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 a cool Mark Knopfler riff from Money For Nothing.

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 this.

Mark Knopfler Riff – Money For Nothing

All right, so a big thing that makes it sound the way that it sounds is the way that Knopfler plays with his fingers. You can play this with a pick, but it sounds so much better playing with your fingers and in a lot of ways I believe is easier. So we’re going to start off we’ve just got this D5 power chord so I’m here on the fifth fret of the D string with my first finger and the seventh fret of the G string with my third finger and we’re gonna play that and I’m just using my thumb and my first and second finger. So right now I’m just using my first and second finger to pluck the D and the G string. So we’re going to start this off we play that twice as well we do it three times, we do it as beats one and two, and then the downbeat of three; so like one, two, three. And then on the and of three how I like to do it is I just keep my first finger barred and then I use my third finger to come up here to seven because the next chord is there where you’re just barring the D and the G strings. So then you get one, two, three and four and then on the and of four we’re gonna change… So on the and of four I’m just going to take my middle finger I’m going to bring it up here to the sixth fret of the B string, but since I’ve got my finger of already barring here I get the fifth fret of the G string. And then we hit that on the and of four;

so one, two, three and, four and. So it’s tied to beat one of the second measure so we’re gonna let that keep ringing, but we’re gonna pluck the D string and it’s going to be the fifth fret because again your first finger barre here; one, two, three and, four and, one and then on the downbeat of two we hit that first G5 power chord again… So that’s on the downbeat of two and then on the and of two we barre five and five. So we hit that on the and of two and then the downbeat of three we’re gonna move down to the third fret so we’re barring the D and the G strings and we hit that on the and of three. And then on the downbeat of four we hit the open D string and to four the open D and G strings. So that’s like the first two measures of the riff… Okay then on the next measure we actually we have on the downbeat of one just a little percussive note. So it doesn’t really matter which string you hit, just whatever’s easier for you. It doesn’t have to be just a single string, you just to kind of get that sound in there and then on the downbeat of two we hit the open D and G strings again and that’s tied to the downbeat of three. Then on the and of three we go back to the third fret D and G strings and then two mute strums for four and… Okay then on measure four we’re gonna do a regular B flat power chord. So first finger on the first fret of the A string and then I just use my third finger to pick up the third fret of the D string and my fourth finger pick up the third fret of the G string; we’re going to hit that on one and then we slide up to three. So when we hit that it’s not counted in the timing, it’s that small note. If you look on the note it’s like a smaller size note and the font looks different it has parentheses around it. So it’s like you kind of feel it, but if you think about it like one e and uh, two, three and then we’re gonna slide back down and then we end with the G, D and G strings open. So that’s the first four measures, like half of the entire sequence.

So right now Guitar Control is giving away this really cool free chord chart, there’s a link down in the description where you can get yours. It has every chord you could ever need all neatly compiled on one sheet. It’s in PDF format 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 whatever situation you could have any chord you needed to glance and it’s a free download.

Okay so then starting on the fifth measure we’re back up to where we started here on that G5, and again we’ve got that kind of a mute on the downbeat of one and then we come in on two. Two and then on the downbeat of three we hit just the D and G strings on the and of two, fifth and fifth fret, that’s the C5 over G… and then back to the G5 for four and; so one and, two, three and, four and… Then on measure six we’re going to start off we’re going to hit the D string again, we’re still on the fifth fret and the seventh fret of the G string is still ringing… and now we’re gonna pick up the eighth fret of the B string so I just use my fourth finger here as we’re just going five eight we’re just picking up the octave… All right, and then on the and of two we hit the G5 again on the downbeat of three move down where it’s just the fifth and fifth. So it’s all eighth notes. It’s just kind of strange where it’s coming in because it’s coming in on the and of two and three and down to the third fret and three and four and D and G strings open… Okay now on measure seven is very similar to measure three. We start off with that mute open B and G then to the third fret. On measure three we did the two mutes, but here we’re gonna go open D string on the down beat of four and then on the and of four it’s the D and G string both open and then we kind of do something similar to what we did at a measure four. We’re going to come up here, but now we’re going to do it third fret of the A and D string and again I’m just using my first and second finger, you might want to use your thumb, I’m not 100% sure of how he’s actually doing it. I know he puts his thumb in there, but this is just kind of the way that I’ve adapted to do it to try to emulate that sound. So we hit that on beat four and then we’re gonna slide up to the fifth fret the same way we did before with that last 16th note and then we hit it again and then the whole thing would just repeat…

Conclusion

All right, so there you have it, a really cool riff in the style of Mark Knopfler from Money for Nothing by Dire Straits. 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’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 and have a great day.

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 Tesla’s rendition of Signs by Five Man Electric Band.

So right now Guitar Control is giving away this really cool free chord chart, there’s a link down in the description where you can get yours. It has every chord you could ever need all neatly compiled on one sheet. It’s in PDF format 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 whatever situation you could have any chord you needed to glance and it’s a free download.

So be sure to click the link in the description for the tabs and let’s get close up and take a look at this.

