Learn to play three fun and easy guitar riffs by The Cars 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 by The Cars in record time.
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 The Cars.
Right now Guitar Control is giving away this cool free chord chart and there’s a link down in the description where you can get yours. It’s in PDF format with every chord that you could ever need neatly compiled all into one sheet. So you can download it and print it off, you can throw it in your gig bag, put it where you practice so you can have whatever chord you ever might need in any situation at a glance and it’s a free download; just click the link.
So be sure to click the link in the description for the tab so let’s get close up and take a look at these.
The Cars Riff-1 – Shake It Up
All right so the first one to look at is riff from Shake It Up. So this one’s all just single notes so we’re starting we’re here on the third fret of the a string with my first finger. So we’ve got one, two, three and four, and then we rest and then on the next measure and it’s one two three and then we go on the and of three to the fifth fret of the A string and I’m using my second finger and then to the seventh fret and that’s the first two measures… Then on the third measure we go to the fifth fret of the A string so I’m going to use my second finger so I can stay in the same position and it’s the same similar timing one two three and four and then we go to the sixth fret so I’m gonna use my third finger still on the low E string one two three and then it comes back to the six five and then the third fret and then it just starts over again…
The Cars Riff-2 – Good Times Roll
All right now the next one we’ll look at is the riff from Good Times Roll and this is the most difficult one out of these three by far. So for this one here you want to come up and you’re going to play the seventh fret and on the B and the high E string at the same time. So how I do is I just use my second finger to pick up the B string and my third finger to pick up the high E string both at the seventh fret and then I’m going to use my first finger to pick up the seventh fret of the low E string. Now we’ve got this kind of a weird pattern thing here so we fret the low E string and how I’m doing this too is hybrid picking; so I’m picking the low E string with the pick and then I’m plucking the high E and the B string with my second and third finger. So we’ve got seven and then you’re going to lift your finger up and you want to hit the natural harmonic at the seventh fret that kind of palm mute it… so it’s on, harmonic, non harmonic and then you pluck the B and the E string together and then it just repeats. So it’s kind of difficult to get that rhythm down for it you know so you get it kind of into that groove… So that this one like I said is pretty challenging so I would just really take it slow just break it down so you’re literally like… and then just work on trying to slowly speed it up…
The Cars Riff-3 – Just What I needed
All right and then the last one I’m going to look here is Just What I Needed. So this one here we’re going to start off with this E major barre chord. So I’m going to take my third finger and I’m going to bar it so it’s picking up the ninth fret of the D, G and B string and then my first finger is going to pick up the seventh fret of the low or excuse me of the A string and we hit this on the downbeat of one and then on the and of one we just have a percussive strum; so all I’m doing is just releasing the pressure here so I’m just touching the strings so when I hit them it’ll be like kind of that percussive sound. So we’ve got one and two and then on the and of two we’re going to move that shape all the way down do a B5; so my first finger is on the second fret of the A string and my third finger is on the fourth fret of the D string and we hit that on the and of two and that also takes care of beat one or excuse me of a beat three and then on the downbeat of four we hit that as a mute strum and then we’re gonna come up here and do A5. So I’m on the fifth fret of the low E string with my first finger in the seventh fret of the A string with my third finger… this is on the end of four and then starting on the next measure we hit it again is a quarter note for beat one then we rest on the downbeat of two and then on the end of two we’ve got a C sharp five (C#5); so we’re just going to take this same shape and we’re going to move it up a set of strings and down one fret so now my first finger is on the fourth fret of the A string and my third finger is on the sixth fret of the D string and we hit that and three… And then we come down to we move it down whole steps go back to that B5 four and four and then on the and of four we rest… and then the third measure is the same as the first measure and the fourth major is the same as the second except in instead it’s just… we just hit that and then we rest and the whole thing repeats…
Conclusion
All right so there you have it three fun not too terribly difficult riffs to play from The Cars. 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 we upload throughout the week. Well that is all I have for you today. Thanks for watching and have a great day.
