Learn to play three fun and easy riffs by Green Day 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 fun Green Day riffs tonight!
Introduction
How’s it going everybody? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing you this video lesson and today I’ve got three fun and easy riffs for you from Green Day.
So right now Guitar Control is giving away this really cool free chord chart, there’s a link in description where you can download yours. It’s in PDF format and it just has a every chord that you could ever need all neatly compiled onto one sheet. So you can download it, print it off, put a copy in your gig bag, put a copy where you practice; so just whatever situation you can have any chord you 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.
Green Day Riff-1 – American Idiot
All right, so the first one we’re going to look at is the riff from American Idiot. This one’s pretty easy, it just consists of a couple of power chords. So the first one we got is G sharp five (G#5). So when I’m on the fourth fret of the low E string with my first finger and then I’m picking up the sixth fret of the A string with my third finger and then the sixth fret of the D string as well. So if you’re a beginner and you’re having an issue getting all three of those strings you just play the lower ones. This note here is just the same as this… it’s just another G sharp; so if you miss it it’s not a huge deal. So we play this starting on the downbeat of one we’ve got one and, and then on the downbeat of two we’re going to take our first finger and just move it to the fifth fret of the A string and now we’re going to play the low E string open and the fourth fret of the A string and this is on the downbeat of two. And then on the and of two you’re just going to take your third and fourth finger and reach up to the sixth fret of the D and the G string; so it’s the same shape we just moved up a set of strings. And we hit that on the and of two, but it’s a quarter note so it’s like… And then on the downbeat of four we take our third and fourth finger off so we’re back to that four and, and then the and of four we’re gonna come down here we’re gonna take this shape that we did here this G# shape and just move it down so now it’s F#; so we’re at the second fret of the low E string and the fourth fret on the A string and of the D string and we hit that on the and a four and then it’s tied to the downbeat of one of the next measure. So this first measure… and then on the and of one we hit it again.. And then one the down beat of two we come back up the fourth fret of the A string and the sixth fret and the D and the G again; so it’s the C sharp five (C#5)… down to G#5 and just the first three strings open. So if you if you’re playing this slower that really sounds weird, but when you when you get it up to you know like a pretty good speed it sounds good, it sounds like the riff…
Green Day Riff-2 – 21 Guns
So the next riff to look at is the riff from 21 Guns and this one is just using the same power chord shapes that we did in the previous one. So we start off with an F5; so I’m on the first fret of the low E string and with my first finger and then the third fret of the A string with my third finger, third fret of the D string with my fourth finger and these are eighth notes. So it’s like one and, and then on beat two we rest, so one and, two, and then starting on beat three we’ve got this C over E (C/E). So what we’re doing is I’m playing the third fret of the A string and the second fret of the D string, but the low E string open and we do the same thing as eighth notes, but this is beat three, so it’s gonna be three and, and then we rest on four. So that’s the first measure… Then we’re gonna do a D5, so we’re just going to take the shape like you here on the previous one and move it up so now my first finger is on the fifth fret of the A string and my third fingers on the seven the Fret of the D string and my fourth finger is on the seventh fret of the G string; and again if you’re a beginner and you can’t get that note, it’s okay to get these two lower ones. All right so we hit that one and then we rest on two and then we’re going to move it down a whole step here to C5. So now we’re at the third fret and the fifth fret and now we’re going to start playing straight eighth notes; so it’s three and four and then we move it down a whole step so now the first fret and the third fret, one and, two, then back to the first chord, the F5, three and, four… Then up to C5 again on the fourth measure one and, two and, three and, four; so on the downbeat of three we’re just going to hit the open high E string and the three to the first fret and then beat four is the three and then it just repeats…
Green Day Riff-3 – Carpe Diem
Alright, the last one to look at is Carpe Diem and this is like the acoustic version of it. So this one here we’re going to actually use some fuller chords… So we have a C; so I’m on the third fret of the A string on my third finger, second fret of the D string of my second finger, first fret of the B string my first finger and the G and high E strings are open. So we play this by just a nice strum like that and that’s on beat one; one two and. So on the downbeat of one and then on the downbeat of two we hit just the A string and then strum the top end of the chord on the and of two and then on the downbeat of three we come back to this A string again. Now we have the kind of the middle section of the chord and then that note C here on the third fret of the A string is beat four… so on the second measure one to a G, two to a C, three, four… Okay now on the third measure it’s the same as the first and now we’re gonna go G, F, C, one, two, three, four, and then the whole thing just repeats…
Conclusion
All right, so there you have it, three fun not too terribly difficult riffs to play by Green Day. 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. Now that is all I have for you today. Thanks for watching and have a great day.