Signs – Tesla

All right, so we’re going to be for the most part just playing a bunch of just basic chords that you probably already know; hopefully you already know. All right, so we start with this D right on the downbeat of one and it’s a quarter note and then on the downbeat of two we strum it again. It’s an eighth note and then on the and of two it’s two sixteenth notes. So we’ve got a total of four strums; long, short, shorter. And then we’re gonna go to the D suspended four (Dsus4) and we hit that right on the downbeat of three, but then we immediately switch back to regular D for the remainder of the measure… right on the downbeat of one of the second measure we go back to the Dsus4, back to the D, so it’s kind of a pattern that just repeats… the very last one there right at the end of the second measure we’ve got just the A and the D string open and then to the second fret of the A string, but the D string is still open and these are like kind of pickup notes into the into the beginning of the verse and then we just drop into a regular C major chord…

All right, so now we’re on the verse… so the vocal start right there and we start with C and it’s just a regular regular open position C major chord; so I’m on the third fret of the A string, second fret of the D string, G string is open, first fret of the B string, high E string and we’re gonna play this starting on the downbeat of one with C. So how I’m doing is I’m just hitting the E, the A, the D and then the G and the B together; one and, two. Then we’re gonna go to a G over B (G/B) and this is really simple. All you have to do is take your middle finger and move it from the second fret of the D string to the second fret of the A string and take your other two fingers off so now you’re going to be playing the same thing, three and four… Then we’ve got a D over A (D/A). So if you just go back to the original D major chord, but now you’re just going to start off by hitting the open A and then the open D, one and two, and then to a G major chord, three and four…

So with that part it shows on the on the transcription you hit the E string and then the A, D and G strings and then the G, B and high E. So when you’re when you’re practicing that don’t put too much stress into like making sure that when you get to this top part that you don’t hit the D string. You know it it’s just not a big deal. All the notes are in the key they’re part of the chord. So over time you’ll refine it, but at first don’t put too much worry on that. All right, so far on the verse we’ve got… Now we’re going to switch to a D again, so this is like one, two… same thing like we did on the intro, it’s a quarter note, then an eighth note, then two 16th notes; so one, two e and, and then to an A major.

So when I do this I’m just using my first finger to barre because you don’t need to worry about hitting the high E string. So I’ve got the A string open and then I’m just barring the second fret of the D, G and B strings… and we hit that and then to a G, same thing… and

then two back to an A major and it’s the same as the timing at the second half of that previous measure with the A; so it’s two sixteenth notes, then an eighth, then four sixteenth notes…

Now as far as that strum and rhythm in there you can really kind of make it your own.

You just kind of want to feel it. I probably don’t play it consistently exactly the same way every time, there’s probably been slight variances. You just kind of want to feel it and you will always get a better performance if you kind of feel it then if you’re really trying to count it unless it’s some kind of a really syncopated rhythm that you need to be doing, especially on an acoustic song it just isn’t necessary to put that much stress. It will make this easy especially if you’re a beginner. Okay then we go to a B minor… so just barring the second fret my first finger the through the A string we don’t use the low E and then I’m on the second or excuse me the third fret of the B string on my second finger, fourth fret of the D string with my third finger, fourth fret of the G string with my fourth finger. Now when you play this you can get all of it or you could omit the high E string. So if you’re having problems with doing barre chords you can just get this shape here and then all you have to do is pick up the note on the A string and it’ll probably already be muting the high E string anyway just simply because of your finger laying down… So here we’re starting with B minor and we’ve got that similar kind of a rhythm thing going here. We’ve got one and, two… so we’ve got on beat number two the last 16th note is tied to the first 16th note of beat three, so it’s like treated like an eighth note. So if you thought of this as like three long, one short, one long, one short, one long, four short, as far as how they ring out, but again if you know the melody of the song like that we’ve talked about in lots of other videos about countertop drumming to get that for this B minor… Okay then we go to a G, so just regular old G major and whether you play it with the D note here on the third fret of the B string or you play it with the B string open. I personally like the way it sounds more with this D in there and I think that’s the way they’re playing it and Tesla’s playing in their version. So that’s the way I’ve got it in here, but if you don’t play G that way, it’s just not that big of a deal. For this with G here we got the same timing that we just had on the B minor then we’re gonna go back to a D and it’s back to this similar timing that we had earlier in the verse. So this is actually exactly the same as a measure five, so it’s back to the D, so long, one, two… and then to an A and on here it’s just… But again you don’t feel free to kind of like spice up that rhythm, especially if you’re playing this completely by yourself. They’re playing it as a whole group, but if you’re playing it by yourself you have a lot of freedom and you can really change up that rhythm and make it to sound more interesting and more fun for you to play as well.

All right, now that brings us to the chorus and for the chorus it’s going to be using the same G, D, A and C that we’ve been using except we have one more chord; we have a C add nine (Cadd9). So Cadd9 has a couple of different ways that you could play it. I’ll show you the way that I like to do it for this particular thing. I just think personally I think it makes it easier. So we’re gonna go from a D to the Cadd9; so if you just take your first finger and you move it down a string so it goes from the second fret of the G string the second fret of the D string and then your middle finger moves down so it’s on the third fret of the A string your ring finger stays where it is. So there’s a couple different ways you can play it, this is just the way they’re doing it. So you could also do it just by taking the regular C shape and putting your pinky down like this. The reason I do it the way that I do it is because after the Cadd9 we’re going to go to a G, so it just makes the transition really simple. So we’re going to go from this D to Cadd9 to G… So that’s the chorus and it starts off with the D; so we’re hitting this as a quarter note and then an eighth note to 16th to note. So the thing that’s different between this and what we’ve been doing is we’ve got the one, two e and, so that second sixteenth note of beat two is actually going to make the change to Cadd9. So it’s coming in kind of on in a weird place, especially if you’re doing it from trying to count it, but it just makes it a lot easier. So when we hit that it is on the last 16th note of beat two, but it’s tied to the first 16th note of beat three… So we hit that and then we hit it three more sixteenth notes and then we’re going to go to a G and that’s on the downbeat of four… Okay, then starting on the second measure we’re back to D. So we start with two 16th notes and then an eighth note… and then on the last 16th note of beat two we switched to a G… So we hitched that to G on the last 16^th note of beat two and then we’ve just got four eighth notes; so three  and four and… then we’re gonna go back to a D… then A same a we did earlier and now to our regular C chord. So the Cadd9 is basically the difference between those two chords is here we’re getting this C here we’re getting a D. So with all of these chord changes sometimes these different voicing’s are just so it carries a chordal melody, like a high melody within the chord or a low melody just depending upon what it is. So when we get to that C we have a whole measure of this; it’s one and, two e and, three e and a, four and. So again much easier if you just kind of feel it out and then it’s the end of a repeat so you play the intro, the verse, the chorus and then you go back and play the intro again, the second verse, the second chorus and then the end of the second chorus it has this little transition here that leads us into the bridge. So we’re at the end and this is kind of like the intro… Now we’ve got this little build up thing that is kind of weird, especially when you’re just playing this by yourself. It really makes it sound cool, at least for me. I find it maybe have of the time I do it sounds cool. So we’ve got the eighth notes, beat number one and beat two are eighth note, two sixteenth note, so one and, two e and, and then on the downbeat of three the first sixteenth note is the strum of that. And then we have an eighth note just a single G third fret of the low E string and we’re gonna hit that twice as eighth note and then a sixteenth note and then we have a sixteenth note rest. And then the next sixteenth note is the fourth fret, so we rest a sixteenth note and go to an A because that’s like… that was okay, it sounds really cool when they do it, but just by yourself it’s not a full sounding in my opinion.

