Learn to play these 3 easy and fun guitar riffs by Def Leppard with Guitar Control instructor Darrin Goodman. Be sure to get the free tabs to go along with the video instruction and you will be rockin’ these classics tonight!
Introduction
Hey everybody how’s it going? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing you this video lesson. Today we’re going to look at three Def Leppard riffs that are fun to play and they’re not too tough and easily recognizable. 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.
Def Leppard Riff-1 Let It Go
All right so the first we’re going to look at is Let It Go. If you’re a fan of Def Leppard then you already know that this is from the album High and Dry, which in my humble opinion is the best album that they did, probably not a really popular opinion because I know a lot of people really like Hysteria, but I just really love the way High and Dry sounds; just the songwriting and the guitar work on it is really great and great sound too on this album. All right so this one we’re going to start off with just the open A string and it’s on the and of four; so we rest one two three four and. And then on the downbeat of the next measure we’re going to go to the third fret of the A string and you’re going to want to use your second finger for this and I’m going to explain why here in a second and we’re going to pick that and do a quarter step bend and then go back to the open A string. So now the reason we’re using our second finger is because the next thing here is we’re going to play the fourth fret of the D and the G string and I’m just going to use my third finger and I’m going to put my first finger onto the second fret at the same time and we’re going to bend this a half step and release it to the second fret… Now that’s just the way I like to do it. I mean you could use two fingers like your second finger onto the fourth fret of the D string and your third finger on the fourth fret of the G string and do it that way, but just for me it’s just easier to do it this way… And then on the and of four of that measure we do the same thing and we do that same bend again, but this time we go to the open d and G string and that’s the first two measures, well technically it’d be the first three measures counting that first measure that just has that open string. Now the beginning of the second measure is the beginning of a repeat too. So this whole thing is six measures long, but then you repeat measures two through six again… Now we do the first one again, but now this time instead of playing the open A string we’re gonna do a percussive sound just of the A string and the D string and that’s on four and then on the and of four we hit a C five power chord (C5); so first finger third fret of the A string, third finger fifth fret of the D string and then we move that up a whole step to D five (D5) and we just let that ring out and then it ends on the and of four with the open A string which puts us back to the second measure and then it just starts over again…
Def Leppard Riff-2 Foolin
All right so the next one we’re going to look at is Foolin. So this is just kind of the main intro riff and the verse does this as well. So for this we switch into a clean tone and we start off we’ve got an A suspended two (Asus2). Now usually you do a suspended two with your second and third finger, but for this we’re going do it with your first and second fingers; so your first finger is on the second fret of the D string and your second finger is going to go on the second fret of the G string and then we play the A and B strings open… and that’s one and two and three and four and. So we’ve got three eighth notes and then a quarter note and we’re going; A, D, G, B and then D, A and then we slide up a half step so we’re on the third fret of the D string with again with your first finger because that’s on the and of four. Now once we go there and how I do it is I use my third finger, but we want to go to the fourth fret of the G string and then the B string open and then move the note on the G string up to the fifth fret and play the D and G strings together and then the open high E string, the G string and then the B string and that’s the first two measures. Now the first two measures are the same as the third and fourth measure and then it just repeats and if you’re familiar with the song it does this riff over and over again…
Def Leppard Riff-3 Hysteria
All right and then the last one we’re going to look at is Hysteria and this is like the intro for Hysteria and then it just kind of repeats this through the verse. So we’re going to start off, again with a clean tone, we’re on the fifth fret of the A string with your second finger and the fourth fret of the D string with your first finger and we’re gonna play A, D, A and then the G string open and then D, A and D and that’s the first measure; so it’s like one and two and three and four and… So that’s the first measure and the first and second measures are the same… All right and then when we go on to the third measures we make our first change. So we’re going to do is we’re just going to take that same shape that we’re doing there and we’re going to move it down to the low E string on the third and second fret; so it’s like you’re going to do a G chord, you can use your fourth finger or your third finger, but I usually use my fourth finger and put it on to the fourth fret the of the D string. Now we’re gonna do that exact same picking pattern and measures three and four are the same and that’s the first half the whole riff, it’s eight measures long, so the first four measures again… Then for measure five we simply just remove your middle finger so now we’re playing the low E string open and it’s the same picking pattern again and we do just one measure of that and then back to the G major seven (GM7); so we put our first second finger back down onto the third fret of the low E string and then we just go back to the original chord again and the last two measures are the same as the first two and then it would just start over again…
Conclusion
Alright, so there you have it, three easy and fun to play recognizable riffs from Def Leppard. I’m not like a huge Def Leppard fan per se, especially in their ladder stuff, I really like that album High and Dry and I really like Pyromania. Pyromania came out when I was like in the seventh grade and it kind of really got me into that type of music; so I kind of look at it as High and Dry, Pyromania and Hysteria are kind of the golden age of Def Leppard so I chose a song from each one of these albums. 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.
