Learn to play three fun and easy riffs by Lynyrd Skynyrd with Guitar Control instructor Darrin Goodman, aka Uncle D. Be sure to get the free tabs to go along with the video instruction and you will be rockin’ these Southern Rock Lynyrd Skynyrd riff classics tonight!
Introduction
How’s it going everybody? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing this video lesson and today I’ve got three fun and easy riffs for you from Lynyrd Skynyrd.
So right now, Guitar Control is giving away this really awesome daily practice routine to improve your lead guitar chops. This was put together by our very own Silvio Gazquez, a two-time Guitar Idle finalist. This routine covers the four main concepts that are necessary for lead guitar; alternate picking, legato, sweep picking and tapping. All the tabs and exercises are all included in this free ebook and there’s a link in the description where you can get yours. 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.
Lynryd Skynyrd Riff-1 – Gimme Three Steps
All right so the first Lynyrd Skynyrd riff we’re going to look at is the opening riff from Gimme Three Steps. So this one’s pretty easy they’re using these inverted power chords. The intervals are fourths instead of fifths and I’ve done lots and lots of videos about this subject. So we’re going to start off we’re gonna take our first finger and we’re just going to barre at the seventh fret on the D and the G string and this first measure, this first part of the riff is all in eighth notes so it’s pretty easy to count. So we start off on the downbeat of one we play that D and G string at the seventh fret, so it’s one, and then on the end of one we rest, so one, and two, then on the downbeat of two we hit it again and then on the and of two we’re gonna pick up the ninth fret of the A string with your third finger, but you just want to keep your first finger here. Then for beat three we go back to this D over A (D/A) here the seventh fret on the D and the G string and we hit three and, and then on the downbeat of four ninth fret of the A string and then back to that chord again and that’s our first measure… All right so then the second measure on the downbeat of one we rest and then starting on the and of one we’re going to go to the seventh fret on the A string with your first finger and we’re gonna go seven and then to nine on the downbeat of two and then on the and of two we’re gonna go back to that chord again. Now this time when we hit it we’re hitting it on the and of two, but it’s a quarter note, so it’s the and of two plus it rings out for the downbeat of three and then on the and of three we hit it again and then beat four we go back to the nine here and it’s a quarter note and that’s the first two measures…
So that’s the first two measures and the whole riff is four measures long and then it just repeats. So all we’re going to do here is we’re going to play the exact same thing, but we’re going to move it so instead of being based from the seventh to the ninth fret we’re going to move it down so it’s the second to the fourth fret. Now we’re going to do the exact same timing and we’re going to play it the same way we did we’re just down here… And then the only thing that’s different is the timing on the third measure is exactly the same as the first and then on the fourth measure what we’re going to do different here is we’re going to rest on the downbeat of one and then on the and of one we hit the second fret here of the A string and two, and then on the and of two back to the A5 over E and it’s a eighth note tied to a half note so that rings out for the rest of the measure and then it just simply repeats…
Lynyrd Skynyrd Riff-2 – What’s Your Name
All right next Lynyrd Skynyrd riff we’re going to look at is What’s Your Name intro riff and this is probably the hardest one out of all of this because it’s got a combination of regular fifth power chords and the inverted ones and it’s also got a shuffle pattern like that you’ve maybe done in the past. So this one starts off even though when you’re looking at the tab it shows we rest on beats one and two and then on the downbeat of three it’s showing the fifth fret of the D and the G string and on the and it’s the third fret of the A string. And then we’ve got a C sharp five and then a D5. So the easiest way to do it is just put your fingers down like you’re going to do a C5; so my first finger is on the third fret of the A string and then I’m barring the 10th fret of the D and the G string. So what I’m going to do here is I’m going to rest one, two, three, and four… So that’s the very first measure one two three and four and now when we hit that D5 on the and I’m just moving that C5 chord up chromatically. So I’m on three and five for C5 and then C sharp five it’s four and six and D five it’s five and seven so when we hit this D5 on the and of four it’s tied to the downbeat of one of the second measure and then starting on the and of one we’re going to do this shuffle thing. So we’ve got that ringing and we hit the A string on the and of one and now we’re going to take our pinky and reach up and grab the ninth fret on the D string and we’re still keeping the fifth fret of the a string. So here this is the shuffle thing I was talking about. So