Okay, so the very last thing we’re hitting is that that strumming in A and it’s the last 16th note of beat four and then that brings us into the bridge, which starts on A. So we’re already there. We’ve got one e and, so like an eighth and two sixteenth notes and then an eighth, two sixteenth and the very last 16th note of beat two is tied to the downbeat of beat three so it’s an eighth note. Again, don’t put too much thought into that. Just kind of feel it… We’re going to do this through the whole measure and then the last 16th note we switch to a G… starting on the downbeat of two it’s a G and it’s the same timing again. We’ve got one and, two and, and we go to a D major… The third measure starts off with 16th notes and the last 16th note of beat we switched to an A and then we have two beats, eight sixteenth notes for beats three and four… then back to a G, this is a two four barre so it’s just two beats; one, two, three, four, five… that’s one way you can simplify it, and now to a D… so it’s just like the intro. Okay so then you have the verse, “the sign says come in kneel down and pray”, the church one and it’s a lot softer and the acapella parts, but it’s all just more or less these same parts that we’ve gone over.

Conclusion

All right, there you have it, all the parts to be able to play Signs, Tesla’s version of Signs by Five Man Electric Band, I think it was called originally. 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’ve 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.

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 that are made up of octaves. So these are cool riffs, they’re fun to play and they’re also really a great exercise for developing this technique.

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.

Octave Technique

All right, so the first thing is just to go over what I’m referring to here. So an octave is just when you’re playing the same note after you’ve already gone through the scale, it’s on the next set up. So we’re doing this for a riff any note you play, and this works across all the strings except one thing that I’ll explain when we get there. So here if I go to the fifth fret on the low E string and now if I skip a fret and skip a string so that’s going to put me on the seventh fret of the D string, it’s the same note, so that shape and skip a fret and skip a string is the same no matter what frets you’re on. So if I do it between the A and the and the G string it’s the same thing, but now if I go up to the D and the B string there’s two Frets in between now because the B string is a half step lower than the rest of the strings. But for these riffs that we’re going to be doing here they’re just going to be on the A and the G string and that’s where you’re going to find where a lot of these kinds of riffs are. So when you’re playing this the trick is that I just want to get this D here and here, but I don’t want to hear all those other open strings, I just want… So what I’m doing is I’m fretting the note on the A string with my first finger and then I’m actually using the tip of my finger, close to the nail, as a way to keep the low E string muted. And then the pad of my finger is touching the D string and keeping it muted and my third finger is picking up the seventh fret of the G string my and first finger is also muting the B and the high E strings so when I strum I just get those two sounds and then you also get that that kind of percussive sound in there too; it just sounds really cool and some neat things can be done with it.

Octave Riffs-1 – Fire – Jimi Hendrix

So the first one to look at is the riff from Fire by Jimi Hendrix. So this we’re going to start off on the 11th fret of the A string and the 13^th fret of the G string. So again low E string is muted, the D string is muted, you’re getting the G string and the high E and B strings are muted… We hit this on the downbeat of one and it’s a quarter note and then on the downbeat of two we’re just going to move it down a half step so now I’m on the 10th fret of the A string and the 12th fret of the G string and then we slide out of that… and then we rest on beat two… Okay, so that’s the first measure and then the second measure we’re going to start off on the eighth fret of the A string and tenth fret of the G string and we’re going to hit this on the downbeat of one and then on the and of one we’re gonna slide it up a whole step. So one and, and then on the downbeat of two we’re gonna take the shape now we’re gonna move it down a set of strings. So we’re going to stay here on the 10^th and 12th fret but we’re going to move our fingers down so now my first finger is on the 10th fret of the low E string and my third finger is on the 12th fret of the D string and we hit that on the downbeat of two. And then on the end of two we hit it again and slide out of it, but it’s a dotted quarter note, so it takes care of all the way through beat three and then we rest on beat four and then it starts over… So something you need to kind of do there for fun that I I’ll do where those rests are is I’ll put some mute strums or something in there just to kind of make it a little more interesting when I’m playing it by myself…

