U2 - Pride - Guitar Lesson

About Pride

Few songs from the 1980s are built so completely around a single repeating guitar figure, and "Pride (In the Name of Love)" is a perfect example of that approach. The Edge's arpeggiated, delay-soaked pattern in B major drives the entire track at a steady 104 BPM, and nailing it means getting two things right at once: the picking pattern and the timing relationship between your notes and the slapback repeats. In E Standard tuning, the chord shapes themselves are not especially difficult, but making the part feel spacious rather than cluttered takes real control of your pick attack and how cleanly you release each note. That interaction between your playing and the delay is where most players struggle. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop the intro and verse figure slowed down so you can hear exactly where each note lands against the pulse before you bring it up to tempo. U2 built much of their sound on this kind of textural, effect-driven guitar work, which puts it firmly in the heart of Alternative Rock.

• The signature guitar part relies heavily on a dotted-eighth delay setting, so dialing in your delay tempo to match 104 BPM is essential before you practise the pattern.
• The song is in B major in E Standard tuning, meaning open-position and barre chord voicings both work, but the arpeggiated approach demands clean left-hand muting.
• Focus your practice on releasing chord shapes fully between arpeggios, as unwanted string noise is far more exposed here than in a strummed part.