Check out this Beginner Guitar Lesson on Power Chord Riffs from Guitar Control instructor Robert Baker. Power Chords are a must-know aspect of guitar no matter what genre you play. Robert breaks it down so it is easy to understand with step-by-step video instruction and the included free guitar tabs.
Introduction
Well hey everybody welcome back to Guitar Control. My name is Robert and we’re rocking and we’re rolling and were riffing with power chords; that’s what’s up. So what do we have kicking for you here today? Well we’re talking about just a bunch of great classic power chord riffs. If you’re not familiar with power chords this is a really good beginner guitar lesson and we’re just gonna get rolling with it. If you want tabs you can grab that from the link down below and hit the subscribe button and let’s go.
Scorpions Riff
Alright riff number one comes at you like a hurricane so of course it’s Rock You Like A Hurricane by the Scorpions and it’s gonna go like this… Good old normal power chords. So basically this one starts out with an E5 power chord. So we’re all the way up here seventh fret on the A string and you’re gonna play and then ninth fret on the D string and ou’re gonna play it three times. Now you go down to third fret on the low E string to a power chord is G5 twice; fifth fret on the low E string power chord shift down to third fret on the A string and fifth fret of the D string and then you go up to fifth fret and play it twice…
Quiet Riot Riff
So next we have some Quiet Riot; this is Bang Your Head or Metal Health’ and it goes like this… So start up with an A5, which is in open position A5, so it’s open on the A string and 2nd fret on the D string and you hit those two together and you go to 3rd fret on the A string to C5 and hop to the upper string on the 3rd fret, low E string…
Eric Clapton Riff
Now we might as well jam some Clapton. This one is his riff to Cocaine and it’s very simple and very easy riff; it goes like this… He actually doesn’t do those mutes, I just throw this in there on pure instinct, it’s the E5 same thing that we did in Rock You Like A Hurricane. You can play it up here on the seventh fret on the A string twice and then you go down to fifth fret and then you go seven down five and he adds a lot of different endings. So the one we’re gonna do is just this where you play third fret on the low E string and then you go to 2nd fret of the D string, there’s a couple he does like a trill… There are lots of different variations that he throws in there but the overall riff is just that real straightforward rock and roll riff.
Joe Walsh Riff
So we’re headed into Joe Walsh territory now. This is one I think is the meanest, it’s very simple and we’re gonna do the first part of the riff and we’re gonna do the second part of the riff… again very simple but it just has the attitude and that’s what rock and roll is all about. So we’re gonna be going to fifth fret on the A string doing a D5 power chord so we go…
Dokken Riff
So let’s end rockin’ with some Dokken… So this is of course from Dokken’s classic Kiss Of Death and it starts out with the aggressive little riff here. It goes from the E5 down to a D5; so seven on the A down to five on the low E string and it just repeats itself. Now the second part of the chord goes like this… It’s got a Gallup very much kind of like Achilles Last Stand by Led Zepplin and it goes like this… that’s the overall meat-and-potato of the riff.
Conclusion
Alrighty that will be it and I hope you enjoy those riffs. Power chords are the best kind of chords cuz it powerful. So make sure you get those tabs and hit the subscribe button and I’ll see you all later.