Octave Riffs-2 – Black & Blue – Van Halen

Alright so, the next we’re going to look at is the riff from Black and Blue by Van Halen. So this one isn’t just only octaves, it has some other stuff in it that I’m gonna add in here as well just to make it so it has some resolve when you play it. So we’re going to start off on the second fret of the A string and we skip string and skip a fret so that’s going to put us onto the fourth fret of the G string. We rest on beats one, two and three and then this starts on beat four. So it’s eighth notes, so we’ve got four and on the and of four we just slide it up a whole step so now we’re at the fourth and sixth frets and that’s the first measure. And then on the second measure we’re going to move this up a half step again, so now we’re on the fifth fret of the A string and we’re on the seventh fret of the D string and we hit that on the downbeat of one, but then on the and of one we rest and then we hit it again on the downbeat of two and then on the and of two we rest. Then on the down beat of three and then rest and the down beat of four and on the and of four we rest… So for beats one and two we’ve got one and, two and, and then we’re gonna move it down a half step, three and, four and. So then for measure three we’re going to be back here to two and four and we’re going to hit this on the downbeat of one and then on the and of one we hit the open low E string. And then on the downbeat of two we’re going to pick the third fret so I can just stay in this position and we’re going to just do a little quarter step bend and pull-off to the open string and we do that twice, two and, three and. All right, then on beat four we’re right back here again; so beat four is like beat four of the first measure. So we’ve got four and, and now on the fourth measure here we’re going to scoot up a half step again and instead of just doing the octave we’re going to do a D5 power chord. So another thing that’s good about this is It’s kind of giving you a way to practice making the transition between the two ideas of just doing a octave or doing a power chord because they’re they go together really well and it’s a common thing to kind of mix them up. So we’re going to hit that one and, two and, and on the downbeat of three we’re going to go to an A5 and then before the open low E string and on the and of four E5. So this E5 we’re doing it up here on the seventh fret of the A string and then the ninth fret of the D and G string and the low E string open…

Octave Riffs-3 – Machinehead – Bush

All right and then the last one to look at is the riff from Machine Head by Bush. So this one again is the just that same octave shape and is only on the A and the G string. All right, so we start off we’re on the fourth fret of the A string first finger and sixth fret of the G string third finger and again that same idea that we want to mute that D string, technically want to mute all the those strings we aren’t using, we just want to hear those two notes. So we hit this one and, and then we’re going to move it up a half step so now we’re at the fifth and seventh fret. So now we’ve got two E and it’s three 16th notes, two e and uh. So on the and of two we’re gonna move it up to seven and then on the downbeat of three we do seven again and then we’re gonna move it up a whole step so we’re at the ninth and the 11th fret and this is for beat four… And then we’re going to go back down to seven and then down a half step to six and eight… So this one’s probably a little bit tougher than the first two just simply based on the speed, but don’t worry about the speed, just worry about getting the the clarity and the timing and everything down and the speed will come with time.

Conclusion

All right, so there you have it, three cool guitar riffs that are based in octaves that aren’t too terribly difficult to play and also make really great exercises for working on the technique. 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’ve 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.

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 10^th 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.

Introduction

How’s it going everybody? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing this video lesson. Today we’re going to do a little finger style with Guaranteed by Eddie Vedder.

So right now Guitar Control is giving away this really cool free chord chart, there’s a link down in the description where you can get yours. It has every chord you could ever need all neatly compiled on one sheet. It’s in PDF format 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 whatever situation you could have any chord you needed to glance and it’s a free download.

So be sure to click on the link in the description for the tabs and let’s get close up and take a look.

Guaranteed Chords

Alright so first let’s go over the chords that we’ve got in this. So first we’ve got this G, so if you just take the F, first position F chord, you just move it up a whole step so my third finger is on the fifth fret of the D string, my second finger is on the fourth fret of the G string and my first finger is barring the third fret of the B string and the high E string…

And then we’ve got a B minor, but when we play this we’re not actually playing the A string. So when you all you do is you just slide down a half step and then move your middle finger from the G string to the B string, so it’d be on the third fret, so we’re just getting the top end of that chord. And then we’ve got a G7; so my third finger is on the third fret of the D string and my fourth finger is on the third fret of the B string the G string is open and I’m on the first fret of the high E string with my first finger… And then we’ve got a C over E (C/E). So basically what it is, is C, but we’re not going to play the low note there the C’s, we’re actually our bass note is actually here on the second fret of the D string and that’s why it’s C/E. Then we’ve just got a regular C; so you just put your third finger down for that. And then we’ve got a regular old G major chord and then a D major. D suspended two (Dsus2) so you just lift your middle finger off so the high E string is open. And then a D suspended four (Dsus4) we just take your D and you put down your pinky onto the third fret of the high E string and then we’ve got a D5. So D string is open, second fret of the G string my first finger, third fret of the B string of my second finger and fifth fret of the high E string with my fourth finger.

Guaranteed Picking Pattern

All right so as far as the picking pattern for this goes it’s pretty consistent throughout it. We’re going to start off we’re going to play the high E string and this will change varied on what chord you’re on, but for the first four measures anyway the first four chords and it’s the same. So we’re going to start off we’re going to pluck the D string and the high E string simultaneously on the downbeat of one, so it’s an eighth note, and then on the and of one we start into the 16th note thing; so it’s one and. And then on the and of two we start playing 16th notes so we start with the G string; so one and uh. So the G string then the B string and then to the D string for the downbeat of two one and two E, high E string to the G string and then the B string; so that’s the pattern… So that’s half of the measure and we do it twice, so you’ve got… Okay then we go to the B minor and we do the same thing, twice for the measure, so it’s picking the same strings and everything and the same timing. Then to that G7, same pattern still… and now we’re going to go to that C/E, so still same strings and that’s our first four measures… All right so then starting on measure five we’re just going to go to the regular C chord so we’re coming from the C/E so we’re just going to put our third finger down and now our picking is going to change a little bit. I mean it’s still the same timing, but now our bass note is moved to the A string. So I’m going to pluck the A string and the high E string together on the downbeat of one… B, A, E, G, B… so that’s our pattern here and we do that twice on the measure. And now we’re going to hit both E strings together and then the D and then the G back to the low E, back to the high E, D and G and we do that twice… Now one thing there on that G, the mistake that I personally make the most often is right here. So what will happen is and instead of going D, G, I might go G and B. Now either way you do it it’s going to sound good because those notes are in the chord, they’re in the key, it’s all going to sound good, but it might just sound slightly different if that happens. But anyway it’s just not the end of the world. I just don’t even if I make that mistake I just keep going. Then we go on to measure seven when we go to our regular D chord and now we go back to the original picking so my bass note is back to being on the D string. So this time what’s different is we do that, but we only do it once, so half of the measure. Then we go to Dsus2; so you just lift your middle finger off and do the same picking pattern and this is for beats three and four… And then here on the eighth measure the last measure the progression we start off with the Dsus2 and we do a hammer-on into D. So again I’m doing the D string and the high E string together and then the B and G just like before. Then we go to that Dsus4 and then the D5 and that’s basically the whole thing…

