Learn to play these three easy and fun riffs by Stone Temple Pilots with Guitar Control instructor Darrin Goodman. Be sure to get the free tabs to go along with the step by step video instruction.
Introduction
How’s it going everybody? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing you this video lesson. Today I want to show you how to play three cool riffs from Stone Temple Pilots. I’m a big fan of Stone Temple Pilots and I wanted to give a shout out to the guitar player and I completely forgot his name, but he is an extremely underrated guitar player and comes up with some really cool riffs and is a great songwriter in my opinion. So be sure to click on the link in the description for the tabs let’s get close up and take a look at these.
Stone Temple Pilots Riff-1 Plush
All right so the first one we’re going to look at is Plush. So for this we’re going to be using a clean tone and we’re going to start off here with a G5; so it’s basically we’re doing the top end of the G chord. So your third finger will be on the third fret of the B string and your fourth finger will be on the third fret of the high E string and the G string is open and we play that as two eighth notes so it’s like one and, and then we rest on the downbeat of two and then on the and of two we’re going to switch to this B flat minor 6 (Bbm6). So if you take the D7 chord shape and you just move it up a half step so first fingers on the second fret of the B string and second fingers on the third fret of the G string and third fingers on the third fret of the high E string and we strum this on the end of two and then it’s tied to a half note so we let it ring out for beats three and four and that’s the first measure… Then starting on the second measure we’ve got this A minor seven (Am7) variation here. So what we’re going to do is your third finger will stay where it is here on the third fret of the high E string and we’re going to take our second finger we’re gonna move it from the third fret of the G string to the second and then drop your first finger onto the first fret of the D string and we do that same thing one and rest on the on the downbeat of two and then on the and of two we just take our first and second fingers off so that way the G and the B strings are open and our third finger is on the third fret of the high E string and that is a a dotted half note so we’re strumming this on the and of two and it rings out for the downbeat of three and the and of three and then for beat four we’re gonna strum that and then put our first finger onto the second fret of the B string strum it again and then second finger to the second fret of the B string and then it repeats. So if you look on your transcription measures one and two repeat three times and then on the fourth time we skip the second measure and go to the fourth measure which is just that Am7 and then the G. So the whole thing slowly…
Stone Temple Pilots Riff-2 Sex Type Thing
All right next we’re going to be looking at is Sex Type Thing. So for this we’re going to put some overdrive back on and this riff is played fairly fast and I’m just going to go over really slow and then you can work on speeding it up. So we start off with just the open low E string and that’s one and then on the and of one we’re going to take our first finger we’re just gonna barre the seventh fret of the E and A string and that’s and two and then on the and of two just the open low E string again and that’s one and two and one and two and, and then for three we’re going to take our first finger and move it down a half step so now it’s on the sixth fret of the low E string and then our middle finger is on the seventh fret of the A string and that’s a quarter note and that is beat three… And then for beat four the open low E one and on the and of that we do an A5; so first finger on the fifth fret of the low E string, third finger on the seventh fret of the A string and that’s on the and of four and then it’s tied to the downbeat of the next measure… So on that second measure we’ve got this ringing out for one and then on the and of one the open string again and now we’ve got this chord that sounds really good, but it’s a pretty big stretch, so your first finger is going to be on the third fret of the low E string and your fourth finger is going to be on the seventh fret of the A string and we’re going to hit that on the downbeat of two then we for the and of two we just take our first finger off and then on the downbeat of three we put it back on and then we’re going to move our first finger back up to the fifth fret for the A5 and then back down to the third fret and then the open string again and then that whole thing just repeats…
Stone Temple Pilots Riff-3 Creep
All right and then finally we’re going to look at is Creep and this is the unplugged version that I personally like over the studio version, they’re both great but I really like the way this one sounds. So for this one we’ve got three chords that we’re going to be using. We’ve got a regular old C; so third fret of the A string with third finger, second fret of the D string with my second finger, the G string is open and I’m on the first fret of the B string with my first finger and the high E string is open. Then we’ve got B7; second fret of the A string with my second finger, first fret of the D string with my first finger, second fret of the G string with my third finger, the B string is open and I’m on the second fret of the high E with my pinky and we don’t play the low E string. Then we’ve got E minor seven (Em7) and for this particular voicing you take your regular E minor chord and the way I like to do it is I use my first and second finger and then we’re going to be playing the third fret of the B and the third fret of the high E. So if you do it this way you could just barre your pinky across or you could actually put your third finger on the B string and your fourth finger on the high E string or you could do it this way, whatever is whatever is easier for you so you can get that. All right so we start off with the C and we’re gonna strum and this is fairly slow so we’re; A, D, G, E, B, G and this is like one and two and three and four. Then we switch to the B7 and we go; A, D, G and then the B and E string together and that’s one and two and three and, and then we switch to the E minor seven and on the and of four we just hit the lower half of it so it’s like we’re hitting an E5, but if you just put your fingers on for the chord then you’ll be ready to for the rest of it. So the first two measures again… Okay so starting on that third measure we’ve got the Em7 and we’re going to play that one, two and then on the and of two we just do that percussive strum and how I do it is I just kind of release the pressure and keep my fingers in the right place so I just release the pressure so it’s just touching the strings and then I get that percussive sound… so one two and three four and… And then starting on the fourth measure one and two and three four and. So the timing on it’s kind of weird and it’s kind of hard to count, more or less you kind of have to feel it, and then on the fifth measure of this which is actually measure ten on your transcription because of the other songs, we’re still doing this chord and it’s one two and three and, and then on the downbeat of four you play the A string open and then the second fret with our second finger and then starting on the next measure it goes back into a C again. So that sixth measure, measure 11 on your transcription, is the same as the first one to the B7 same as the second measure and then Em7 and we just strum the whole chord…
Conclusion
All right so there you have it, three fairly easy and fun to play, really good sounding in my opinion riffs from Stone Temple Pilots and like I said earlier I really feel like that the guitar player from this band, I wish I could recall what his name is right now, I believe he’s really underrated, he’s not like a shredder kind of a guy, but he’s just a great songwriter and just he’s got always got great tone. 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.