we’ve got… and then back to seven… then we rest on the downbeat of three and on the and of three we’re going to come up to the tenth fret of the D and the G string, so that’s the inverted power chord thing again and we’re going to hit that and slide to the ninth fret and that’s going to be and four, ten slide to nine and we rest on the downbeat of three and four and then on the and of four we’re barring the seventh fret of the D string… we hit that on the and of four and it’s tied to beat number one of the third measure which is a quarter note. So that rings out and then on the downbeat of two we strum it again two and then on the and of two we come back here to the ninth fret of the A string. So this part is kind of similar to the last riff… So this is ringing out; and four, and one, two and, three and. Then we hit the open low E string and the downbeat of four we’ve got an F sharp five. So it’s the second fret here on the low E string and the fourth fret on the A string, half step to G5 on the and of four and that’s our first three measures… So this is not only the most difficult riff of these three, but it’s the it’s the longest as well. Now we hit when we get to the and forth and now going on to the fourth measure here we got another shuffle. So we’re on this G5 one and, and then on the downbeat of two we reach up and grab the seventh fret on the A string and take it back off so it goes back to five, back to there again on the and of three and then that’s a quarter note so it’s the and of three plus the downbeat of four and then on the and of four we’re gonna grab a G5 up here. So 10th fret on the A string and 12th fret on the D and the G string and we hit that and slide out of it… Then the last measure here the fifth measure to wrap this up we rest on the downbeat of one and then on the and of one we have this A5 over E again; so we’re just barring the second fret of the D and the G string and then on the downbeat of two we come up to the fifth fret and then on the and of two we slide to four; so one and, two and, and three were back to the eight for the and of three we’re gonna go to the third fret of the A string with your second finger and then to the fourth fret with your third finger on the downbeat of four and then the and of four a five…
Lynyrd Skynyrd Riff-3 – Saturday Night Special
All right then the last Lynyrd Skynyrd riff we’re going to look at this the easiest one out of all of them in my opinion. This one uses a combination of power cords and the inverted ones as well. So we’re going to start off with those same inverted ones, but now we’re on the ninth fret of the A and the D string and it’s going to go from nine to seven and back to nine. So I’m going to use my third finger here on the ninth fret and my first finger when we go to the seventh fret. So this is eighth notes one and, two, and then on the and of two we’re gonna use our first finger to shift up to play the seventh fret of the D in the G string… So one and, two, and then we rest on the downbeat of three and the and of three we come back to where we started here on the B5 over F sharp and then we rest on the downbeat of four and then the and of four we’ve got this A5 power chord. So fifth fret of the low E string and seventh fret of the A and the D string, so we’ve got… So we hit that on the and a four, but then it’s tied to the first beat, well it’s actually the first and the second beat because it’s tied to a half note so it takes care of beats one and two of the second measure; so you want to throw some vibrato on there… Okay so we hit that it’s on the it’s beats one and two of that second measure and then starting on the downbeat of three we’re gonna go back to the seventh fret on the A and the D string and we’re gonna slide to nine so three and, and then we rest on four. So coming from this you can just slide up however you’re doing it if you’re doing it with three fingers, like this, you can slide up or just using one finger barre and whatever’s more comfortable for you. So this has two endings. So we play the first measure and then the second measure and then the first measure again, skip the second measure and go to the third measure because that’s what the brackets on the top is showing your first and second ending. So the first time through… we’re gonna hit this big E5; so it’s the open low E string, seventh fret of the A string with your first finger and then the ninth fret of the D string with your third finger ninth thread the G string with your third finger and the B and high E strings are open… So that one’s the shortest of them and it’s the easiest one as well. That’s a cool riff and it’s the first song by Lynyrd Skynyrd that I can remember every hearing. I had a compilation record that had a bunch of different songs, this is in the probably like 1978 or something. It was a hand-me-down record from my sister that had like all this different stuff, but this is one of the songs that was on there.
Conclusion
All right, so there you have it, three fun not two terribly difficult riffs to play from Lynyrd Skynyrd. 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 have not already done so please subscribe to the channel and 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 and have a great day.
