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 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 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 this video lesson and today I’ve got three more fun and easy riffs for you from Black Sabbath.

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 has every chord it could ever need all neatly compiled onto one sheet. So you can download it and print it off. Put a copy in your gig bag, put a copy where your practice; so just any situation you have any chord at a glance.

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.

Black Sabbath Riff-1 – Supernaut

All right, so the first one to look at is the rift from Supernaut. So for this they are tuned down a step and a half so that’s how I’m going to play it. On this guitar I’m tuned down a step and a half, but you can play it in standard tuning and it’s still going to sound good. It’s just not going to be as low. All right so for this we’re going to start off this is just all made of single notes. So we’re going to use our third finger is going to be on the seventh fret of the A string and then what I do is actually barre it so it’s picking up the fifth fret of the low E string and the A string like I’m doing an A5 chord. We start off just playing these single notes on the seventh fret of the A string… So you hit seven, seven, pull to the five and then five on the low E string. Then we’re gonna go to the back to the fifth fret of the A string and then back to the seventh fret of the A string. So that’s the first measure…

Then starting on the second measure we have… it’s like the first part of the first measure. So we go back to the seventh fret to five to the fifth fret on the low E back up to the fifth fret of the A string and this time when we hit it we’re going to throw some vibrato on it and it’s a dotted quarter note so it’s this is taking care of three and the downbeat of four. And then on the and of four we go back to the fifth fret of the low E string… Then on the third measure it’s similar to the first and second measure as well where we start off again at the seventh fret pulling to the fifth fret to the fifth fret of the low E string and then back to the fifth fret of the A string back to the seventh fret and now you’re going to take that third finger and move it up to the seventh fret of the D string…  Then we hit that on four vibrato and then it’s tied to the downbeat of one on the fourth measure, well actually all of beat one; so it’s like this rings out for two beats. And then starting on the downbeat of two we pick uh seven here on the D string, pull to five and follow that with the fifth fret of the A string, back to the seventh fret of the D string, pull and then the whole thing would just start over again…

Black Sabbath Riff-2 – Falling Off The Edge Of The World

All right so the next one we look at is the riff from Falling Off The Edge Of The World and we’re just going to be in standard tuning for this one; although I believe, I’m not 100% sure, but I believe it might be tuned down a half step on the album, but I’m just in standard tuning. So if you know how to play War Pigs you kind of already sort of know this riff. So in War Pigs we have kind of just a variation on this. So this riff again also is just single notes for the most part. So what we’re going to do is we’re going to start off with our pinky here on the seventh fret of the A string and we’re going to hit this we rest one, two, three, four and then on the and of four we’re going to play the low E string open and the seventh fret of the A string at the same time so that’s on the and of four and then it’s tied to the downbeat of one so it does get a whole beat; so one, two, three, four and, one. And then starting on the and of one we hit just that single note there on the seventh fret of the A string then we’re going to go to the fourth fret of the D string with your first finger to the fifth fret with your second finger… Then we’re going to come back to the fourth fret and we’re going to pick, hammer to the fifth fret and pull off to the third fret of the A string and then to the seventh fret of the low E string. And then starting on the and of four we have that… so it’s kind of sort of repeats… Then starting on the third measure the downbeat of one is this still ringing from the previous one; so one and, two and, now we’re gonna go to the seventh fret, back to the fifth and do a pull off to the fourth, seventh fret of the A string, the E and the A string together again, being on the seventh fret and then that’s where the whole riff would just repeat…

