Don’t Fear The Reaper (Fingerstyle Guitar Lesson)

Don’t Fear The Reaper was recorded in 1976 by American rock band Blue Öyster Cult and appears on their album Agents of Fortune. The song was written and sung by lead guitarist Donald Roeser.

As we know, Don’t Fear The Reaper isn’t a fingerstyle song, it’s far from it. But having said that, there’s no reason why we can’t turn it into a fingerstyle arrangement and that’s exactly what we’re going to do here.

I’ve always loved the concept/challenge of trying to play two parts at the same time on the guitar. My goal here was to combine the classic riff with the melody and get the two to merge together seamlessly. The way it’s achieved is by practising both parts in isolation and then joining the two together, just like a puzzle. It can be incredibly hard to do but the payout is very often well worth it.