Learn to play Children Of The Revolution - Guitar Lesson
Guitar lesson for this song by T Rex
T. Rex – Children Of The Revolution
Learn how to play Children Of The Revolution by T. Rex with this detailed note-for-note guitar lesson by Eliza Lee, exploring the huge riffs, driving rhythm guitar and distinctive lead touches that helped make the song a defining example of early 1970s glam rock. Built around Marc Bolan’s direct but highly effective guitar style, Children Of The Revolution demonstrates how relatively simple musical ideas can sound enormous when combined with strong rhythm, memorable phrasing and the right attitude.
Released in 1972, Children Of The Revolution captures T. Rex at the height of their influence. The guitar parts combine blues and rock ’n’ roll vocabulary with thick chord voicings and instantly recognisable riffs. Learning the song is an excellent way to improve your rock rhythm playing while developing a stronger understanding of how riffs, chord changes and short lead phrases can work together within a complete arrangement.
The Main Guitar Riff
At the centre of Children Of The Revolution is its memorable main guitar riff. Rather than relying on technical complexity, the part gets its impact from timing, articulation and the weight given to each note and chord. This makes it a valuable study for guitarists who want to make straightforward riffs sound confident and powerful.
Working through the riff note for note will help develop rhythmic accuracy and a better sense of groove. Players can concentrate on keeping the notes tight and consistent while maintaining the relaxed swagger that is essential to the T. Rex sound. This is particularly useful for developing the ability to play riffs that sit naturally with a rhythm section rather than sounding overly rigid.
Power Chords
Powerful chord shapes are an important part of the track's rock guitar character. These stripped-back voicings provide plenty of weight without overcrowding the arrangement, allowing the guitar to complement the bass, drums and vocals.
Practising power chords through a song such as Children Of The Revolution helps improve fretting-hand accuracy and clean movement between chord positions. It also teaches players how power chords can be used dynamically rather than simply played at maximum intensity throughout a song. Developing this control is invaluable for rock, punk, metal and many other guitar-driven styles.
Chord Progressions and Rhythm Playing
The song demonstrates how an effective chord progression can provide both harmonic structure and rhythmic momentum. The changes support Marc Bolan's vocal melody while retaining the gritty guitar character that runs throughout the recording.
Learning these chord movements helps guitarists improve their ability to change shapes accurately while maintaining consistent timing. It also develops an understanding of how relatively uncomplicated progressions can become memorable when rhythm, dynamics and arrangement are carefully considered. These skills transfer directly to songwriting, accompaniment and playing in a band.
String Bending
Bolan's lead guitar vocabulary is deeply connected to blues and early rock ’n’ roll, making string bending an important expressive device within this style of playing. Bends allow individual notes to become more vocal and expressive, adding character to short phrases without requiring long or technically elaborate solos.
Learning to control bends improves pitch accuracy, finger strength and musical phrasing. Rather than treating a bend as simply a technique for moving between two pitches, players can concentrate on how quickly the note rises and how it resolves. Developing this level of control is essential for convincing blues-rock and classic-rock lead guitar playing.
Vibrato
Vibrato adds movement and personality to sustained notes, making it one of the most important expressive techniques in rock guitar. In the context of Children Of The Revolution, it fits naturally with the raw, blues-influenced character of the guitar playing.
Practising vibrato within real musical phrases helps players develop greater control over its speed and width. This can dramatically improve lead playing because notes begin to sound deliberate and expressive rather than static. It is also a valuable technique for developing an individual guitar voice.
Slides
Slides provide a smooth way of moving between notes while maintaining the energy of a phrase. They are particularly effective in blues and rock vocabulary, where the sound of the transition between pitches can be almost as important as the destination note.
Working on slides helps improve fretboard awareness and fretting-hand accuracy. Players must judge the distance between notes while maintaining enough pressure to keep the slide clear. Once mastered, slides are an excellent way to connect phrases and give riffs and lead lines a more fluid quality.
Double Stops
The blues and rock ’n’ roll foundations of Marc Bolan's guitar playing also make double stops a useful part of the vocabulary associated with the track. Playing two notes together creates a thicker sound than a conventional single-note phrase and can add considerable impact without requiring a dense chord voicing.
Learning double stops develops fretting-hand control and introduces players to the relationship between notes across neighbouring strings. They are especially useful for expanding lead guitar vocabulary, helping guitarists move beyond standard single-note scale patterns and create phrases with more harmonic character.
Sustain and Note Control
The distorted electric guitar sound heard throughout Children Of The Revolution benefits from sustain, allowing chords and individual notes to ring and fill space within the arrangement. Knowing when to let a note continue and when to cut it short is an important part of reproducing the feel of the track.
Practising sustain and note control helps guitarists become more aware of dynamics and unwanted string noise. This encourages cleaner playing and teaches an important lesson: great rhythm and lead guitar are shaped as much by the spaces between notes as by the notes themselves.
Marc Bolan's Guitar Style and Influence
Marc Bolan was the guitarist, singer, songwriter and creative force at the heart of T. Rex. His playing combined blues, rock ’n’ roll and psychedelic influences with a direct approach that became inseparable from the emerging glam-rock movement. Rather than focusing on extended technical displays, Bolan frequently used memorable riffs, chunky chords and concise lead phrases to give T. Rex songs their distinctive identity.
His influence can be heard across generations of glam, hard rock, punk and alternative guitarists. Children Of The Revolution is an excellent example of why his approach remains so effective: the guitar parts serve the song first, but still contain enough character and attitude to be instantly recognisable. Learning Bolan's parts can therefore help guitarists develop not only their technique but also their understanding of arrangement, economy and memorable riff writing.
Learning Children Of The Revolution
Learning Children Of The Revolution note for note offers a valuable workout for players interested in classic rock, glam rock and blues-influenced guitar. The song places particular emphasis on groove, chord accuracy and expressive phrasing, making it suitable for developing skills that can be applied to countless other songs.
By studying how the riffs interact with the chord progression and how small lead details add personality to the arrangement, guitarists can gain a deeper appreciation of economical rock guitar playing. The key lesson is that an effective guitar part does not need to be complicated. Strong timing, confident articulation and carefully chosen notes can create a much bigger musical impact.
Whether you are looking to expand your classic-rock repertoire, improve your rhythm guitar or explore the influential style of Marc Bolan, this Children Of The Revolution guitar lesson provides an opportunity to study one of T. Rex's most enduring songs while building practical techniques that can be incorporated into your own playing.
Techniques Used
Other T Rex Guitar Lessons
Related Guitar Lessons