Black Sabbath Riff-3 – Electric Funeral

So, the last one to look at is the riff from Electric Funeral. So this one is just in standard tuning and again it’s just all single notes. So we’re going to start off with playing the open low E string, but you want to have your first finger here at the second fret of the A string to be ready for that. So you got two open low E’s and then we’re gonna go to the second fret of the A string and we’re going to pick that and do a hammer-on to the third fret with your second finger and then pull back off to the second fret with vibrato… Then we’re going to go to the low E string open, second fret hammer to the third, pull back off and that’s the first measure. And then the second measure is the same thing and then that just repeats. So this is like a pretty big part of the song. It does this for a long time… And then after that we have this other little riff here. So we start off with the two open low E strings, but this time instead of being eighth notes the second one is a sixteenth note, so it only rings out half the time. So then we’re going to go into the second fret of the A string, but this time I’m using my second finger because we are going to go down to the first fret; so I have my first finger to do that… and then starting on the next measure we have four opens and it’s palm muted and there’s 16th note, so one e, and then back to the second fret of the A string first fret, open three and then it just repeats…

Conclusion

All right, so there you have it, three more fun not too terribly difficult riffs to play by Black Sabbath. 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 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.

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 1960s.

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 download it. It’s in PDF format and has every chord that you can ever need all neatly compiled onto one sheet. So you can download it, you can print it off, put a copy where you practice, put a copy in your gig bag; so just whatever situation you’re in you 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.

1960s Riff-1 – Hello I Love You

All right, so the first one to look at is the riff from hello I Love You by The Doors. So this one is just made up of single notes and we’re starting here on the fifth fret of the low E string and most of this is made up of eighth notes, at least this first measure is. So we’re going to play the fifth fret of the low E string for one and, and then we’re going to go to the seventh fret on the D string with your third finger, two and. So we got one and two and it’s the same notes just an octave higher; so one and two and, and then for beats three and four we’re just going to take this shape and move it down a whole step so now your first finger is picking up the third fret of the low E string and your third finger is picking up the fifth fret of the D string and we’re going to do that same thing three and four and. So that’s our first measure… All right then starting on the second measure on the downbeat of one we’re gonna do a slide from nowhere to the fifth fret of the low E string and so this is on the downbeat of one and then on the and of one we’re gonna hit the seventh fret of the A string, but this is a quarter note so this is taking care of the and of one plus the downbeat of two. And then we’re gonna move to the fifth fret so I just use my first finger to go to the fifth fret of the A string and this is another quarter note. And then we’re gonna move down to the second fret of the A string and we’re going to pick that to the third fret with your second finger back to the second fret and then the open string and then second fret is where we’re going to start and slide back up to the fifth fret and then it just it just repeats…

1960s Riff-2 – Fortunate Son

All right so the next one to look at is a Fortunate Son. So this is just the little intro kind of melody. So it’s pretty easy to play and we’re going to start off with a slide from nowhere; I think the first fret, second fret, whatever to the sixth fret on the G string with your second finger. And then we’re gonna hit that so this is on the downbeat of one and then on the and of one we’re gonna pick the fifth fret of the high E string with your first finger. So how I do this is hybrid picking. So I with the guitar pick I’m doing that downstroke sliding up on the G string and then put my first finger down on the fifth fret of the high E string and use my middle finger to pluck that. So we got one and, two, three, four and that takes up the whole first measure. Now the second measure is the same as the first except this shape we’re going to move it down a whole step. So now we’re going to slide to the fourth fret on the G string and then our first finger will be dropping to the third fret on the high E string, same count, one and, two, three, four. So that’s our first two measures… Now on our third measure we’re going to play the G string open and we’re going to do a hammer-on to the second fret and I’m going to use I use my second finger on this second fret on the high E string with my third finger. So it’s that same thing, it’s tied to the rest of the measure. So on the fourth measure we do that same open G string hammer to the second fret, but now the high E string is going to be open and then the only thing that’s different is that instead of it being tied to the rest of the measure we we’re going to go to the third fret on the A string and we’re going to hit this as a quarter step bend and then follow that with the open A string. So we’re hitting this on the downbeat of three and four and, and then it just repeats…

