Learn two killer Firehouse riffs that will challenge your skills on the guitar. These riffs sound great and are fun to play and Guitar Control instructor Darrin Goodman gives you all the steps to get them down. Be sure to get the free tabs to make it easy to rock these classic riffs tonight.
Introduction
Hey everybody how’s it going? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing you this video lesson. Today I want to show you how to play two cool riffs from Firehouse. So be sure to click on the link in the description for the tabs and let’s get close up and take a look at these.
Firehouse Riff-1 Don’t Treat Me Bad
All right so the first we’re going to look at is Don’t Treat Me Bad and on the record they play this on an acoustic guitar I think, but I’m just going to be using a clean tone and the acoustic emulator in my processor here. So this isn’t too terribly tough to play and first off we’ve got this A chord here; so I’m on the seventh fret of the D string with my third finger and the sixth fret of the G string with my second finger and the fifth fret of the B string with my first finger and we’re going to play the A and high E strings open… and that’s our first chord. Then we’ve got E over A (E/A) and for this what we’re going to do is we’re just going to take this shape and we’re going to move it down a half step and then we’re going to reverse our first and second fingers so now our third finger is on the sixth fret of the D string second finger excuse me first finger is on the fourth fret of the G string and second finger is on the fifth fret of the B string and again we’re going to be playing the A and high E strings open. And then the third chord we got is D add nine over A (Dadd9/A) and all we’re going to do is take this shape and move it down a whole step so now third finger is on the fourth fret of the D string, first finger is on the second fret of the G string and second finger is on the third fret of the B string and again we got the A and high E strings both open. So those are our three chords and the progression it just goes from the A to the E/A to the Dadd9/A, back to the E/A and then back to A again. So the first thing you might want to do is just kind of work on getting those transitions down. Okay and then for the strumming for this we’ve got an eighth note and then four sixteenth notes and then another eighth note, so like one e and two e and… So if you think it like you have a long strum and then four short ones and then we’re going to move down to our E/A and now we’ve got the same thing; one long and four quick ones and then we move down a whole step again for the Dadd9/A and do the same thing… and then back up… So trying to play this and count it is easily done, but it’s really a lot easier, I say this all the time, it’s a lot easier if you really kind of get the feel for it. One other thing too that I want to mention is that I’ve got my thumb up here so it’s muting the low E string because that’s the only string we’re not using so we don’t want that note in there… just like that.
Firehouse Riff-2 All She Wrote
All right so next we’re going to look at is the whole opening sequence of the song All She Wrote and it’s gonna end right where the verse starts. So this one’s a little bit longer of a of a riff that I usually do in these but this whole thing is just like really cool. I think these guys were really good songwriters and this was just really well put together I really dig this. So for this we’re going to start off with an E minor barre chord… so I’m barring my first finger across the seventh fret of the first five strings and then my second finger is going on to the eighth fret of the B string, my third finger is on the ninth fret of the D string and my fourth finger is on the ninth fret of the G string. So it starts off with this chord and this actually starts on the and of four, so it’s like one two three four and and then that’s tied to the downbeat of one of the second measure, so it’s like it’s the equivalent of a quarter note; so we have a long quarter note and then another quick eighth note and then we go to our next chord which is Bm/A. So all we’re going to do is we’re going to keep our first finger barred we’re going to lift these other fingers off. So my recommendation is not to go like this… just try to maintain that shape because you’re going to have to be transitioning between these chords a lot. So we’ve got the… and then we’re going to go to the low E string and we’re just going to pedal that as eighth notes. So this is like and three and four, and then on the and of four we hit that E minor again and again it’s tied to the downbeat of one of the next measure. And then on the downbeat of two we strike it again and then to the Bm/A… when we go to that second time then we hit the low E string again, back to the Em… back to the Bm/A and then the open low E string again and when we do those open low E notes by the way they’re palm muted and that’s like the first part of it… Then we’re going to go to a G5 over C (G5/C) and this is probably one of the the more difficult chords to do, especially to get this stretch. So first finger on the third fret of the A string, second finger, well this is how I do it, you might be more comfortable to do it this way, I’ll explain in a second; so we’re on the third fret of the A string, fifth fret of the D string and the seventh fret of the G string and I’m using my first finger on the A string, my second finger on the D string and my pinky on the G string. Now some people find it more comfortable to do it this way… that does not work for me, but if that works for you that’s great. Now we’re going to hit this chord and go to a C5 and we just keep our first finger where it is and then we’re gonna be on the fifth fret of the D and G strings. So you could do it like that or whichever way is easier and for me that is easier, but when I play it up to speed I may not consistently do it that way, my hand just kind of goes on autopilot. So after we do that now we’re gonna do that pedal on the third fret of the A string palm muted, but this time instead of being four it’s actually five, so we’re hitting that on the downbeat of two, so it’s like two and three and four, and then we’re gonna go to our next chord. So our next chord we’re going to come up we’re going to do a regular D major barre chord; so first fingers picking up the fifth fret of the A string and then my third finger is getting the seventh fret of the D, G and B strings, but we’re going to do D suspended four (Dsus4) and then use your pinky to grab the eighth fret on the B string and we’re going to hit this on the and of four on measure four and it’s tied to the downbeat of one on the next measure and it’s kind of the same timing as it was for the… Now we’re going to do the Dsus4 twice to D and then it’s just got an a quick eighth note rest, back to the Dsus4 to D… Then it goes into this little riff… So we’re gonna start seventh fret of the A string to the seventh fret of the low E string to the fifth fret of the A string and then back to the seventh fret of the low E string… So this first one is a quarter note so it’s four one and two and then on the and of two we go to the fifth fret of the A string and then on the downbeat of three we go to the seventh fret and then there’s just a slight rest and then it more or less kind of starts over again; so we’re back here the seventh fret of the A string is a quarter note again on four and then on the next measure one and two so we’re seven on the A string to seven on the low E to five on the A into seven on the A to five on the D string back to the seventh fret of the A string again… Then we repeat like the first part again… and that’s that whole riff… Then after that little riff we’re gonna come down here to the C5 and we hit it twice, so it’s quarter notes and this first one is on four so it’s four one then we’re gonna move up to the Dsus4 and that’s gonna be two and then to D for three… and then just an E5 power chord here on four and then that’s tied to a whole note on the next measure because that’s where the vocals would actually start… Now another thing when he’s doing this riff he’s hitting pinch harmonics on a lot of those… like that; so you can just kind of mess around with that you know work on the pinch harmonics and you know to kind of make it all make it all work now they are tuned down a half step on both of these songs so if you want to play along with them you will need to tune your guitar down a half step.
Conclusion
All right so there you have it two cool riffs from Firehouse. That second one’s pretty long and has a lot of stuff in there, but it’s such a cool riff, I just really dig it and it’s fun to play and you know a lot of good stretching and exercises and stuff that’s good for your playing. So if you like this video be sure to give me a thumbs up and leave a comment down below if you have any questions about this or other guitar related topics. If you’ve not already done so please subscribe to the channel and hit that notification bell so you don’t miss any of the content that we upload throughout the week. Well that is all I have for you today. Thanks for watching and have a great day.
