Today we´re going to have a look at the Fact and Zap of: Guitar Riffs for Beginners….. and not so Beginners….
Well as many say and I share their thought that music is a language. So there for I´d say that if we had to compare it directly, “a Riff” would be like a “Idioms” because if scales are the letters of the alphabet, licks would be sentences… reason why “a Riff” in this case as we said would be the “Idiom” of your language.
If you ask a heavy metal player to play maybe you´d ask him to play Riffs of certain groups the dialect he would be more fluent at. Other might speak other dialects… jazz, blues, rock, soul, funk… So each musician will know the Riffs of his dialect being any style of music. Idiomatic Riff style man!!!
Check out this cool GUITAR LESSON ON A CLASSIC SONG
I´ve written a few examples on how to get a Riff down so that´s why we called it:
Guitar Riffs for Beginners….. and not so Beginners….
Incredible how difficult it is to find the perfect way to study, maximize every second… well I´ll try and give you a couple of advices:
1. Repeat in a correct manner (DON´T PRACTICE WRONG)
2. Don´t start all over again because you made a mistake (FOCUS ON THE MISTAKE)
3. Do it in chunks!!! (NEVER GOBBLE TOO MUCH!!)
We´ve got 3 great Riffs for Beginners today:
Beat It
Rock you like a hurricane
Day Tripper
So let´s get down to it, Beat It by Michael Jackson, is a beautifully executed riff. Be careful with the quick hammer on from E to F#. It is easy but it´s just tricky.
With the second riff enjoy sovereign power chords!!!. I´d say try and make the slide form chord to chord as musical as possible making it part of the song as well.
As for the third riff if you´re playing with a pick try and play up and down stroke because that really will help you in the future with your picking technique.
So enjoy!!!
Good happy Funk Stuff
P.S. If learning songs on guitar is your goal, I recommend you to check out these courses: