Learn to play 3 easy shuffle rhythm riffs for beginners with Guitar Control instructor Darrin Goodman. Be sure to get the free tabs to go along with the step by step video instruction and you will be rockin’ these classic riffs tonight.
Introduction
Hey everybody how’s it going? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing you this video lesson and today I’ve got a lesson for all the beginners out there. So what we’re going to be looking at is three riffs from popular famous songs that are just completely based on just the basic blues kind of shuffle thing that you probably you may have already learned. So anyhow with this I’m hoping to show you that with this simple shuffle pattern there’s like tons and this is just three riffs; I mean there’s hundreds of them that are just based on these. 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 this.
Shuffle Rhythm-1 – Keep Your Hands To Yourself – Georgia Satellites
All right so the first one to look at is Keep Your Hands To Yourself from the Georgia Satellites. So I’m just starting off I’ve just got my first finger here on the second fret of the D string and I play the A string open. So we’re going to be doing a shuffle and we’re going to be switching back and forth between the second fret of the D string and the fourth fret of the D string with your third finger, but meanwhile keeping the A string open… So we’ve got this just kind of a eighth note shuffle feel, so this is A5 when we’ve got our first finger here, so we’re playing one and, and then on the downbeat of two we put our third finger down here on the fourth fret for two and, and then take it back off for three and, and back on for four, so that’s one measure… Now you just don’t want it to be one two and three and four in like that, you gotta put that swing on it, that groove. So one measure of that and then we go on to just continue to do that and we have four measures of this. So on the song originally at the beginning of it they start off with very kind of palm muted, you know really quietly and then they kind of raise the dynamic. So after you do on the fourth measure of that on the and of four we’re just going to hit the D and G string open and then that’s going to lead us up to our next chord. Then we’re going to go to a D so all we’re going to do is take our first finger and move it from the second fret of the D string to the second fret of the G string and now we’re going to play the D string open and we’re going to do that same thing, alternating between the second fret and the fourth fret, but now it’s on the G string and we have two bars of this and then we do the same thing. So this is just like your regular 12 bar blues where we’ve got four bars of the one chord which is A and then two bars of the four chord which is in this case is D and then back to two bars of the one chord again and then finally ending with two bars of one and then two bars of four again. So we come to this D here on the fifth measure and we do that on the and before the open D and G string and then on the end of four of the second measure of that we do the open B and G string again and now we’re to the E. So we’re on the low E string here, and it’s basically the same thing, but the low E string is open and we’re on the second fret of the A string and the fourth fret of the A string. So this time here we’ve got two measures and we’ve got the one and two and three and four and one and two and three and, and then on the downbeat of four with your second finger you’re gonna reach up and grab the third fret of the low E string and we’re gonna bend that, but this is a quarter note so this takes all of beat four and then we just end on the downbeat of the next measure and it’s just an eighth note, so it’s like one and two three four one two three four and that sort of goes into the rest of the song…
Shuffle Rhythm-2 – Once Bitten, Twice Shy – Great White
All right so the next we’re going to look at is the intro riff from Once Bitten, Twice Shy by Great White. So this one here has a very similar kind of a shuffle feel, but now we’re gonna be playing it in C. So we’re going to come up here to the eighth fret of the low E string with your first finger and then we’re going to go to the 10th fret of the A string with your second finger and then your pinky is going to be alternated between going from the 12th fret of the A string and the 13th fret. Now for some people it’s easier to do it like this… use their third finger instead of their middle, so whichever way is more comfortable for you is fine; for me this is just what works better… All right so this time we’ve got a little bit different of a shuffle feel to it. So we’ve got on the downbeat of one and then on the downbeat of two we go to 12 here and then on the and of two it’s just the low E string and then on the downbeat of three we hit this first chord again so it’s like… like that. All right so we’ve got two measures of that kind of feel and then on the third measure 12 and then reach up to 13, back to 12, back to 13, back to 12, back to 13 12 10…. so that’s the first four measures of it. And then starting on the fifth measure it’s kind of the same thing… and then we’ve got this kind of cool thing here we played the eighth fret twice on the low E string, so that’s one and, and then we’re going to go to the 11th fret for two and then on the and of two to the twelfth fret. And then we’re going to barre the 10th fret of the A and the D string and then we just do that again, but this time we don’t play the eight twice… like that.
Shuffle Rhythm-3 – The Jack – AC/DC
All right and the last one we’re going to look at is The Jack by AC/DC and this is the chorus part for it and this is just another just very common kind of 12 bar thing. So this time we’re in E and we’re going to come down here second fret of the A string with your first finger and the low E string is open and we’re going to just play that and then go to the fourth fret on the A string with your third finger. So this is kind of like that Georgia Satellites one, but the timing on this one’s a lot different, this one here it’s all made up of triplets. So the first of the triplet is this and then we rest on the second note and then hit that again… Put your third finger down on the fourth fret and back to that, so you have… So that’s kind of the feel all the way through this. You got this… then we’re going to switch to our four chord which is A. So we’re just going to move up so now A string is open and we’re on the second fret of the D string and fourth fret of the D string, same feel, but now we’ve only got two measures of it… back to the E for two measures… All right then we’re gonna go to our five chord which is B, but now it’s just the second fret of the A string with your first finger and the fourth fret of the D and G string with my third finger and now we’ve got that same timing, but we’re just going to stay on here, so it’s like one two three one two three one two three, so a whole measure of that… Now I’m going to switch to an A5 and do the same thing for one measure and then back to the same rhythm and then that’s our turnaround. So after we do the B5, but this time using my middle finger so that way I can quickly get to this B flat five (Bb5); so the A5, Bb5 first finger on the first fret of the A string third finger on the third fret of the D string and then move that shape up a half step so now you’re on the second fret of the A string on the fourth fret of the D string for your B5 and then it would just start over again…
Conclusion
All right so there you have it, three easy beginner riffs that are from you know popular rock songs that are based out of just the basic 12 bar kind of shuffle thing that you’ve probably already learned or maybe you haven’t learned yet, but you can see that there’s lots and lots of cool things that you can do with this. 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.