1960s Riff-3 – In A Gadda Da Vida

All right then the last one we’re going to look at is the In A Gadda Da Vida riff by Iron Butterfly. This is a really weird riff and I don’t know, it was just always one of those ones when I was a kid I used to think it was really neat and wanted to be able to play it; it’s just a really unusual riff. So we’re going to look at two parts of it. So the first part we’re going to look at is just like the main the main recognizable riff. So we’re going to start here on the fifth fret of the A string with my first finger and we’re going to play this is a quarter note for beat one and then a quarter note for beat two; so like one, two. And then starting on the downbeat of three we’re gonna pick up the eighth fret of the A string with your pinky; three, and then on the and of three the seventh fret, so three and, and now we’re gonna go to the eighth fret of the low E string with your pinky for four and then the and of four back to the fifth fret. Now when we hit that on the and of four that’s tied to the downbeat of one of the second measure so it just rings out for a whole beat. Then we’re going to go to the seventh fret on the third finger and the sixth fret with your second finger and then to the fifth fret with your first finger. So it’s got this little chromatic motion in there and then slide down to the third fret. So we’ve got… and then it would just repeat. So that’s the first two measures and that just repeats like a million times through the song… And the other part I wanted to show is just kind of the little weird kind of harmonic minery sounding-ish thing that he does to transition into the next part of the song. So after you’ve done that a million times then we’re going to go right back up to the fifth fret of the A string and this is eighth notes; so one seventh fret for the downbeat of two is eight and the and of two is back to seven. So we got five, seven, eight, seven and then on the downbeat of three is eight. Now we’re going to go to the sixth fret on the D string so I’m going to shift up with my first finger six, seven, six. So that’s all of that measure one and two and three and four and now the next measure it starts seven one to eight with your third finger. So we’re going to do a chromatic thing in there again, seven eight seven six seven. So we’re seven eight seven six seven then we’re going to six seven six hammer and pull off to the eighth fret on the A string to the seventh. So that whole thing…

Conclusion

All right, so there you have it, three fun not too terribly difficult riffs to play from the 1960s. 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 this video Lesson and today I’ve got three more fun and easier for you from the 1980s.

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

1980s Riff-1 – Smooth Criminal

All right, so the first one to look at is the riff from a Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson. So this one’s pretty easy, it’s all just played on the low E string with single notes. So we’re going to start off on the fifth fret we’re going to want to use your third finger and this is kind of weird because we rest and then we play the first note on the and of four on the first measure. So it’s like one two three four and, and then the downbeat of one of the second measure is a rest and this is all palm muted too by the way. So now we’re going to store here the fifth fret again and we’re going to play four times; so down up down up and then with your first finger go back to the third fret, back to the fifth fret…  Then we move up to the seventh fret and that’s eighth notes and then we rest and then we go five seven again and that takes care of all the second measure. Then on the third measure we move up a half step so now we’re on the eighth fret and we’ve got rest seven slide to three and then back to five on the and of four and then it just repeats…

1980s Riff-2 – I Wanna Rock

All right so the next one to look at is I Wanna a Rock by Twisted Sister and this one’s pretty easy; it just uses a bunch of power chords and then a variation of the D chord. So we start off we’ve got A5; so I’m just playing the A string open and I got my first finger fretting the second fret of the D and the G string. So we hit this as two quarter notes one two and then we’re going to go to a G5; so first finger third fret of the low E string and then my third finger is picking up the fifth fret of the A string and my fourth finger is picking up the fifth fret of the D string. Now if you’re a beginner and this is hard. What’s hard a lot of times is to get this note with your pinky. So if you can’t get it and all you get is the low E string it’s fine because this note on the D string is just the same note that’s on the low E; so like in this case it’s one five eight and eight is the same as one. So we’ve got A, G, B and then another G. So we hit this starting on the downbeat of three and it’s an eighth note and then two sixteenth notes and then a quarter note… Then starting on the second measure we’ve got a D5; so if you just take your regular D chord that you probably already know but we just omit the first string so we’re playing the D string open second fret of the G string with my first finger third fret of the B string with my third finger. I got the first string is just muted so I’m just letting my finger kind of hang over it a little bit and we hit this the same timing that we did but it’s on beat one and two… Then starting on beat three we have E5; so now I’m barring the second fret of the A and the D string and the low E is open, three and then on four we go back to the G5. And then the third measure is the same as the first measure. So it’s just the fourth measure that’s a little bit different. So far we’ve got… Okay so that fourth measure is the same as the second measure with the exception of the last two chords. So on the second measure we go the E5 to G5 and on this fourth measure we’re going to go E5, but it’s E5 up here, so first finger is picking up the seventh fret of the A string and then my third finger is picking up the ninth fret of the D and G string or you could do it like this with your pinky or omit the third string altogether and just play on the A and the D string. So we hit that three and then on beat four we come down we just take this shape and move it all the way down to C5; so first fingers on the third fret and then picking up the fifth fret of the E and or G string and that’s basically the whole riff and it just repeats…

