Learn to play three more fun and easy riffs from the 1970s in this fifth volume from 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 tunes in record time.
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 the 1970s.
Right now Guitar Control is giving away this really cool free chord chart, there’s a link down in the description where you can get yours. It’s in PDF format and it just has every chord you could ever need all neatly compiled into one sheet so you can download it you can print it off, throw a copy in your gig bag, put a copy where you practice; so just whatever given situation you have any chord you could ever 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.
1970s Riff-1 – My Sharona
Alright, so the first one to look at is My Sharona by The Knack. So this one’s pretty easy and we’re going to start off we’ve got a C major barre chord. So first fingers picking up the third fret of the A string and then my third finger I’ve just got it barring across the fifth fret of the D, G and B string. So we’ve got this C and then we’ve got a B flat (Bb); so we’re just going to take this shape and we’ll move it down a whole step so now your first finger is at the first fret and your third finger is at the third fret. So we hit this we start with this C and it’s a dotted quarter note so it’s one two and three and four, and then on the and before we go to just the first fret of the low E string. So we hit this first fret of the A string or excuse me of the low E string and on the and of four and we slide to the third fret and that’s coming in on the downbeat of the second measure; so it’s like one and, and then starting on the downbeat of two we’re going to skip over the A string and go right to the D string the fifth fret. So it’s actually the same note, they’re both G’s. Now we go to that fifth fret of the D string and that’s two and then on the downbeat of three back to the third fret of the low E string. And then on the and of three we rest and then on the downbeat of four we hit the fifth fret of the D string again and then we rest on the and of four; so that’s the first two measures. Now starting on the third measure we’re back here on the third fret of the low E string for the downbeat of one and then on the and of one we rest the downbeat of two, fifth fret of the D string again and then on the and of two we rest. So it’s like one and, two and, and then on the downbeat of three third fret of the low E string again, three and, and then on the downbeat of four back to the D string and then on the and of four we’re going to do like we did on the first measure and we’re going to go to the first fret of the low E string and we’re going to pick that and slide to the third fret so this is; and one and two and three and four and, and then the whole thing just repeats.
1970s Riff-2 – Space Oddity
All right so the next we’re going to look at is Space Oddity by David Bowie. So for this part of it we’re only playing actually two chords. We’ve got an F major seven over E (FM7/E). So I’m on the third fret of the A string with my third finger and the third fret of the D string with my fourth finger and then my second finger is on the second fret of the G string and my first finger is on the first fret of the B string and both the low E string and the high E string are open. And then the other chord we have is E minor (Em); so open low E string, second fret of the A string with my second finger, second fret of the D string with my third finger and the G, B and high E strings are all open. These are the two chords and this is just kind of like the intro to this song and it’s the it’s the strumming for it that if you’re a beginner can be a little challenging… So on that first measure we’ve got an eighth note and two 16th notes; so it’s like long, short, short and that’s beat one and then beat two long, short, short, short, long. So if you notice that the 16th note that’s on and of two is tied to the downbeat of one of the third beat; so it’s like 8th, two 16th notes, 8th, 16th, 8th, 16th, 8th… So how I could do is like down, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, down… And then we switch to the Em and the strum is similar and starts off the same way on the first two beats… so 8th, two 16th, 8th, two 16th and that takes care of the first two beats; so long, short, short, long, short, short, so down, down, up, down, down. Now on beat three it’s four sixteenth notes like it was on beat four of the first measure. So now we’ve got three e and uh and then… And that’s basically it and then it just repeats…
1970s Riff-3 – If You Want Blood You’ve Got It
All right then the last one to look at is If You Want Blood You’ve Got It by AC/DC and this one starts out with an A like a lot of AC/DC songs. So A string is open and I’m barring the second fret of the D, G and B strings with my first finger; so just a regular A. Now you’re going to want to do it this way because of what other stuff that’s going on so just use that first finger and we hit this on the downbeat of one and then on the and of one we rest and then on the downbeat of two we hit just the open A string. And now we’re going to do an A suspended four (Asus4) so we’re going to still keep our first finger barred like this, but now we’re going to take our second finger and we’re going to pick up the third fret on the B string which makes it a suspended four; so one and two and three and… So we do the Asus4 and then on the downbeat of three the open A string again and then just the A chord again. The downbeat of four is a rest and then the and of four D; so D string open, second fret of the G string with my first finger, third fret of the B string with my third finger, second fret of the high E with my second finger… Okay so starting on the second measure we rest on the downbeat of one and then on the and of one you just hit the A and the D string open and then on the downbeat of two we have D suspended four (Dsus4). So if you take the D chord we were doing, but now you’re going to take your pinky and put it down onto the third fret of the high E string, that will make it Dsus4. So we hit that on beat two and then on that down beat of three we hit it again and the and of three we take our pinky off which puts it back to D and then beat four the open A and the D string four and then the whole thing starts over again…
Conclusion
All right, so there you have it, another volume of fun and easy riffs to play 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 haven’t 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.