Conclusion

All right, so there you have it, Guaranteed by Eddie Vedder. 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 that we upload throughout the week. Well that is all I have for you today. Thanks for watching and have a great day.

Introduction

How’s it going everybody? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing you this video lesson and today I’ve got three fun and easy riffs for you from the 90s.

So right now Guitar Control is giving away this really cool free chord chart, there’s a link in the description where you can download yours. It’s in PDF format and just has every chord you could ever need all neatly compiled onto one sheet. So you can download it, print it off, put a copy in your gig bag, put a copy where you practice; so just whatever situation you’re in you have any coordinated to glance and it’s a free download.

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.

1990s Riff-1 – All The Small Things – Blink 182

All right so the first riff we’re going to look at is All the Small Things by Blink 182. So this is just made up of just the fifth power chord shape that you probably already know. So we’re going to start off here on G5; so my first finger is on the third fret of the low E string and my third finger is on the fifth fret of the A string and then my fourth finger is on the fifth fret of the D string. Now if you’re a beginner sometimes it’s difficult to get that note; so if can you can only get just the two lower notes in all of these chords that’s fine. So we rest one, two, three and four. So on the and of three we hit this G5 and then we move down a whole step to F5. Then starting on the second measure we go up to a C5 so it’s just that same shape but just opposite of strings; so my first finger’s on the third fret of the A string, third fingers on the fifth fret of the D string and fourth finger is on the fifth fret of the G string and again you can omit that highest note… So now we just have a straight eighth note feel so it’s just one, two and, three and four and… We’re going to do an F5, but it’s a different one, it’s an octave higher. So we’re just going to take this shape and move it up a whole set of strings so now your first finger is on the third fret of the D string third finger is on the fifth fret of the G string, but your pinky actually needs to move up a half step so it’s on the sixth fret of the B string, same strum… Then we’re back to G5, the first one, so we just moved down all the way so now we’re at the third frets of the E A and D string, whole measure of that, one and, two and, three and, four and. Then on the fourth measure we hit this on the downbeat of one and then two and, three and, we’re gonna do this mute thing. So we hit this one and then on the and of one just let your fingers touch the strings; so there you don’t want to press down, just touch them so when you pick you just get that that percussive sound. So one and, two and, three and now we’re going to come down to the F5 the one at the first fret here on the lower strings and four and then it just repeats…

1990s Riff-2 – Torn – Natalie Imbruglia

All right the next we’re going to look at is torn by Natalie Imbruglia; I’m hoping pronouncing that last name right, for some reason my I’m having a hell of a time remembering that name. Anyway, this is a really cool song and this chord progression is the same in the verse and in the chorus, it’s just rhythmically it changes. So we start off it’s made up of a bunch of barre chords. So we’ve got an F major so I’m barring all the way across the first fret with my first finger then my second finger is on the second fret of the G string, third finger is on the third fret of the A string, fourth finger is on the third fret of the D string… We’re going to start off with four sixteenth notes so beat number one is one e and uh and then we hit this again on two… then a mute strum; so One e and uh, two e… four e and a… So it’s like you do four quick ones one slightly longer and then a mute and at the end of it you do two sixteenth notes on the end. So beat number one is the four 16th notes, beat number two and then that’s tied to the downbeat of three e and uh, four e and. So the only difference is that on the first time you do a mute and then a strum and then the second time it’s just two mutes… and it’s the same for each one of these chords. So the next chord is C; so we’re going to do the C major that’s rooted on the A string so my first finger is picking up the third fret of the A string and my third finger is barring the fifth fret of the D, G and B string, same strum… Then we have D minor; so we just move up a whole step and then switch from this major shape to the minor shape; so I’m barring at the fifth fret now my second finger is on the sixth fret of the B string, my third finger is on the seventh fret of the A string, excuse me, D string and my fourth finger is on the seventh fret of the D string, G string, oh my gosh, D string, G string, B string… it’s a tongue twister. And then we have B flat; so what we’re going to do is that same shape we did for F, but we’re just going to do it barring at the sixth fret. So if you just take this shape move up one fret and then everything down a string… and it’s the same strum and then it just starts over again…

1990s Riff-3 – Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana

Then the last one to look at is Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. So this one is just made up of power chords, the same shapes that was in the Blink 182 song. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to start with an F5; so first finger on the first fret of the low E string, third finger on the third fret of the A string, fourth finger on the fourth fret of the D string, and again optional. So the timing on this, the groove of this, is what makes it sound the way that it sounds. So we’ve got a dotted eighth note and then a 16th note and then an eighth note… so this one rings out one 16th note longer than an eighth note, so it’s like the equivalent of three 16 notes… then a sixteenth note and then an eighth note so it’s like short and not as long. And then we’re going to do those mute strums and it’s four 16th notes, but it’s the on the and of two and the downbeat of three… Then we’re gonna do B flat five; so we’re just going to take that shape and move it up a set of strings so now our first finger is on the first fret of the A string, third fingers on the third fret of the D string and optionally fourth finger on the fourth fret of the G string. So we hit this on the and of three and four and on the and of four we just hit the A, D and G strings open, but you don’t want it to have a lot of power on that, you don’t want it to really stand out, you want to be a little more subtle… So that’s our first measure and then the second measure we’re just going to do basically the same thing, but we’re going to move up, so instead of starting here on the first fret we’re going to move up so we’re starting on the fourth fret. So this is A flat or G sharp, however you want to look at it, same strum… up to a D flat five. So we’re just going to move straight up just like we did before with the open strings and then it just starts over again…

Conclusion

All right, so there you have it, three fun and easy riffs from the 1990s. 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 haven’t 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 and have a great day.

