There are riffs that are hard because of the notes, and there are riffs that are hard because your picking hand files for hazard pay halfway through. "Brianstorm" is firmly the second kind: a fistful of notes machine-gunned so fast that the actual fretting hand basically shows up, plays a couple of things, and then watches your right wrist have a small breakdown.
This clip is a compact 37-second grab at the main riff of "Brianstorm" by Arctic Monkeys — the frantic, driving figure that kicks the door in at the top of the song. Standard tuning, no trickery, just pure caffeinated indie-rock momentum.
How the Brianstorm riff actually works
The whole thing lives in F minor, and the riff is basically a small, moveable two-note shape that you tremolo-pick into oblivion. That's the trick: the notes barely move, but the picking hand never stops. The drive doesn't come from harmony — it comes from a relentless stream of down-up-down-up strokes at a tempo that makes your forearm question its life choices. If you want the energy, you have to earn it in the right hand, not the left.
The concrete takeaway: don't grip the pick like it owes you money. Keep your wrist loose, anchor the motion from the wrist (not the elbow), and practice the riff at half speed until the picking is even and mechanical — then let the metronome creep up. Even, boring, robotic repetitions at slow tempo are what eventually buy you the frantic version. If you're shaky on when to push and when to pull, my note on downstrokes and upstrokes untangles it, and the minor key explains why this thing sounds so gloriously stroppy.
Fair warning: your first ten attempts will sound less like Arctic Monkeys and more like a wasp trapped in a biscuit tin. That's normal. Slow it down, breathe, and if you want the tab, GuitarPro and PDF live over on my Patreon.