Check out this easy single note guitar riffs lesson for beginners from Guitar Control instructor Darrin Goodman. Be sure to get the free tabs to follow along with this easy guitar lesson.
Introduction
Hey everybody how’s it going? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing you this video lesson. Today I’ve got another lesson for all the beginners out there. The other day we did one that was riffs that are just played on a single string and so now we’re going to kick it up a notch and we’re going to play some riffs that are played on multiple strings, but they’re just single note riffs. So be sure to click on the link in the description for the tabs and let’s get close up and take a look.
Single Note Riff-1 – Beat It
All right so the first one we’re going to look at is the riff for Beat It by Michael Jackson. So this one starts off with the low E string open and then we’re going to go to the third fret of the low E and I’m going to use my second finger to the second fret of the A string and then the G string open and then to the second fret of the D string… Okay so after we hit that second fret of the D string we’re going to do a hammer-on from the second fret to the fourth fret. So if you notice that two on your transcription, that’s on the second measure, that we’ve got that little ghost note there; so you pick and hammer simultaneously, so it’s… And then back to the second fret and then the D string open twice and then there’s a rest. So that’s like the first half of the riff… All right so the second half is starts off the same way; so the open low E string to the third fret to the second fret of the A string to the open G string, to the second fret of the D string and do that same hammer-on and then back to the second fret and then open. So basically the difference between the first and second time is that last D string on the first time you play it twice and on the second time you play it once. So the whole riff slowly…
Single Note Riff-2 – Heartbreaker
All right and then next we’re going to look at Heartbreaker by Led Zeppelin. So this starts off on the third fret of the low E string and I’m gonna use my third finger. So you rest on the first three beats; so it’s like one two three four. So you start this as a quarter note on the downbeat of four and you’re going to do just a slight quarter step bend and then we go to the A string open to the third fret to the D string open to the first fret of the D string, second fret of the D string and then back to the third fret of the low E string with that little bend. So we’ve got… Then starting on the next measure we have the A string played open four times, but it’s 16th notes, and then we go to the third fret of the A string for a quarter note for beat two… And then we do that same open D string to the first fret to the second fret and then to the third fret of the low E string with a little bit of a bend on there. So that’s like the first half of the riff… All right so then for the second half we’re going to do the same thing, but we’re just moving it up a whole step, so now we’re going to start on the second fret of the A string to the fifth fret to the second fret of the D string to the third fret to the fourth fret and then to the fifth fret of the A string with that little bit of a bend. All right so that’s the first measure of the second part and that’s measure nine. And then the next part we’re going to start on the second fret and we’re gonna do those four sixteenth notes. So the fifth fret this is all on the A string and then that two three four to the fifth fret of the eight of the low E string again… and then it just goes back into the first part again… So the whole thing…
Single Note Riff-3 – Crossroads Blues
All right and then finally we have the main riff from Eric Clapton’s version of Crossroads Blues. So we’re gonna start off with the A string open and then we’re gonna go to the second fret of the G string and the G string open and then back to the second fret, so we’ve got… and these are eighth notes; one and two and three E and a. So that second time to go back to that second fret of the G string and it’s an eighth note tied to a sixteenth note so it rings out just a little bit longer than the first ones… And then we’ve got the G string open and hammer-on to the second fret and pull-off and then to the third fret of the A string with just a little bit of a quarter step bend and then it just starts over again…
Conclusion
All right so there you have it. Three beginner riffs that are just single note riffs, but they’re played on multiple strings. So this like I said we’re kicking it up a notch from that previous lesson. So these are all cool riffs that you know and are highly recognizable and it just can kind of help you to get playing something a little bit cooler right out of the gate if you’re fairly new. 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 have 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.
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