1980s Riff-3 – Pride In The Name Of Love

All right, then the last one we look at here is the riff from Pride In The Name of Love by U2. So this is actually kind of a cool. The Edge, guitar player for U2, the Edge he does a lot of really kind of neat things like this that’s just kind of an ambient. You know, it’s not really riffs so much as just kind of this ambient sound. I think it sounds really cool. So we start off, you’re going to want to put your first finger you’re going to want to bar it basically at the ninth fret on the G and the B string because this whole thing is just on the B in the G string and then we’re going to take your pinky and we’re going to pick up the 12th fret of the uh the B string and then with your third finger the 11th fret of the G string. So this is easy as its all 16th notes. So we’ve got one and two and then on the second beat of the two we’re going to remove our third finger. Now before we were doing 11 and 12 and now it’s 9 and 12, 9 on the G string and 12 on the B string. So we start after 11 and 12^th fret and we hit this… then starting on beat three we’re back on the 11th fret; one e and uh, there actually would be three and uh, like that… so that’s the first measure. Now the second measure is exactly the same thing. Then starting on the third measure the note on the G string is going to stay here on the ninth fret, but we’re going to go to the 10th fret on the B string and now it’s got the same kind of timing, but we’re going to be switching between having our second finger on the 10^th fret and letting it off. So we’re picking up B the ninth fret on the B and the G string with just your first finger and that’s the third measure… On the fourth measure we’re gonna put our third finger onto the 11th fret of the G string and keep our first finger where it is and now we take our second finger and put it on the tenth fret of the B string and now we’re going to be doing that same Rhythm, but the finger that we’re beginning to raising and lowering is our second finger. So we’re going to alternate between the tenth and ninth fret on the B string and then it would just repeat…

Conclusion

All right, so there you have it, another installment of fun and easy riffs from the 1980s. 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 John Mellencamp.

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 download yours. Every chord you can 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 chord you can need at a glance and it’s free download.

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 John Mellencamp riffs.

John Mellencamp Riff-1 – Hurts So Good

All right, so the first John Mellencamp riff we’re going to look at is the rift from Hurts So Good. To the first thing we’re going to want to do is take your first finger and just barre it like you’re doing an A major chord; so the A string is open and my first finger is barring the D string, G string and B string all at the second fret. Now the next thing we’re going to do is we’re going to take our middle finger and we’re going to put it onto the third fret of the B string and our third finger onto the fourth fret of the G string. So we hit the A string open for beat one, one, and then two and, and we’re just playing just the B and the G string at this time. So we’re going two and three and… two three and then on the and of three we’re gonna lift those two fingers off so we’re just barring the second fret of those two strings. So you got the one two and three and then for the downbeat of four is a mute and the and of four is just the open A string again. So that’s the first measure and then starting on the second measure beat number one we have a quarter note, we’ve still got our finger barred here and now we’re going to take our third finger and we’re going to put it so it’s on the fourth fret of the D string and then play that and the G string which is the second fret being picked up by that first finger. So that’s one, two and, so on the downbeat of two we hit the open A string, the and of two, we hit just an A5 and that is coming in on the and of two and it’s a quarter note so it rings out for the downbeat of three; so it’s like and three… So on the and of three we hit the open low E string, the down beat of four is the second fret and the and a four is the open A string and then the whole thing would just repeat…

