Learn 3 killer guitar riffs by the Scorpions from Guitar Control instructor Darrin Goodman. Be sure to get the free tabs to go along with the step by step video instruction for these classic Scorpions riffs.
Introduction
How’s it going everybody? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing you this video lesson and today I want to show you how to play three easy, fun and recognizable riffs from the Scorpions. So not only are these fun, cool riffs to play, but they all have some things that are going to be good for you for practice, especially if you’re beginner to learn some kind of some different techniques and methods of playing. 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 3 killer guitar riffs by the Scorpions .
Scorpions Riff-1 Big City Nights
All right, so the first Scorpions riff we’re going to look at is Big City Nights. So we’re going to start off we’ve just got this A5 and I’m on the second fret of the D string with my first finger and then the A string is open and we play this on the downbeat of one and then we rest on the and of one and then on the downbeat of two we got this percussive thing, you just touch the strings so you’re muting them and then we’re going to leave our first finger where we’ve got it, but we’re going to take our second finger and put it on to the third fret of the D string and strum that and then take it back off so we’re back to the A5 and then follow that with the open low E string and that’s like the first measure. Okay and then starting on the second measure we’re going to come all the way up here to the eighth fret on the A string and the tenth fret on the D string, and this is F5, we play that twice and then we move down a half step so we’re at seventh fret and the ninth fret, E5, and then down a whole step to the fifth fret and seventh fret for D5 and then down a whole step from there to the third fret and fifth fret for C5… and that’s the first two measures. And then from there on to the third measure we’re going to take this shape we’re doing here, this C5 power chord and we’re just going to move it down to G5, so now our first finger is on the third fret of the low E string and our third finger is on the fifth fret of the A string and we’re going to hit that twice and then we’re going to keep our first finger where it is and we’re going to take our pinky and come all the way up here to the seventh fret, it’s kind of a big stretch,, and then we come back to the G string again and then the open D string… Then we’ve got this triad kind of a riff and basically what we can do is we can come to make it simplify this so you just take your regular D chord shape and if you were going to make that D suspended four (Dsus4) you put your pinky down and what we’re going to do is we’re going to take that Dsus4 shape and we’re going to move it all the way up so our first and second finger are on the seventh fret and our third and fourth finger on the eighth fret… So we’ve got like one two and three and then we’re going to take our pinky off so it’s just like the regular D shape and then follow that with the open D string again and then the riff just repeats. So the whole riffs slowly…
Scorpions Riff-2 The Zoo
All right the next Scorpions riff we’re going to look at is the riff from The Zoo. Now when you think of The Zoo you probably think of this riff… but we’re not going to do that one today, we already covered that in another one of these lessons and I’ll have a link for that right up here where you can check that out if you want to learn that part. So we’re going to be looking at here is the main opening riff before that part of it starts. Now this is all just made up of these regular power chord shapes like we were just doing in the last song. So we start off with E5; so I’m on the seventh fret of the A string with my first finger and the ninth fret of the D string with my third finger. Now you could also pick up the ninth fret of the G string so you can just barre your finger like that or you could use your pinky, whatever is just whatever is more comfortable for you. This riff is made up uh primarily of triplets so on the first beat tripl-el-it, so one yellow and then on beat two, two yellow and then on the third the third set here we’re going to hit this one time and then move down a whole step to D5 and then back up to seven… Now with this as far as the strumming I mean you could do it with all down strokes but I personally feel that it makes it more difficult. So here I’m down up down… then moving on to the next measure after we’ve come back up to here now we’re going to go all the way down to C5 and we’re going to move it down to the third fret with our first finger and the fifth fret with our third and fourth or you know however you’re doing it and this is all just being played on the A, D and G strings, now we’ve got down a half step to the second and fourth fret back up to the third fret back up to the seventh and ninth and then to the fifth so that’s like half of the riff… Okay and then starting on the third riff the third riff is the same as the first one… Now for that last one we’re going to come down to the third fret to the second back to the third and back to the fifth and that’s a half note so that one rings out and then the riff just repeats… three two and that’s where it would go into that other riff…
Scorpions Riff-3 Can’t Live Without You
All right so then the last Scorpions riff we’re going to look at is the main riff from Can’t Live Without You and this one is probably the easiest riffs as far as what you’re doing with your left hand because there’s a whole lot you have to do with that with your fretting hand but we’re pedaling the A string and they when we do the pedal notes they’re palm muted but when we hit these chords they’re not so you’re having to kind of alternate back and forth so if you’re a beginner this is a really good one to like learn you know and practice to get down for this technique because it’s widely used in you know rock and metal and stuff like that. Okay so for this chord it’s we’re going to be using these kind of these triad shapes so first finger onto the fifth fret of the B string second finger on to the sixth fret of the G string third finger onto the seventh fret of the D string and then we’re going to take your pinky and you’re going to put it on to the seventh fret of the G string because we’re going to be switching between this and then taking that pinky off, so that’s basically all you’re going to be doing with your fretting hand is just lifting and lowering that pinky so this is all made up of eighth notes so we’ve got on the downbeat of one and the and a one we have the petal of the two of the A string open. What we don’t want, we want it palm muted and then we do this chord we don’t mute; so it’s one and two and three working with going from doing the palm muting to playing the chord. If you’re a beginner it can be fairly difficult to do, especially when palm muting, if you’re new to that your hand’s going to kind of wander. So what I really recommend you do is that you find that that sweet spot, move your hand until you find it and then just try to develop a muscle memory of resting your arm in that area so that way when you want to palm you can palm you and when you don’t you can just raise your palm up; I always keep my fingers anchored on the guitar. So the first measure… Then the second measure we start with it on the downbeat of one; one and, two and, three and four… and then on measure three we start off pinky on off and then so on the and of two and three and four and one and two and three and four, and then it just repeats…
Conclusion
All right so there you have it, three good sounding and not too difficult to play highly recognizable iconic riffs from The Scorpions. So if you like this Scorpions riffs 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 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 3 killer guitar riffs by the Scorpions and have a great day.
