Learn to play three more fun and easy riffs by Boston 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 Boston classics tonight!
Introduction
How’s it going everybody? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing this video lesson and today I’ve got three more fun and easy riffs for you from Boston.
So right now Guitar Control is giving away this really cool free chord chart, there’s a link down in the description where you can download yours. It’s in PDF format and has every chord that you could ever need all neatly compiled onto one sheet, just whatever chord you need at a glance. So download it, print it off, throw a copy in your gig bag, put one where you practice; so just wherever you are, whatever situation you have any chord you can need at a glance and it’s a free download.
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.
Boston Riff-1 – Rock & Roll Band
All right, so the first one to look at is the riff from Rock And Roll Band. So this riff is made up of eighth notes for the most part here. So we’re going to start off with this E5 on the downbeat of one; so it’s one and then on the and of one we’re just going to hit the open low E string, so one and. Then for the downbeat of beat two we’re gonna take our second finger and we’re gonna go to the third fret on the low E string and you just keep your first finger where it is and we’re gonna go to the third fret to the fourth fret with your third finger and then on the and of four A5. So we’re just going to take our first finger and move it from being on the second fret of the A string to the second fret of the D string and the A string open and that’s our first measure; two and three and four. So when we hit that on this A5 on the and of four it’s actually tied to the downbeat of one of the second measure so that’s still ringing out one and then on the and of one the A string open, down beat of two third fret with your second finger and of two fourth fret with your third finger… Then on the downbeat of three the A string open the and of three is the third fret of the low E string with your second finger. The downbeat of four is the fourth fret of the low E string with your third finger and then on the and of four is the E5 and then the whole thing just repeats…
Boston Riff-2 – Hitch A Ride
All right, so the next we’re going to look at is Hitch A Ride. So this one here it is fairly simple too it’s actually using just a regular fifth power chord shape. So we’re starting off here we’re on the seventh fret of the D string with your first finger and the ninth fret of the G string with your third finger and then the A string is open. So we’re going to start this we play the A string, one, and then on the and of one the D string, the downbeat of two the G string and then the and of two back to the D string, so one and two and. Now this next part is really tricky to get it right. So we got that one and two and, and then starting on beat three we play the A string and the seventh fret of the D string we play that on the downbeat and then and this is a sixteenth note so then on the second sixteenth note we slide down to the fifth fret of the D string and then on the and we hit the open A string… And then the downbeat of four is the D string and the and of four is the seventh fret; so we’re just we’ve just taken that shape and moved it down a whole step… so that is our first measure… Okay now we’re going to take our first finger and move it down to the fourth fret; so if this is hard for you to make that stretch you can use your pinky instead, but if that’s what you’re doing you should probably start out with your pinky so that way you’re not having to really change a lot of fingers. So we move that down to the fourth fret and now we pick the A string, D string, G string, D string and then we switch to an A. So we’re just going to take our first finger barre the second fret of the D and the G and the B string and play the A string open and that’s three and four we hit the G string and the B string together and that’s the riff. So measures three and four the same as measures one and two and then it just repeats…
Boston Riff-3 – Smokin’
All right then the last one to look at is the riff from Smokin. So this one is fairly easy, it’s really repetitive. So the first thing we want to do just barre your first finger across the second fret of the D and G string and we hit the open A string on the downbeat of one and then on the and of one we hit the D and the G string together, but it’s a quarter note, so it’s one and two and three and… Then we go to the A string, third fret with your second finger and we’re going to pick that and hammer to the fourth fret with your third finger and then second fret of the D string with your first finger, which it should already be and that’s a triplet… All right so on the transcription it shows four measures, but they’re all the same thing and that is just repeated a bunch. So just the first measure and the second third and fourth measures as well; one and two and three and four yellow… that’s one measure and then I just repeat… Now when I pick this and instead of being all down strokes, I do the A string with a down… and then when I do these little chords here, these little you know, double stops, I’m doing those on up strokes; down, up, up, up, down, down hammer, up… it kind of really gives it more of kind of a groove and it just makes it easier to play in my opinion as well.
Conclusion
All right, so there you have it uh three more fun and not too terribly difficult riffs to play by Boston. So if you like this lesson be sure to give me a thumbs up and leave a comment down below if you have 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.
