It's time to learn one of the great guitar songs...

Lately I've been working on loads of cool power-chord song lessons, but I have to say that Eye of the Tiger by Survivor is probably the funnest of them all! What a classic - this could be the most recognizable power-chord riff ever.

Eye of the Tiger became a hit with Rocky III, the famous movie with Silvester Stallone starring as Rocky Balboa. Stallone asked the band Survivor to write a song for his movie, and Eye of the Tiger was released as a single one day after the movie premiere.

I dissected both guitars from the original recording. We'll explore the guitar lead, the riffs, and how all the parts connect together. Also check out my Eye of the Tiger cover tutorial - this is a really fun way of understanding the blending of the guitars.

Eye of The Tiger by Survivor - Easy Guitar Part

Incredibly, one of the guitars sits on the note C for almost the whole of this Survivor track!

For this part, I'm using my custom Fender guitar made by Tom Gray, along with The Kemper Profiler, an all-in-one effects processor, and the Colonial 1.6 Pack. You want a straight, clean sound.

While there’s nothing to do with your fretting hand, you’ll be surprised at how tricky it is to keep a steady, consistent rhythm for the entire song. And there are a couple of rhythmic patterns here.

The first is to play 16th notes with alternate picking, adding accents on the beats. The second is a gallop pattern, which is a basic 8th note pattern. Check out the video for the details. :)

🎸 Nail the Rhythm: Make sure you’re right in the pocket and that the picking remains constant throughout the song. It’s easy to go too fast or too slow here. Try relaxing into the music - don’t be tense, or you’ll rush.

Playing Tips

It might seem easy to play the note C over and over again. How could that possibly be difficult, right? Not so fast - with some practice you’ll start to realize all the subtleties, like the timing, picking, accenting, palm muting, and so on. There’s a lot to pay attention to.

You don’t play throughout the entire song, meaning you get a little break! Just listen to Survivor's original to figure that out - it should be fairly obvious where the breaks are.

Eye of the Tiger by Survivor - Power-Chords Part

I’m using a different setup here: a Michael Britt profile on the Kemper. It’s called Colonial 3.9. This has more gain, but you don’t want too much crunch or fizz. I haven’t adjusted the EQ much here, and I’m using my humbucker pickup.

The key to finding the right sound is to play around, try different settings and amps, and compare your sound to the original until it’s right.

Anyways, let’s talk about the chords - starting with that super-recognizable opening riff. :)

The Classic Riff

That classic chord riff uses C5 and B♭5 for the first two and a half bars, then you’ll need G5 and A♭5. I suggest using root-5 chords for C5 and B♭5 then switching to root 6 for the final two.

It’s crucial to note that on the second rep, the second C5 to B♭5 is delayed a bit. It’s obvious when you listen to the original, but we’ve absorbed the first rhythm so much that it’s easy to think it stays that way for the whole riff.

🧐 How to Get it Just Right: This part is pretty simple, and the key is to nail the rhythm. The best way is to listen to the original lots, and we learn the exact count in the video lesson too.

Riff 2

We’ll learn the core of this second riff. I think there’s single-note lines in there too, but it’s hard to be sure. The version we learn is a nice way of blending several pieces together.

You’ll need a root-6 C5 chord, an E♭ triad shape, a B♭ triad, and a double stop. I prefer the root-6 chord because we can slide our fingers down the strings to get the tail of the chord.

Riff 3

For this riff we need a root-6 F5 chord, a new E♭ triad, and the same B♭ triad as before. Then we play F5, C5, B♭5, play the first sequence, then there’s a single-note line.

💡 Quick Tip: To get a real authentic rhythm, add a muted down-up before you press down the chords. This is a common trick!

The last time we play this riff, we add an A♭5 power chord to the end. Since I finish on one of the A♭5 chord tones with finger 3, I end up playing the chord with fingers 1, 2, and 3. This is a strange fingering for the A♭5, but it works.

Riff 4

There’s a lovely harmonized guitar part in one of the verses. There are two separate single-note lines, but when you play them together you see that they are double stops that come from the parent Major chords! Awesome!

We look at the single lines and how to play them together using double stops. You might need some practice with the double-stop version, just like I did. ;)

Eye of the Tiger by Survivor is an all-time classic and a great song for practicing multiple guitar parts. I hope you dig it as much as me, and remember to check out my Eye of the Tiger cover tutorial. ;) Laters!

👉 Want full guitar tab for Eye of the Tiger? Check out JustinGuitarTABS.