Led Zeppelin Riffs 2.0 By Popular Demand

Guitar Control presents instructor Darrin Goodman with more Led Zeppelin riffs as requested in the comments on YouTube. Be sure to get the free tabs to go along with the video instruction.

Zeppelin Riffs

Introduction

Hey how’s it going everybody? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing you this video lesson. Today I’ve got three more Zeppelin riffs for you and all three of these were by request from you guys. So like I’ve said before if you just leave in the comments down below stuff you’d like to see I’ll see if I can take care of that. 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 Led Zeppelin Riffs 2.0.

Zeppelin Riff-1 Fool In The Rain

All right so the first Led Zeppelin riff we’re going to look at is the riff from Fool In The Rain and this is a really kind of a strange riff as far as the timing and stuff for it goes, but it’s it’s pretty easy to play, it’s just made up of a bunch of triads. So the very first chord we’ve got for this we’ve got this C over G (C/G); so I’ve just got my first finger onto the first fret of the B string and then the G and high E strings are open. Then we just go to a D minor shape and then we move that D minor shape up a whole step and then we’re going to take our third finger and just barre across the fifth fret of the G, B and E string… so that’s the first part of the first measure. Then after that we have a rest and we strum that A minor over C (Am/C) all three of these at the fifth fret and then we’re going to take our first finger and we’re going to come down and barre it across the high E and the B string at the third fret and then take your second finger and put it onto the fourth fret of the G string… and that’s on that’s the very end of the first measure and then it’s tied to the beginning of the second measure. Then from there we’re going to do this G triad; so your first finger is already here on the third fret of the B string and we’re just going to take our second finger and move it to the fourth fret of the G string and then our third finger to the fifth fret of the D string and then we rest and that’s the first two measures which is also half of this riff. Then for the second half of measure three is actually the same as the first measure, so we just do that again… and then the difference this time is that we don’t add that G at the end. So when we strum this G/B here the fourth fret of the G string and the third fret of the B and high E at the end of that measure and it’s tied to the downbeat of the fourth measure and then and then it just rests for the remainder and then the whole thing just starts over again. Like I said it’s weird because this is in 12/8 so it’s like I’m not even going to attempt to try to count this, you just kind of have to feel it… and then the whole thing would just repeat…

Zeppelin Riff-2 Ramble On

All right so the next Led Zeppelin riff we’re going to look at is Ramble On. So for this one here if we just take the E major shape that you already know, hopefully you already know that, and you bring it all the way up so that your first finger is on the 13th fret of the G string, your second finger is on the 14th fret of the A string and your third finger is on the 14th fret of the D string and we’re gonna strum all of the strings open for this. Now more than likely this is probably actually done with an open tuning of some sort because there’s a lot of Zeppelin stuff that’s that way, but I’m not 100% sure, this is just the way that i learned how to play it. So we’ve got this starting with this it’s basically we’re doing E, we’re just playing it a whole octave higher and we’re going to start off with this as 16th notes. So we’ve got; down, up, down, up, down on the downbeat of the second beat number two and that’s an eighth note, so it’s just going to ring out for twice as long as those other ones did and then this is where we’re going to move to E9 suspended four (E9sus4). So all we have to do is just move this shape down a whole step so now my first finger is on the 11th fret of the G string and my second finger is on the 12th fret of the A and my third finger’s on the 12th fret of the D string and then we just start doing that same strumming again, but this the second half of beat two plus all of beat three and beat four is sixteenth notes, so we’re like… and that’s the first measure. Then for the second measure we’re going to come down and we’re going to do this A triad shape here; so the A string is open, I’m on the seventh fret of the D string with my third finger, the sixth fret of the G string with my second finger and the fifth fret of the B string with my first finger and the high E string is open. So this starts on the downbeat of one on measure two and it’s an eighth note and then we follow that with two sixteenth notes to complete that beat and then we continue this for three sixteenth notes of beat number two and then we’re going to the very last sixteenth note of beat two we’re going to take your pinky and you’re gonna hammer it down to the seventh fret of the G string. So we’ve got… we hammer that down and then we strum just like that for all of beat three E and uh and then on the downbeat of uh beat four we strum it again and we pull off our pinky with one more strum and then we just try to hit the D, G and B strings open and then that makes and then you just repeat the whole thing…

Zeppelin Riff-3 Houses Of The Holy

All right and then finally the last Led Zeppelin riff we’re going to look at is the riff from Houses Of The Holy. So for this one here we’re going to start off with our second finger on the third fret of the A string and our first finger on the second fret of the D string and we rest on the downbeat of one and then we play this on the and of one; so it’s like one and then we’re going keep our fingers here, but use our third finger to go to the fourth fret of the A string. You want to try to keep this note ringing if possible and then the open A string and then where first finger here we’re just going to drop it down to do like an A chord and that’s half of the riff. All of the first measure except the riff starts over again on the and of four on that first measure and you do that twice and this is where you go to here that’s on the downbeat of one and the and of one is the open A string and then two and with that A chord and then on the downbeat of three we rest and on the and of three we have this F sharp minor seven over E (F#m7/E) which is basically we’re just going to take our first finger and barre it across the second fret of the D, G, B and E strings it’s three and four and, and that’s the whole riff…

Conclusion

All right so there you have it, three riffs from Led Zeppelin by request. So if you you have some ideas for riffs and fpr this three riff series that I’ve been doing leave it in the comments. Like I said I read that stuff and you know I’ll try to work it out whenever possible. 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 or comments or anything 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 Led Zeppelin Riffs 2.0 and have a great day.

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