Learn to play three more fun and easy riffs from the 1970s in volume 6 from Guitar Control instructor Darrin Goodman, aka Uncle D. Be sure to get the free tabs to go along with the step by step video instruction and you will be rockin’ these classic 1970s riffs tonight!
Introduction
How’s it going everybody? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing you this video lesson and today I’ve got volume six of fun and easy riffs from the 1970s.
Right now Guitar Control is giving away this really cool free chord chart, it’s in PDF format and it just has every chord you could ever need all neatly compiled into one sheet. So you can download it, you can print it off, you can put a copy in your gig bag, put a copy where you practice; so just any situation you’re in you have any chords you need at a glance and it’s a free download, just click the link in the description.
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 3 fun & easy riffs from the 1970s.
1970s Riff-1 – Lola – The Kinks
All right, so the first 1970s riff to look at is Lola from The Kinks. So this one here is pretty easy and this very first chord we’ve got here is a C over G (C/G). So basically what it is we just got your regular C major chord, but we also are going to add the third fret of the low E string. All right, so how I do it is I use my third finger to play the third fret of the low E string and I use my fourth finger to play the third fret of the A string and then my middle finger to play the second fret of the D string, the G string is open, my first finger is playing the first fret of the B string and the high E string is open; it’s really nice sounding chord. Alright, so we start out we’ve got two quarter notes, so we strum this chord for beat one and, two, one, two. And then starting on beat three it’s sixteenth notes, so three e and uh. And then that last one is tied to the downbeat of four and as a sixteenth note, so three, four. And then we’re gonna switch to a D over A (D/A); so basically what it is, is just your D major chord, but you’re also going to play the open A string and we hit that on and uh, so one, two, three e and uh, four e and. And then we go to an E major. It’s regular E major chord so we strum that on the downbeat of one… Its sixteenth notes, so it’s one e and uh, two e and uh, three e and uh, four e and uh. So we’re just holding that chord, but we’re going to play starting on the high E string we’re going to go… the whole thing…
1970s Riff-2 – Mississippi Queen – Mountain
All right, so the next 1970s riff we’re going to look at is Mississippi Queen by Mountain. So this one’s pretty easy, it’s just made up of some power chords. So our first one is D5; so I’m coming up here to the fifth fret of the A string with my first finger and then how I like to just do it is I just use my third finger to barre the seventh fret of the D and the G string or you could do it with fingers like you know, using your first finger on the A string and your third finger on the D string and your fourth finger on the G string, whichever way is easier. And we start this off this is on the downbeat of one and then we’re going to slide up a whole step to E5 on the and of one. So it’s one and, two and, three and on beat three is a quarter note and we hit it and we slide out of it and then we rest on beat four… All right and then starting on the second measure we rest on the downbeat of one and then starting on the and of one we play the seventh fret of the A string with your third finger and that’s and two, and then on the and of two it’s the open A string. And then for beat three, which is a quarter note, we go to the fifth fret of the E string with your first finger, a little vibrato, and then beat four is back to seven; so that’s one and, two and, three, four… All right, so then measure three is the same as measure one. Now on measure four we’re going to do another little riff. So again we rest on the downbeat of one and then on the and of one we’re going to hit the open low E string. So we’ve got one and then on the downbeat of two we’re going to pick up the third fret of the low E string and do a half step bend and then on the and of two the open low E string; so one, two and, and then the second fret of the D string as a quarter note for beat three with some vibrato. And then I just let my fingers go lay across the strings and I do a quick four and, just muted, and then the whole thing just repeats…
1970s Riff-3 – Brown Sugar – The Rolling Stones
All right then the last 1970s riff to look at is Brown Sugar by The Rolling Stones. So this riff they’re in some sort of an open tuning, but you can play it this way and it still sounds good to me. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to we’re going to be doing the major barre chord shape with the root note being on the A string. So we’re doing a G; so what we’re going to do is we’re going to come up here to the 10th fret on the A string with your first finger and then use your third finger to barre the 12th fret of the D, G and B string. So since this is a G, this is G major, so what we’re looking at is G suspended four (Gsus4). So while you’re doing this we’re going to take our Pinky and we’re going to pick up the 13th fret of the B string, so that would be Gsus4. So if you look on the tabs we rest on one so it’s one, two, and then we take that pinky off for beat three, so one, two, three, four. So we rest on the downbeat of four, but on the and of four we’re going to do C major. So we’re going to do the same shape, we’re just going to bring it down so now your first finger is picking up the third fret of the A string and your third finger is barring the fifth fret of the D, G and B strings. So we hit that on the and of four and we’ve got one, two, three, four and, and that’s the first measure. And then on the second measure we rest on the downbeat of one and we hit this C again on the and of one and then on the downbeat of two we rest and the and of two we hit this again. And then now what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna hit C suspended four (Csus4). We’re gonna do the same thing. We’re gonna do what we did up there and we’re gonna take our pinky and we’re gonna pick up the sixth fret of the B string. So we hit that on the and of two and three. Beat four is just C, so that’s half of the riff… All right, so starting on measure three it’s the same as measure one, so we come back up here and do this again. Now beat four we rest on the downbeat of one, the and of one we hit the C again, we rest on the downbeat of two and on the and of two we hit the Csus4 with your pinky down. So this is what makes this one different is we’re going to go… one and, two and, three and, four…
Conclusion
All right, so there you have it, three more fun, not too terribly difficult riffs to play, from the 1970s. So if you like this 1970s riff 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 3 fun & easy riffs from the 1970s and have a great day.
