Learn to play three fun and easy guitar riffs from the 1970s with Guitar Control instructor Darrin Goodman, aka Uncle D. Be sure to get the free tabs to go along with the step by step video instruction and you will be rockin’ these classic 1970s riff tonight!
Introduction
How’s it going everybody? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing you this video lesson and today I’ve got three fun and easy riffs for you from the 1970s.
Right now GuitarControl.com is giving away a free chord chart, there is a link down in the description where you can get yours. It’s every chord you could ever really need all neatly compiled into one sheet. It’s in PDF format so you can print it out you can put it where you practice or throw it in your gig bag so just any cord you could ever need at a glance and it’s a free download just click the link.
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.
1970s Riff-1 – Long Live Rock & Roll – Rainbow
All right so the first one we’re gonna look at is the riff from Long Live Rock and Roll by Rainbow. So it has these two pickup notes at the beginning kind of to kind of get you started. So you rest on the first two beats, so like one two, and then on beat three we have an F5; so I’m on the first fret of the low E string with my first finger and then my third finger is on the third fret of the of the A string and that’s on beat three and then on beat four we do F sharp five (F#5). So we just move this up a half step and then that leads into the main riff; so it’s like one two three. Okay so then beginning on the second measure on the for beat one we have G5; so it’s that same shape but now my first finger is on the third fret of the low E string and my third finger’s on the fifth fret of the A string and we hit that one and then on beat two we have a C five over G (C5/G). So what we’re going to do is just take our third finger and we’re just gonna roll it up like this so it’s barring the fifth fret of the D and the G string and we hit that on B two; so it’s like one two and then starting on the downbeat of three we’re going to take our first finger and we’re going to barre it across the D and G string at the third fret. So we’re going to pick this and then we’re going to do a hammer-on this is all 16th notes; so we’ve got three E and, so we hammer to the fourth fret on the G string with our second finger and then pull it back off and then the very last 16th note we’re going to come and we’re going to bring our third finger and barre the fifth fret of the A and the D string… and then we end on the and of four with this G note here on the third fret of the low E string… Okay and then on the third measure first finger is already right here we just need to barre the third fret of the A and the D string so we hit this on the downbeat of one and it’s eighth note. So we hit it and then you’re supposed to just lift your finger off and then just kind of the resonation of the string takes on the ands so one and two and three and then on the and of three we come back up and we bar the fifth fret of the D and G string and this is a dotted quarter note so it’s on the and of three and then it takes place uh takes care of all of beat four and then it just repeats…
1970s Guitar Riff-2 – Ziggy Stardust – David Bowie
All right so the next we’re going to look at is the riff from Ziggy Stardust by David Bowie. This is like one of my all-time favorite riffs, I think it just sounds really cool and it’s really simple. So we’re going to start off with a it’s a G5, but instead of just like this G5 it’s gonna have multiple strings; so all you do is just take the G chord you already know and we’re going to omit the note that’s on the A string and now you want your second finger to kind of mute that A string so you’re playing third fret of the low E string the A string is muted, D string is open, G string is open, B string on the third fret and then you can also be on the third fret of the high E string. So we play that is that’s beat number one, so it’s like one, and then two and is just a couple of mutes. Then starting on beat three it’s 16th notes; so we’ve got a D and then we’re going to make it a D suspended four (Dsus4) by putting our pinky down here on the third fret, but we’re gonna take it on and off. So we strum D three, B and four and; so the downbeat of four second fret of the high E string and the and of four third fret of the D string… Okay then starting on the second measure we go to a C add nine (Cadd9); so your third finger is just gonna stay here on the third fret of the B string so we just want to kind of keep that there throughout this whole thing and now I’m going to bring my middle finger my second finger up here to the third fret of the A string and I’m going to pick this one two and, so it’s like an eighth note and then two sixteenth notes. So I play the A string and then second, excuse me third fret on that B string… G string open, back to the A string, back to the G string and then we go to a G over B (G/B); so all we’re gonna do is move the note from the third fret of the A string to the second fret. So I’m just going to use my first finger now, but and again keeping that third finger on the third fret of the B string and now we’ve got this a similar except this time A to B and now it would be A minor seven (Am7)… open A string still just being on the third fret of the B string and then it just starts over again…
1970s Riff-3 – The Wizard – Uriah Heep
All right and then the last we’re going to look at is The Wizard by Uriah Heep. Okay so with this one the first thing is that this song is in drop C; so what that means is they’ve tuned the entire guitar down a whole step and then tuned their low E string so it’s the same pitch as the fourth string. So if you tune down a whole step it would make them both C’s; so I’m not going to tune all the way down like that, I’m just in drop D so you can play this and it sounds like the riff, but if you want to be in the same key there you would need to tune down an additional whole step, so it’s C G C F A D, it’s on the on the transcription. All right so for this is pretty easy, we’ve got D major, just the good old D major chord here and we’re gonna do some variations of suspended four and suspended two. So for those of you don’t know if it’s suspended two you remove your middle finger so that the high E string is open and if it’s a suspended four you use your pinky to pick up the third fret of the high E string… All right so with this we play the open low E string and we’re on we’re on the D shape so one two and three and four and. So I’m just starting on the high E string going to the B string, going to the G string and then just starting over… so that’s the first measure. Okay so now starting on the second measure we go to the D suspended four (Dsus4); so I’m gonna put my pinky down on the on the third fret of the high E string and this one’s kind of a tricky, there’s lots of variations on stuff that does with the suspended chords with D, lots of different riffs, this one’s a little unusual. So what we’re going to do is typically when you would do these suspended four you would just keep your middle finger down on the second fret of the high E, but in this case we’re actually going to move it because starting on this second measure we put our pinky down to make a Dsus4 and we pick and do a pull-off to the open string B, G and then we play the high E again and hammer-on to the second fret and then end on the B string; so we’ve got… All right so that’s the first two measures and now we go to a C add nine (Cadd9); so I’m going to keep our third finger here which kind of like we did on the last one we keep our third finger here on the third fret of the B string, middle finger is going to go to the third fret of the A string and first finger the second fret of the D string. So now we’re going to pick starting on the A string; A D G B and that’s eighth notes. Then we’re going to go to a G over B (B/B); so alls we’re going to do is move the note from the third fret of the A string to the second fret. So I just take my first finger move it to the second fret of the A string, take my second finger off keeping that third finger there on the third fret of the B string and same picking; A D G B. Then we’re gonna take your middle finger and drop it here onto the third fret of the low E string and we’re gonna bend and go to open and then strum on a D chord and then it just the whole thing repeats…
Conclusion
Alright, so there you have it. Three fun not too terribly difficult to play pretty cool you know riffs from the 1970s. So if you like this lesson 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.
