The title track from the 3 Doors Down album "Away From The Sun"
is a mid tempo power ballad. As in many 3 Doors Down songs, the rhythm
pattern is an arpeggiated chord progression with various little fills
throughout. It can be played with a pick or finger picked (both are
demonstrated in video below).
The chord shapes above the tab give you an indication of the chord
that is arpeggiated. You should hold each chord shape until the next
chord in the progression comes along. This allows each note from the
chord to ring together.
The correct fingerings to play this riff are fairly obvious. If a note
falls on the 3rd fret then you'll play that note with your 3rd finger.
If it falls on the 2nd fret, you'll use your 2nd finger, and if the
note falls on the 1st fret you'll use your 1st finger. The only place
that you'll alter these fingerings is in the last 2 measures where we
use our pinky to play the D note on the B string (3rd) fret.
See the image below as an illustration. The red numbers at the bottom
will tell you what fingers to use in the pattern:
When picking it, you should use all down strokes.
This riff will be hard to play at regular speed for many people.
It is a fairly brisk tune at 120 beats per minute. If you find that
you fall into this category then try slowing the tempo down.
Here it is played with a click track at about 70 bpm:
You may find that 70 bpm is still too fast for you. If this is the
case, please use a metronome or drum machine to slow down the tempo
even further. To get it up to speed you should slowly increase the tempo
as you get better at the riff.
Here it is at regular tempo:
Video
In the video below you can see the riff played (fret hand)at regular
speed (120 bpm):
