Michael Jackson Guitar Tabs & Lesson - 12 Of His Biggest Hits All For Guitar
A lot of music that’s not for guitar exclusively has been neglected by the guitar world for a long time, but with this michael jackson guitar lesson article I hope I can take some part in changing that.
Michael Jackson’s music is a core part of music everywhere now, and it’s about time these riffs were made more widely available.
Some riffs are straight copies of the actual recordings, while others are arrangements where I used the harmony and melody to create something any listener will recognize as identical to the song.
I plan on having a link to get the Guitar Pro file all of these tabs came from for free, as long as you sign up for my newsletter.
I’m glad you’re here. Let’s dive in!
Table Of Contents
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Rock With You Main Riff Guitar Tab
This will be difficult depending on your familiarity with these chord shapes, but it’s only 2 chords you’re really having to learn:
X6466X
6X654X
Bb and B are just barre chords. What you will do with these chords and the Ab/Bb is to use your thumb to play the notes on the low 6th string.
If you’d like to make this riff easier, just play the notes on the G and B strings, or even just the B string.
Billie Jean Michael Jackson Chords & Riff Arrangement
If this is your first time to my site, or to seeing chord melodies of any sort, this may be a bit of a change for you…..
The first riff can be played mostly using your barre’d 1st finger. The F#m7 is play by using your 2nd finger to barre the 5th fret, which may be difficult for you at first depending on your playing ability.
(a simpler version of this is how I teach beginners how to do barre chords)
The second riff is played with mutes coming from your fret hand. It takes some practice to get the feel of this but just try to alternate pick and mute and hit notes, and the timing will come soon. Allow yourself to make mistakes!
Finally, the last riff is my arrangement of the bass line and chords together, into a chord melody. It’s not easy, but not terribly difficult either.
The tricky part will be hitting all six strings, then smoothly going into the bassline, while playing in time. Then, you’ll need to change fret positions from the 2nd to 4th fret for the second bar.
Thriller Chorus Riff Arrangement
This is another example of using chord melody.
To make it easier, you can just play the top notes on the G and B strings again as you go.
The bass line starting on the 1st fret of the G string would actually be a great beginner riff.
For fingering these chords, I’d use:
212 = 312 (this way the 2nd and 3rd fingers can easily get to the E chord)
466 = 113 (using your barre from F# directly into this one)
The Way You Make Me Feel Guitar Tab Main Riff
Hopefully this one is in the correct key, but to my ears E major is the best. Some PVG books and sheet music had it a key lower to Eb.
Like before, the trick to playing this right is to get the fingerings down:
XX6454 = 3121
XX0222 = 111
X57675 = 13241
Hopefully you know how to finger the E chords.
Also as before, if you are finding this too hard, just play the notes on the top strings.
Black Or White Main Riff & Funky Bridge Riff
I’ve watched Jennifer Batten and Orianthi play this riff, and they do it at the position shown in the tab above.
Fingering again is the key, and all you gotta do is use the same fingering from 6454 in “The Way You Make Me Feel.”
That’ll allow you to easily fall back on the 999 chord.
I wanted to include the funky bridge riff here too.
To play the 133 chord shape, I’d use 134, and then for 225, I’d use 114.
Fingerings may seem tedious, but this is what makes an advanced level player and someone who barely fumbles through these riffs. Play it as accurately as you like, but these fingerings will make it easier for you!
Don't Stop Til You Get Enough Guitar Riff Arrangement & Bridge
Hopefully by now you’ve been humbled by the difficulty it is to play pop songs on the guitar like this! Michael jackson guitar tabs have been in short supply mostly because the music doesn’t conform to the common chord shapes and scale patterns that a lot of rock and metal music does. That’s not a bad thing! It’s just something to be aware of.
For Bb/C, use the same fingering from Rock With You.
The funky riff will require the same practice alternating mutes and picked notes as in earlier riffs.
For the bridge riff starting with C, here’s some fingerings to help:
10-9-8-8 = 3211
8886, 5553, & 3331 = 3331
5565 = 1121
Smooth Criminal Riffs
For the first riff you’ll definitely need to alternate pick it in order to play it at speed. Use your 2nd finger to play fret 5, then use the same finger to play fret 7 as you progress.
The next riff will be a doozy…..
Chris Broderick once said to be careful what you program into Guitar Pro, as few guitarists are as good as it is.
But, I definitely feel it’s playable with practice.
What I did was use my thumb to play the lower string notes, while using my middle and ring fingers to play the line on the G string. I mostly would use my middle finger.
Dirty Diana Verse Guitar Riff
The Gm chord is a standard barre chord fingering I hope you know already.
The Eb and F can be played like this: 4312.
This song makes use of a chord progression I talk about a lot in my courses called the i-VI-VII, which occurs in tons of great riffs and songs.
You Rock My World Main Piano Riff for Guitar
I’m just going to jump right into the fingerings:
8X978X = TX312X
7X777X & 5X555X = TX123X (or you can just barre it with the 1 finger)
The song just loops between these chord shapes.
There are some really great songs on this album that I hope you’ll go check out if you’re a big Michael fan too!
Don't Wanna Be Startin Something Bridge Riff
Now this is a weird riff……
The composer chose the open G note I think because it avoids a weird position shift to play the same note on the 5th fret D string.
If you play the 9th fret with the 4 finger, and then come down 3 then 2…..
And then play 5-6 with 1-2, you’ll nail it.
The picking across strings will be weird though. I suggest hitting the open string with an upstroke and letting that upstroke hit the 5th fret on the D string as well.
Man In The Mirror Intro Riff for Guitar
This is actually one of the first songs I attempted to do a chord melody on, but this is a much better version than what I initially came up with.
Fingerings:
087 = 21
9-X-11-10 = 1X32 (use 4 to play fret 10 on the high E string)
9X77 = 3X11 (again use 4 on high E)
35530 = 1341
0324 = (you saw this one earlier…)
Hopefully you’ve noticed again how important fingering is. A lot of times you’ll need to figure out fingerings yourself, and unfortunately it’s a long process to learn that.
The good news is that once you have a good repertoire of shapes, you’ll be able to figure out lots of fingerings yourself.
Pretty Young Thing (P.Y.T.) Chorus Riff Arrangement For Guitar
And the last Michael Jackson Guitar Tab!
There is plenty of guitar parts already in this that others have tabbed, but I wanted to do one using the chorus melody.
Fingerings again:
2435 = 2314
9-11-10-10 = 1322
X-9-9-11-10-12 = 11324