Some riffs require a decade of shredding, seven strings, and a signed waiver from your physiotherapist. "Breaking the Law" requires three notes and the ability to look mildly rebellious. This is the great equalizer of heavy metal: the riff every guitarist has played, whether they admit it or not.
This clip is a quick, no-frills look at the main riff from Judas Priest's 1980 classic — where those legendary notes actually sit on the fretboard, and why a lick this simple has survived four decades of air-guitar abuse.
How the Breaking the Law riff works
The whole thing lives in A natural minor, and it's built from tiny three-note cells that just walk up and down the scale. On the A string you hit the open string, then the 2nd fret, then the 3rd fret; the idea repeats over on the D string. No bends, no bar chords, no drama — just a clean single-note line played with steady downstrokes so it stays angry and even. When the verse kicks in it's pure power chords (A5, C5, G5), chugged on the downbeat.
The useful takeaway: this is the perfect first metal riff precisely because it separates the two jobs of your hands. Your fretting hand only moves three frets, so you can put 100% of your brain into making the picking hand steady and punchy. Nail the timing here and you've built the exact engine that every faster riff runs on.
Play it once and legally you're now an accomplice — Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing wrote it, you just committed it. If you want the PDF and Guitar Pro file so you can break the law in high resolution, they're on my Patreon.