This is a short solo trick. It uses a quick arpeggio sweep to burst into a small solo (based around a standard E scale).

This sort of technique is one of the many arsenal of 'tricks' a guitarist can employ by either: Dropping them into longer solos, or, using them between chords as 'fills' during a chord progression. It is packed with things to know about guitar solo technique...

The first part of the riff uses an unusal way to play an arpeggio sweep - instead of muting the notes with the fretboard hand straight after the note is struck, the strumming hand is used to dampen the strings instead. This is tricky, and there are two ways to do it.

1. You can mute using your palm edge on the strings (as in normal palm muting with one slight difference). This method will take practice because the 3rd note on the top E string is played open, therefore your palm edge must leave the top E string free to sound out loud, whilst still muting the B and G strings beside it. The best way to do this is to rest your palm edge on the strings in such a way that the crease of your little finger (where it joins to your hand) is over the top E string. This will mute the previous two strings, yet leave the top E string free.

2. While picking the strings, strike the G and B strings with your pick and mute with the edge of your thumb. As soon as your downstroke reaches the top E string remove your thumb away from the strings.

Notice the 'phrasing'. Certain notes are accented by having a lightly longer duration. A small segment of repeating note patterns occurs between these longer notes in the middle of the riff. After this, the last 4 notes end the riff, particularly the last note - which is sustained with light vibrato for effect.