been playing this riff in like nearly every demo I do and it feels like
Like once a week I get a comment on like a random old video
Which is like hey, dude, what's that riff at whatever time it is and nine times out of ten?
It's lay it down.
So I was like, you know what I should do
I should do a video lesson on how to play lay it down by rat and then just as I was about to do it
I'm like, you know
This feels like something Ben Ellis done in the past and when YouTube and of course I checked
There's a great Ben Ella lesson on how to play lay it down by rat
Perfectly and I watched that and I realized I don't know how to play that riff properly and I was really dejected and I was
Like oh, man, I'm gonna have to go and learn it
So I'm sitting there learning it and I'm like and _ _ _
[Bb] _ _ _ _ [Bm] _ _ it's just not happening.
Like I'm too lazy to get it
Um, [D] you know, if you're really really really committed to it, I can kind of play it
But _ [Bb] _ _ _ _
[D] _ [N] it's such a bizarre
set of movements to me that it's like
You know if I'm sound checking or something and I want to like impress that dude there in a rat shirt
I'm just gonna play it the way that I play it
So I want to show you guys how not to play lay it down by rat properly
But I think it still sounds pretty awesome and it's like yeah
It's close enough sort of thing.
So because we're in drop D rather than like chug on the D note at the fifth fret
We'll just use the open D string.
So instead of playing this D bar chord
Oh, by the way, go and watch Ben's lesson and like subscribe to his YouTube because he's amazing
Anyway, I just do this.
I play the little triad here on the D G and B string
[D] Then that way you can do this _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ [Bb] _ _ So up [D] close.
Let me show you guys what's going on here.
So
_ _ _ [A] _ _ [Bb] _
_ _ There we go.
That's way easier.
So you see that guy in the rat shirt in the front row.
[D] Hey, dude
_ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _
Then you play this kind of little like Hendrix II thing from the fifth fret to the seventh fret
[C] _
_ and you're sitting the fifth fret on the D G and B there to C major triad and
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
[Bb] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _ _
[A] _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ [F] _ [G] _
That's how not to play it.
I'll break that down again for you guys nice and slowly
Starting with our first finger [D] on the seventh fret across the G B and D and the little
pull-off is from the eighth fret on the B and then the other little pull-off is from the ninth fret on the G and then
We slide this seven nine on the D and G up to eight and ten
_ _ [A] _ _ _
[Bb] _ _ _ _ [D] _ [C] _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _ _
_ [Bb] _ _ [C] _ _ [D] _ So again, [Gm] you want to impress that person in the rat shirt?
Play this and it's more about like the attitude and the groove and the tone
I'm using my axe effects 3 George Lynch preset because I couldn't be bothered getting around dialing in like a Warren style tone
to me
Like I really like the sort of crack that Warren always kind of had in his tone where it's like it just sounds like it
Would be such an enjoyable tone to use but yeah, there you go.
That's how I butcher lay it down by rat
You can butcher it too.
If you don't want to go and learn [D] the like
_ _ [A] _ _ [Bb] _
_ _ [C] _ [E] Whatever that is um
This is this is way cooler because you can have your guitar like strapped around your knees and play it at soundcheck or cover it
Or something like that and you know, it's not exactly the same thing, but it's rock and roll
You know do this change it change it a little bit more and it might inspire you to actually write some of your own riffs
I know this particular riff and playing it like this.
I was jamming it one day.
I was like, that's a pretty cool _ _ _
[D] What if I did it like I'm _ _ _ _ gonna put it with like [D] and [F] _ I ended up like 10 [D] minutes later writing
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
[D] _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ [N]
Which is a song called break you you can go and check that one out.
That's a ragdoll song
Um, we basically have been playing that song as part of our set
It's like never left the set since we added it so much fun
And every time I play it I kind of think of Warren Demartini and I'm like, you know what man?
If I had never fucked that riff up
I would have never written that song that I really like playing that we actually wrote
So, you know, don't be afraid to make mistakes on the guitar
That's kind of the moral of the lesson like yeah going and learning something note from note can be an amazing educational experience
but sometimes figuring stuff out by ear and
Not quite nailing it can actually lead you down a creative path and you know the more sick riffs in the world the better
So thank you guys so much for watching this video
like I said go and watch Ben Ellis video and actually how to play lay it down by rat and
Learn it and then also learn how not to do it and
Come up with some risks that sound like rat of your own and record them and put them out