John Mellencamp Riff-2 – Jack And Diane

So the next John Mellencamp riff we’re going to look at is the riff from Jack and Diane. So this is made up of just a bunch of the Triad shapes that if you’ve done any of the lessons I’ve done with Triads these are all going to be shapes that you’ve done before and a couple of more shapes that you’ve done even if you haven’t studied Triads. So the first one here we’ve got this A over C sharp (A/C#); so I’m just going to take my first finger and just barre the fifth fret of the B string and the high E string and then my second finger is going to go onto the sixth fret of the G string. So we hit this and we’re just playing just these first three strings. So we hit this on the downbeat of one; one, and then on the and of one we take our pinky and put it onto the seventh fret of the high E string. So it’s one and two on the downbeat of two we rest and now we’re gonna go to an E over B (E/B). So this is a shape that you have seen before. So if you take your regular D chord, but we just move it up a whole step so our first fingers on the fourth fret of the G string, third fingers on the fifth fret of the B string and second fingers on the fourth fret of the high E string… now we hit that on the and of two and the downbeat of three. So it’s like and three and four and a mute strum… Now we hit that mute strum and now we’re going to come down to the D, you know where we normally would do it for the downbeat of one, one e and uh and then a mute. So it’s kind of a thing you have to kind of get through, you just kind of feel it out… Now we hit that strum, mute, strum, mute and then we’re going to move back up a whole step with that D shape and now we’re going to take our Pinky and pick up the fifth fret of the high E string like if you were doing like a D suspended four (Dsus4), but in this case it’s actually Esus4… to that regular D shape, E/B technically and then two mutes and then we’d go on to the next measure and that’s our first two measures. So that third measure is basically the same as the first measure. Then on the fourth measure we come down to the D shape, mute, up a whole step for the E/B and then a mute and then that first chord shape again… and then two mutes to finish it off and then that whole thing with those four measures just repeats…

John Mellencamp Riff-3 – ROCK In The USA

All right and then the last John Mellencamp riff to look at is Rock in the USA. This is really easy because it’s 99 of the song is just these three chords; E major, A major and D major and then it does have a B in it for one part. It’s not on the tab, but I’ll show you what it is, it’s pretty simple. So for this you’ve got E and we’re starting on E and this is a quarter note and then two eighth notes; so one, two and, switch to an A, three and, four and… Now starting on the second measure we go to D; one and, two and then on the and of two we go back to A… one and two and three and four and… So that’s the chorus, but on the verse he just does the same thing, he’s just gonna play a little softer and the strum can be a little bit different before it goes into the chorus… Doing that so when he gets to the A instead of repeating he goes to a B; one, two Rocking In The USA… It doesn’t really get much easier than that John Mellencamp riff.

Conclusion

All right, so there you have it, three fun not too terribly difficult riffs to play from John Mellencamp. So if you like this John Mellencamp riff lesson be sure to give me a thumbs up and leave a comment down below if you have any questions about this John Mellencamp riff lesson 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 three fun and easy John Mellencamp riffs 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 the 1970s.

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’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, throw a copy in your gig bag, put a copy where you practice; so just whatever given situation you have any chord you could ever 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.