Introduction

How’s it going everybody? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing you this video Lesson and today I’ve got three fun and easy alternative rock riffs for you.

Right now Guitar Control is giving away this really cool free chord chart, there’s a link in the description where you can download yours. It’s in PDF format and shows every chord you could ever need all neatly compiled onto one sheet. So you can print it off, put a copy in your gig bag, put a copy or you practice; so just whatever situation you’re in you can have any chord at a glance.

So be sure to click on the link in the description for the tab so let’s get close up and take a look at these three alternative rock riffs.

Alternative Rock Riff-1 – Island In The Sun – Weezer

All right, so the first alternative rock riff to look at is the rift from Island in the Sun by Weezer. So this one is just made up of a bunch of Triad shapes so if you’ve seen any of the lessons I’ve done on triads you probably already know these. For the first one here if you just take your regular D minor chord shape and just move it up a whole step so that way your second finger is on the fourth fret of the G string and your first finger is on the third fret of the B string or excuse me on the third fret of the high E string and your third finger is on the fifth fret of the B string. So that’s our first chord and we strum this is as a quarter note on one and then we strum it again on the downbeat of two and then on the and of two we’re going to change chords. So when we change chords we’re going to simply just take our ring finger here and we’re going to lay it down we’re going to barre it here so it’s picking up the fifth fret of the G, B and high E strings and we hit this on the end of two and then we hit it for beat three… On the downbeat of four we have a mute strum so if you just release the pressure so you’re just you know touching the strings lightly so that way you just get that percussive sound. And then we come down to your regular D major shape and we hit that on the and of four… So that’s the first measure and it’s tied to the downbeat of the second measure so then on the and of one we hit this again and we do that mute strum and then we’re going to come up to our last chord here this is like a first inversion triad on the first three strings. So my first finger is barring the third fret of the high E string and the B string and my middle finger is picking up the fourth fret of the G string and we hit that on the and of two and then for beat three and four. So the whole alternative rock riff…

Alternative Rock Riff-2 – Creep – Radiohead

All right, so the next alternative rock riff to look at is the riff from uh Creep by Radiohead. So this is just using barre chords here mostly kind of revolving around, well it’s all revolving around this major shape with the root note on the low E string. So we start off with G major so what I’m doing is I’m just barring all the way across all six strings at the third fret and then my second finger is going to the fourth fret of the G string, my third finger the fifth fret of the A string and my fourth finger to the fifth fret of the D string. So this shape we’re going to be moving it around so we start off and we just pick starting on the low E; so we go E, A, D, A, D, G, D and it’s one and, two and, three and, four and. So the it’s kind of weird because it’s all eighths except the second to the last note is a quarter note so it just rings out a little bit longer… Then starting on the second measure we start picking still on the same chord start picking on the B string; B, G, D, G and then B and D. So that’s our first two measures and starting on the third measure we’re just going to take this shape and we’re going to move it all the way up so we’re here at the seventh fret. I’m barring up the seventh fret and so now this is B and we’re going to do a similar kind of picking. So we’re going to start with the low E to A to G, D, A and G again. So that’s measure three… Then starting on the fourth measure we have B suspended four (Bsus4) so we’re going to keep this shape, but how I do it is I just take my pinky and I just lay it down so it picks up the ninth fret of the G string and then you just roll it back up for B; hit that so it only does that just for that single note it’s just to get that single note in there… All right then, for the next measure we just move this up a half step so now we’re doing C major; E, A, G, A, E, G, A and that’s measure five. So now we’re going to go to C suspended four (Csus4) and we can do that same thing. We’re going to take our pinky and roll it up so we’re gonna pick up the 10th fret of the G string, back to the A string and then roll back up to be on C again. And then on the next measure it’s C minor so we just take your middle finger off… and that completes the progression and it just starts over again. So when you’re playing this it’s really easy to end up missing a string like you mean to go to play the D string but you play the G string instead or vice versa, something like that, it still sounds good as long as you have that same timing… So there I just kind of winged it and just kind of went with that for that Rhythm. So that’s what I recommend that you really do you use the notation for the timing and then try to pick those strings accurately, but if you miss one just pretend like you hit the right one so that way you can just keep the flow of this alternative rock riff going.

Alternative Rock Riff-3 – Believe – Yellowcard

All right then the last alternative rock riff to look at is Believe from Yellowcard and this is the acoustic version. So we’ve got F sharp minor so I’m barring all the way across all six strings of the second fret and then my third finger is on the fourth fret of the A string fourth finger on the fourth fret of the D string. So we’re gonna have sharp minor we’ve got a D, an A and an E. The strum is the same so each measure is one chord. So we start off with the F sharp minor and we play a quarter note; so it’s one, and then on the downbeat of two it’s a mute strum. So I go one, two and you just release the pressure so when you just hit the strings to get that percussive sound. So one, two and, three and, four and. So after the mute strum it’s a quarter note so this is one, two and, three and, four and. So that’s the strum for each chord… and then it just repeats…

Conclusion

All right, so there you have it, three fun, not too terribly difficult alternative rock riffs. So if you like this alternative rock 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 haven’t 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 this three fun and easy alternative rock riff lesson and have a great day.

