Learn How To Play "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath on Guitar!

In this lesson, we'll learn how to play Iron Man by Black Sabbath on the guitar. It has to be one of the all-time great rock-metal riffs of all time!

You'll learn some hints to learn the rest of the song, but we're mainly going to check out the iconic main riff.

🎸 Fun facts! The first Black Sabbath album was released in 1970, with their name inspired from a 1963 horror film. Iron Man was featured in the bands second album, Paranoid. Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward are the orginal members, and some consider them the pioneers of heavy metal music!

Iron Man - The Main Riff

Lots of chords going on in the main riff of this song! If you need, break it up into sections and learn them separately before putting all the chords together. For Iron Man's main riff, you'll be following the chord progression below:

Iron Man Riff Chords 

B,D,D,E,E

G,F#,G,F#,G

D,D,E,E

Feel free to write the chords down to help you memorize them! You're playing single lines instead of power chords when the vocals start. You're adding techniques like flick-offs and vibrato at the very end. Then, you're switching back to the power chords.

Check out the video close-up for the fingering, but as long as you're playing the right notes and chords - you can use whatever finger placement feels best for you!

Iron Man - Playing Tips

Iron man is simple, but if you want to replicate the original sound, you must listen closely to the recording! When there's more than one guitar part, it's hard to hear what's going on!

Slowing it down by transcribing the song will help you get the sound as close as possible. A great exercise is to write out your tab too! Studying what's going on in a masterpiece like this will help grow your musicianship.

Want professional Tabs for Iron Man? Check out the JustinGuitarTabs.