Learn to play 3 killer classic riffs by the Rolling Stones from Guitar Control instructor Darrin Goodman. Be sure to get the free tabs to go along with the step by step video instruction and rock these killer riffs tonight.
Introduction
Hey everybody how’s it going? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing you this video lesson. Today I want to show you how to play three cool riffs from The Rolling Stones. Now as you probably already know a lot of the Rolling Stones material is in alternate tunings; Keith Richards plays a lot of different open tunings so we’re not going to be doing these in open tunings but with alternative ways to play them in standard tuning so that way you can grab your guitar and play these riffs. 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.
Rolling Stones Riff-1 Gimme Shelter
All right so the very first one we’re going to look at is Gimme Shelter. So for this we’re going to come up and we’re going to take our first finger and we’re just going to barre it at the sixth fret across the D and G string; now you can get the B and E string along with it, but these are the two notes we’re looking for. This is all made up of eighth notes so we start off we play the D string and then the G string; one and, and then on the downbeat of two we’re going to put our second finger down onto the seventh fret of the B string and our third finger onto the eighth fret of the G string and we’re going to two and three… Then we take our third finger off, four and… So it’s fairly easy to count, but it’s kind of a thing that you don’t want to be like super tight and emphasized on those eighth notes; you kind of want to have a little bit of a little swing to it. Now when you put your fingers down here where I keep having a problem with doing is that my second finger will go to the B string and my third finger sometimes will drop onto the D string instead of the g string; it’s just from all the riffs where you’re hammering on to a minor seventh chord, so that’s where I keep getting kind of tripped up. So when you’re practicing you can hear if you get the wrong one. Then we just simply move that down a whole step so now we’re barring at the fourth fret and we do the exact same thing, but we’re on the fourth fret of the D and G string and then the fifth fret of the B string and the sixth fret of the G string… and then we do the same thing and lift our third finger off and keep our second finger onto the B string… Then we move all the way down so now we’re barring at the second fret and now the notes on the G and B string are changing, so now we’re at the second fret on the D and the G string and then we’re gonna play the fourth fret of the G string with our third finger and the fourth fret of the B string with our fourth finger… and then the whole thing just repeats…
Rolling Stones Riff-2 Jumping Jack Flash
All right so the next we’re going to look at is Jumping Jack Flash and this one’s very simple. So we start off with a B major barre chord by picking up the fifth fret of the a string with my first finger or excuse me the second fret of the A string and then i’m on the fourth fret of the D, G and B string with my third finger, one and two… so when we hit this on the downbeat of two and it’s tied to the downbeat of three; so it’s like two three and four and so that is second fret of the D string with my first finger to the fourth fret and then to the second fret of the G string and four and that’s the first measure… And then starting on the second measure this note is tied to the downbeat of one so it’s like these two are eighth notes and this one is a quarter note equivalent and then it does it again… Okay so starting on the second measure this note’s already ringing over one one and two and three and four and, and then it would just repeat; so the riff is only two measures long, but there’s four measures on here because it just repeats… Now you can kind of spice it up and instead of picking all these notes you can pick hammer; there’s sometimes on there you can hear where he’s doing a hammer-on and sometimes he’s picking both notes so you can just kind of mix it up.
Rolling Stones Riff-3 Start Me Up
All right and then the final we’re going to look at is Start Me Up. So for this I’m going to come up and we’re going to barre at the fifth fret across the D, G and B strings. Now this has that like what I was talking about earlier when we were doing Give Me Shelter, when you were playing on the B string and then a half step up on the G string, now we’re going to be doing that same thing, but it is going to be where we’re skipping over, so we’re going from this where we’re barring across the fifth fret of the D, G and B string and then we’re going to put keep that barre there, but then put our second finger down on the sixth fret of the B string and our third finger on the seventh fret of the D string… So this first one is coming in on the and of four, so it’s like one two three four and one and two three and four and, and then it just repeats… and then we go on twice, off twice, three times and back on… Then we hit on the and of four just the D and the G string open and then we’re gonna jump down here. So this riff is probably easier overall if you’re playing it with the open tuning, but this isn’t too terribly tough, it just takes a little bit of practice and you can get this… So we’re going to come down here sixth fret of the low E string with my first finger and the eighth fret with my second finger because we’re gonna do this little shuffle thing… so we go from the note on the low E stays on six with the one on the A string goes from eight to ten and then it just starts over again…
Conclusion
All right so there you have it, three riffs from the Rolling Stones that originally are played in open tunings, but I’m not 100% sure if all three of those are originally done in open tunings, I know that Start Me Up is, but the other two I’m not certain, I just figured them out in a way to play them in standard tuning. 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 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. That is all I have for you today. Thanks for watching and have a great day.