Introduction

How’s it going everybody? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing you this video lesson and today I’ve got three fun and easy riffs for you from Green Day.

So right now Guitar Control is giving away this really cool free chord chart, there’s a link in description where you can download yours. It’s in PDF format and it just has a every chord that you could ever need all neatly compiled onto one sheet. So you can download it, print it off, put a copy in your gig bag, put a copy where you practice; so just whatever situation you can have any chord you need at a glance and it’s a free download.

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.

Green Day Riff-1 – American Idiot

All right, so the first one we’re going to look at is the riff from American Idiot. This one’s pretty easy, it just consists of a couple of power chords. So the first one we got is G sharp five (G#5). So when I’m on the fourth fret of the low E string with my first finger and then I’m picking up the sixth fret of the A string with my third finger and then the sixth fret of the D string as well. So if you’re a beginner and you’re having an issue getting all three of those strings you just play the lower ones. This note here is just the same as this… it’s just another G sharp; so if you miss it it’s not a huge deal. So we play this starting on the downbeat of one we’ve got one and, and then on the downbeat of two we’re going to take our first finger and just move it to the fifth fret of the A string and now we’re going to play the low E string open and the fourth fret of the A string and this is on the downbeat of two. And then on the and of two you’re just going to take your third and fourth finger and reach up to the sixth fret of the D and the G string; so it’s the same shape we just moved up a set of strings. And we hit that on the and of two, but it’s a quarter note so it’s like… And then on the downbeat of four we take our third and fourth finger off so we’re back to that four and, and then the and of four we’re gonna come down here we’re gonna take this shape that we did here this G# shape and just move it down so now it’s F#; so we’re at the second fret of the low E string and the fourth fret on the A string and of the D string and we hit that on the and a four and then it’s tied to the downbeat of one of the next measure. So this first measure… and then on the and of one we hit it again.. And then one the down beat of two we come back up the fourth fret of the A string and the sixth fret and the D and the G again; so it’s the C sharp five (C#5)… down to G#5 and just the first three strings open. So if you if you’re playing this slower that really sounds weird, but when you when you get it up to you know like a pretty good speed it sounds good, it sounds like the riff…

Green Day Riff-2 – 21 Guns

So the next riff to look at is the riff from 21 Guns and this one is just using the same power chord shapes that we did in the previous one. So we start off with an F5; so I’m on the first fret of the low E string and with my first finger and then the third fret of the A string with my third finger, third fret of the D string with my fourth finger and these are eighth notes. So it’s like one and, and then on beat two we rest, so one and, two, and then starting on beat three we’ve got this C over E (C/E). So what we’re doing is I’m playing the third fret of the A string and the second fret of the D string, but the low E string open and we do the same thing as eighth notes, but this is beat three, so it’s gonna be three and, and then we rest on four. So that’s the first measure… Then we’re gonna do a D5, so we’re just going to take the shape like you here on the previous one and move it up so now my first finger is on the fifth fret of the A string and my third fingers on the seven the Fret of the D string and my fourth finger is on the seventh fret of the G string; and again if you’re a beginner and you can’t get that note, it’s okay to get these two lower ones. All right so we hit that one and then we rest on two and then we’re going to move it down a whole step here to C5. So now we’re at the third fret and the fifth fret and now we’re going to start playing straight eighth notes; so it’s three and four and then we move it down a whole step so now the first fret and the third fret, one and, two, then back to the first chord, the F5, three and, four… Then up to C5 again on the fourth measure one and, two and, three and, four; so on the downbeat of three we’re just going to hit the open high E string and the three to the first fret and then beat four is the three and then it just repeats…

Green Day Riff-3 – Carpe Diem

Alright, the last one to look at is Carpe Diem and this is like the acoustic version of it. So this one here we’re going to actually use some fuller chords… So we have a C; so I’m on the third fret of the A string on my third finger, second fret of the D string of my second finger, first fret of the B string my first finger and the G and high E strings are open. So we play this by just a nice strum like that and that’s on beat one; one two and. So on the downbeat of one and then on the downbeat of two we hit just the A string and then strum the top end of the chord on the and of two and then on the downbeat of three we come back to this A string again. Now we have the kind of the middle section of the chord and then that note C here on the third fret of the A string is beat four… so on the second measure one to a G, two to a C, three, four… Okay now on the third measure it’s the same as the first and now we’re gonna go G, F, C, one, two, three, four, and then the whole thing just repeats…

Conclusion

All right, so there you have it, three fun not too terribly difficult riffs to play by Green Day. 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’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. Now that is all I have for you today. Thanks for watching and have a great day.

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 10^th fret on the A string with your first finger and then use your third finger to barre the 12^th 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.

Introduction

How’s it going everybody this is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing this video lesson and today I’ve got three more fun and easy riffs for you from Guns N Roses.

Right now Guitar Control is giving away this really cool free chord chart, there’s a link in the description where you can download yours. It’s every chord you could ever need all neatly compiled into one sheet so you can download it and print it off and put a copy where you practice, put a copy in your gig bag; so just in any given situation you can have any chord you need at a glance and it’s a free download.

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 Guns N Roses riffs.

