I ain’t afraid of no ghosts! The song “Ghostbusters” was written in 1984 by Ray Parker Jr. for the movie with the same name. In this video guitar lesson you will learn both the main synthesizer riff, and the guitar chords that accompany that riff.
Video Guitar Lesson
Ghostbusters Theme Riff – Guitar Tablature
Here’s the guitar tablature for the synthesizer riff for the Ghostbusters theme. It’s just 2 measures repeated. The dots you see above most of the notes are an articulation called “staccato”.
You’re going to play the notes in a punchy more detached way. So an 8th note is almost played like a 16th note followed by a 16th rest. Everything is picked down except for the 2nd of the two 16th notes in each measure.
Ghostbusters Theme – Guitar Chords
While the main synthesizer riff is going on there is also a distorted guitar playing some small power chords. Below is the tablature of that part. Everything is picked down except for the 2nd of the two 16th notes in each measure.
These are really small chords, so you have to be careful to mute the 5th and 2nd strings so you only hear the 2 strings of the chord.
Ghostbusters Theme – Chorus Guitar Riff
Below is the tablature for the riff played in the chorus of the song.
Guitar Lesson Downloads
Below you can download a PDF with the tablature for this guitar lesson and the drum tracks to jam with..
(Right Click the links below and choose “Save As” or “Save Target As” or “Download Linked Files As”)
Drum Jam Tracks
Ghostbusters Riff Drums – MP3 Jam Track
Ghostbusters Chorus Drums – MP3 Jam Tracks
PDF Music Stand Printout
Ghostbusters Theme Riff Tablature – PDF
Ghostbusters Theme Video
Here’s the Ray Parker Jr. video for the Ghostbusters theme for a little inspiration. Yes, you might have seen this on MTV back in 1984 when they actually played music videos 🙂
