Learn to play three more fun and easy riffs by ZZ Top 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 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 from ZZ Top.
Right now Guitar Control is offering this really cool free chord chart that you can download for free, there’s a link down in the description. It has every chord you could ever need all neatly organized all into one sheet. It’s in PDF format so you can download it, print it off, put it where you practice, put a copy in your gig bag; just wherever you might need any quarter to glance and it’s a free download.
So be sure to click on the link in the description for the tab so let’s get close up and take a look at these.
ZZ Top Riff-1 – Just Got Paid
All right so the first we’re going to look at is the riff from Just Got Paid and this is all made up of just single notes. So we’re going to start off here at the fifth fret on the A string with my first finger and we’re going to pick that and do a hammer-on to the seventh fret with my third finger… this is all made up of sixteenth notes except for beat four. So this is one E and open low E string and then to the fifth fret of the D string… so it’s kind of weird just the way the flow of the notes is with the timing, it’s like some of them come in just on kind of weird places, what feels kind of weird. So you got this the five hammer to seven, open low E string to the fifth fret of the D string and then I’m starting on the downbeat of two, the open low E string, then to the seventh fret of the A string… back to the low E string, back to the fifth fret of the A string with your first finger… open low E string and then back to the seventh fret of the A string again with your third finger and then the fifth fret of the low E string and we’re going to pick that and pull-off to the open string and then finally ending on the seventh fret of the A string and this is the quarter note, so it rings out for a whole beat with some vibrato. So that’s basically is the riff and it just repeats… Oh one thing so I forgot to mention that the open low E string notes were just pedaling, those are also palm muted…
ZZ Top Riff-2 – Waiting For The Bus
All right so the next we’re going to look at is the riff from Waiting For The Bus and it’s kind of played in this same general area. So we’re going to start off we’re on the seventh fret of the D string with your third finger and we’re going to be moving back and forth between playing the seventh fret and the fifth fret, also on the D string, just between your first and third finger and the open A string. So this comes in on the and of four; so like one two three four and you just hit the seventh fret of the D string just to start off and it’s just an eighth note on the and of four and then it’s tied to the downbeat of one of the second measure and this is made up of a lot of eighth notes. So we start that and then we’re going to come to the fifth fret of the D string with your first finger and now we’re going to start playing the open A string and these notes together and this is starting on the and of one; so it’s and two and three. So the last we have two when we go back to the fifth fret there, we do it twice, then we’re going to come up with our first finger we’re going to barre the fifth fret of the D string and the G string and then back to the seventh fret of the D string… Okay so as the riff repeats and builds up, he starts kind of changing some things. So one of the things he does that is a little bit you know trickier to do and if you can’t do this, like if you’re a beginner, it totally does not matter, but if you look on the fourth measure you can see that when we go to the fifth fret of the G string the first time it also shows the A string open… so when I go to that note I just pick that with my middle finger and then play the open A string with the pick; so just hybrid pick it… So if you can’t do the hybrid picking thing, it’s totally fine, just play it without that note in there, this is a way that you could work on getting that technique into your playing.
ZZ Top Riff-3 – Got Me Under Pressure
All right and then the last one to look at is the riff from Got Me Under Pressure. So this one here still has kind of the same pattern as far as whole steps when we change strings, we’re just going to move it up a whole step. So now our first finger is going to be playing uh the seventh fret of the D string and G string and then our third finger will be playing the ninth fret of the D string in the G string and then third finger is going to play the ninth fret of the A string and the D string… So this riff we start off we’re going to take your first finger we’re going to barre it so we’re just picking up the seventh fret of the D string and the G string and then we’re going to take our third finger and barre it across the ninth fret of the D string and G string. Now we’re going to pick that and this starts on the and of two, so it’s like the we rest one and two and… So we pick, pull and then bring our third finger to barre the seventh fret of the A string and the D string. Okay then we go right back to the ninth fret again on the D string and the G string and we’re going to play that twice and the second time we do the pull-off… so that’s like half of the of this riff… So it’s kind of tricky if you’re a beginner to be able to do that. I mean I guess you could… if you had to you could use your third and fourth finger, but that kind of presents its own problems… I would just really recommend just trying to get that that technique down and this is a good riff to practice that with… All right so like I said that’s half of the riff and then we’re going to come down here and do an E5; so I’m just going to take my first finger and barre it across the second fret of the D string and the D string and then the low E string is open and we play this first is a quarter note and then two eighth notes. So it’s one two and three four and… And then the other part of the written it just goes back and plays the other part of the riff again…
Conclusion
All right so there you have it, three fun, not too terribly difficult riffs to play by ZZ Top. 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.