Guns N Roses Riff-1 – Don’t Cry

All right so the first Guns N Roses riff we’re going to look at is Don’t Cry and this just uses just some kind of garden variety chords that you probably already know. So we’ve got an A minor (Am) and a D minor (Dm)… G major and a C major… All right, so we start off with this Am, but the very first note is actually this G here on the third fret of the low E string. So what I do is I just put my fingers down for the Am and then I just use my pinky to pick up the third fret of the low E string. So on the first measure we rest on the first three beats and then we hit this G note coming in on beat four; so it’s like one, two, three, four and then starting on the downbeat of one of the second measure we start arpeggiating this Am chord. So we start with the A string open; so we go A, D, G and we skip over the B string and go to the high E string E, B, G and then the open D string… Now we hit that and then we’re gonna switch to a Dm chord and we hit that open D string again and now we go D, G, B, E, B, G and then the open A string and that’s like the little transition note to get us to the G chord which comes next… So we start on the low E string E, A, D and then we skip the B string and go to the high E string B, G, open A string and now we’re going to go to the third fret here on the A string and we pick this and then the D string open and the G string open. Then we move down a half step so now we’re on the second fret of the A string and we do the same thing A, D, G and then back to the third fret to the second fret and then that transitions us back into an Am. So that’s like the first three measures; one, two, three, four… Am again picked the same way… Dm… to G. So this time we go to G we’re just going to play E, A, D, G and these are 16th notes, so it’s like one e and ah, two e and uh… So what we’re going to do here is when we when we play the G, E, A, D, G and that’s on the last 16th note of beat number one, but it’s tied to the first 16th note of beat two and then the other three sixteenth notes we go to the sixth string our low E string and we go second fret, third fret to the fourth fret and then we finally end on a open A string as a half note that just rings out…

Guns N Roses Riff-2 – Night Train

The next Guns N Roses riff to look at is the riff from Night Train. So this one uses a whole bunch of Triad shapes; so if you’ve seen any of my previous videos you’ll already know these shapes. So we start off we just have an A5 so I’m playing the A string open and I’m barring at the second fret on the D and the G string just with my first finger. So this is a dotted half note so this is like the first three beats, one, two, three and then starting on the downbeat of four it’s just gonna be the open A string, but on the and of four we’re going to do this little Triad here. So this is a an E minor over A (Em/A); so my first finger is on the seventh fret of the D string and my third finger is on the ninth fret of the G string and my second finger is on the eighth fret of the B string. So we hit that on the and of four and it’s tied to the downbeat of one of the second measure. So we’re going to hit that four and one and the and of one we hit it again and then we’re gonna go to our next chord which is a D over A (D/A). So all we’re going to do is just take our second and third finger off and just let our first finger barre the seventh fret here of the D, G and B string… Hit that on beat two and three and for beat four we just move it down a whole step to the fifth fret that’s C over G (C/G)… Okay, so we hit this on four and it’s tied to the next measure. The next measure starts off with a dotted half note so we’re going to hit this four, one, two, three, actually it’s a double dotted so it takes up all of the measure except the and a four. So we’re gonna hit that four, one, three, four and then on the and before we hit it again and it’s tied to the downbeat of one of the next measures so it rings out for like equivalent of a whole beat… And then on the and of one we hit it again and then on the downbeat of two we’re gonna do a G major; so third fret on the fifth fret of the D string, second finger on to the fourth fret of the G string and First Finger onto the third fret of the B string and we hit this on beat two. So it’s two, three and then on the downbeat of four we’re gonna scoot this down a whole step and we’re first gonna hit just the D string on the down downbeat of four and then on the and of four it’s like an F major chord, but we’re just hitting the top end of it. So second fret of the G string with my second finger and my first finger is barring the first fret of the B and the high E string and that’s the first four measures… All right, so when we hit that F that’s tied to a dotted half note on measure five so it rings out for the first three beats and then on the downbeat of four we’re gonna pick this third fret of the D string again and we’re going to slide to the fifth fret, four and we slide up simultaneously and drop our first finger so it’s going to pick up the first or excuse me the third fret of the high E and the B string and the G string is open… So we hit that on the and of four and it’s tied to the downbeat of one of the next measure… we’re gonna hit it again on the and of one and then we’re going to take our middle finger and put it down onto the fourth fret of the G string and take our pinky and put it down onto the fifth fret of the G string; just keep your second finger where it is because this is a G suspended four (Gsus4)… G again, back on, back off and then we’re going to do an A5 over E (A5/E). So we’re going to come down to the first chord we did, we’re just not going to hit the A string, so we’re just picking the second fret of the D string and the G string and this is on beat three. Downbeat of four is the D and G string open and that’s tied to a whole note of the next measure…

Guns N Roses Riff-3 – Rocket Queen

All right then the last Guns N Roses riff to look at is the riff from Rocket Queen. So this one’s really simple, it’s just a couple of notes and it’s repetitive, but it’s just kind of the timing and the use of muting and stuff that makes it a really cool riff I think. All right, so we start off and on the downbeat of one we play the open low E string and then on the and of one we played the second fret and you wouldn’t want to use your second finger. So that’s one and, but we want to palm mute that, so one and, and then starting on the downbeat of two we’re going to sixteenth notes. So we’re gonna play the D, excuse me the A string open one and, and then we’re gonna do a hammer-on to the first fret and that’s not palm muted… So we do the hammer-on and then we come back to the second fret of the low E string palm muted and that’s like the first two beats… All right, so after we hit this open low E string, it’s played on the last 16th note of beat two and it’s tied to the first 16th note of beat three so it rings out for like the equivalent of an eighth note and then we play the open low E string again, uh e and uh, so open to the second fret twice… Then we’re going to go back to the open A string starting on beat four and that’s not palm muted… So it’s a pretty cool riff and it does that like a whole bunch of times and then at the and of it to kind of to finish that before it goes into the next part of the song we have starting on beat number one this… It’s all 16th notes so we’ve got; one e, so the open low E string twice and then to the second fret, and uh, so one and, so that’s beat one. And then starting on beat two we do the open a string hammer to the first fret not Palm muted… and so that’s two e and then back to the second fret of the low E string and back to palm muting and then the open for uh and then we rest on beat two…

Conclusion

All right, so there you have it, three more fun, not two terribly difficult, riffs to play by Guns N Roses. So if you like this Guns N Roses 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 this Guns N Roses riff lesson and have a great day.