1970s Riff-1 – My Sharona

Alright, so the first one to look at is My Sharona by The Knack. So this one’s pretty easy and we’re going to start off we’ve got a C major barre chord. So first fingers picking up the third fret of the A string and then my third finger I’ve just got it barring across the fifth fret of the D, G and B string. So we’ve got this C and then we’ve got a B flat (Bb); so we’re just going to take this shape and we’ll move it down a whole step so now your first finger is at the first fret and your third finger is at the third fret. So we hit this we start with this C and it’s a dotted quarter note so it’s one two and three and four, and then on the and before we go to just the first fret of the low E string. So we hit this first fret of the A string or excuse me of the low E string and on the and of four and we slide to the third fret and that’s coming in on the downbeat of the second measure; so it’s like one and, and then starting on the downbeat of two we’re going to skip over the A string and go right to the D string the fifth fret. So it’s actually the same note, they’re both G’s. Now we go to that fifth fret of the D string and that’s two and then on the downbeat of three back to the third fret of the low E string. And then on the and of three we rest and then on the downbeat of four we hit the fifth fret of the D string again and then we rest on the and of four; so that’s the first two measures. Now starting on the third measure we’re back here on the third fret of the low E string for the downbeat of one and then on the and of one we rest the downbeat of two, fifth fret of the D string again and then on the and of two we rest. So it’s like one and, two and, and then on the downbeat of three third fret of the low E string again, three and, and then on the downbeat of four back to the D string and then on the and of four we’re going to do like we did on the first measure and we’re going to go to the first fret of the low E string and we’re going to pick that and slide to the third fret so this is; and one and two and three and four and, and then the whole thing just repeats.

1970s Riff-2 – Space Oddity

All right so the next we’re going to look at is Space Oddity by David Bowie. So for this part of it we’re only playing actually two chords. We’ve got an F major seven over E (FM7/E). So I’m on the third fret of the A string with my third finger and the third fret of the D string with my fourth finger and then my second finger is on the second fret of the G string and my first finger is on the first fret of the B string and both the low E string and the high E string are open. And then the other chord we have is E minor (Em); so open low E string, second fret of the A string with my second finger, second fret of the D string with my third finger and the G, B and high E strings are all open. These are the two chords and this is just kind of like the intro to this song and it’s the it’s the strumming for it that if you’re a beginner can be a little challenging… So on that first measure we’ve got an eighth note and two 16^th notes; so it’s like long, short, short and that’s beat one and then beat two long, short, short, short, long. So if you notice that the 16th note that’s on and of two is tied to the downbeat of one of the third beat; so it’s like 8^th, two 16th notes, 8^th, 16^th, 8^th, 16^th, 8^th…  So how I could do is like down, down, up, down, down, up, up, down, down… And then we switch to the Em and the strum is similar and starts off the same way on the first two beats… so 8^th, two 16^th, 8^th, two 16^th and that takes care of the first two beats; so long, short, short, long, short, short, so down, down, up, down, down. Now on beat three it’s four sixteenth notes like it was on beat four of the first measure. So now we’ve got three e and uh and then… And that’s basically it and then it just repeats…

1970s Riff-3 – If You Want Blood You’ve Got It

All right then the last one to look at is If You Want Blood You’ve Got It by AC/DC and this one starts out with an A like a lot of AC/DC songs. So A string is open and I’m barring the second fret of the D, G and B strings with my first finger; so just a regular A. Now you’re going to want to do it this way because of what other stuff that’s going on so just use that first finger and we hit this on the downbeat of one and then on the and of one we rest and then on the downbeat of two we hit just the open A string. And now we’re going to do an A suspended four (Asus4) so we’re going to still keep our first finger barred like this, but now we’re going to take our second finger and we’re going to pick up the third fret on the B string which makes it a suspended four; so one and two and three and… So we do the Asus4 and then on the downbeat of three the open A string again and then just the A chord again. The downbeat of four is a rest and then the and of four D; so D string open, second fret of the G string with my first finger, third fret of the B string with my third finger, second fret of the high E with my second finger… Okay so starting on the second measure we rest on the downbeat of one and then on the and of one you just hit the A and the D string open and then on the downbeat of two we have D suspended four (Dsus4). So if you take the D chord we were doing, but now you’re going to take your pinky and put it down onto the third fret of the high E string, that will make it Dsus4. So we hit that on beat two and then on that down beat of three we hit it again and the and of three we take our pinky off which puts it back to D and then beat four the open A and the D string four and then the whole thing starts over again…

Conclusion

All right, so there you have it, another volume of fun and easy riffs to play from the 1970s. 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.