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Alice Cooper - Poison - Guitar Lesson

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Key A minor
Alice Cooper - Poison guitar lesson video
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Classic Rock

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Mid7
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Master7
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Roll back the gain slightly and pick near the neck for a warmer, more open crunch.
Trash album cover
Trash
1989 4:30
Listen on Spotify
Alice Cooper Hard Rock 1989 A minor
Capo Advisor 0 A minor · Original key

About Poison

Few riffs from 1989 have stayed as immediately recognisable as the one that opens "Poison." Built around a repeating, syncopated guitar figure in A minor, it sits right in that pocket where hard rock meets a slightly gothic atmosphere, and keeping the groove locked at 120 BPM in E Standard is more demanding than it first looks. The challenge is not raw speed but precision: every note in the main riff needs to land cleanly and with consistent pick attack, otherwise the tension the song depends on just evaporates. Alice Cooper has always used guitar tone as a core part of his theatrical sound, and "Poison" is a good example of that. The rhythm parts reward a slightly overdriven but controlled tone, nothing too saturated. If the main riff feels slippery at tempo, pull it up in the Practice Toolbar, slow it right down, and loop the first four bars until the picking hand and fretting hand sync up properly. Once they do, the whole song falls into place quickly.

  • The signature riff is in A minor and runs in E Standard tuning, making it approachable for most players while still requiring precise pick attack to land correctly.
  • At 120 BPM the groove feels moderate, but keeping the riff's syncopated rhythm consistent across the whole track is the real test of your timing.
  • The <a href="/genre/hard-rock/">Hard Rock</a> tone on the track is controlled and mid-focused, so avoid over-saturating your gain when dialling in the guitar sound.

How to Play Poison

Tuning: E Standard · Key: A minor · Tempo: 120 BPM

Use the section loop to isolate a passage, drop the speed below 100%, and set the metronome to 120 BPM to build it up to tempo.

Fender Telecaster
Guitar

Fender Telecaster

Alice Cooper's original band occasionally used the Telecaster for bright, cutting tones that sliced through the dense Marshall crunch on tracks like 'School's Out.' Its twang provides sharp articulation contrasting the warm humbucker thickness Cooper preferred.

Gibson Les Paul Standard
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Standard

The Les Paul Standard delivers the warm, singing sustain that defines Cooper's classic era solos and rhythm crunch when paired with Marshall Plexis. Its balanced PAF humbuckers give Cooper responsive dynamics, from controlled verses to saturated solo tones.

Gibson Les Paul Custom
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Custom

Michael Bruce and later players like Ryan Roxie relied on the Les Paul Custom for its thicker body resonance and hotter output, providing the sustaining lead tones and aggressive rhythm crunch essential to Cooper's theatrical hard rock sound.

Gibson ES-335
Guitar

Gibson ES-335

Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter used the semi-hollow ES-335 for warm, singing lead lines with natural breakup, capturing the '70s solo era's melodic sophistication while the semi-hollow body added organic warmth against Marshall's aggressive gain.

Marshall JCM800
Amp

Marshall JCM800

The JCM800 became Alice Cooper's tone foundation from the '80s onward, delivering tight, mid-heavy gain with note clarity that cut through dense arrangements on 'Poison' and beyond. Its responsive push lets Cooper shift from controlled verses to explosive solos.

Seymour Duncan JB
Pickup

Seymour Duncan JB

Hotter ceramic humbuckers like the Seymour Duncan JB powered Alice Cooper's '80s sound, delivering saturated gain and compressed sustain for arena-filling solos while maintaining the midrange definition the JCM800 amplified.

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