Welcome back! In this lesson I wanna teach you how to play some very easy rock guitar riffs.
Some of the best guitar riffs that I know are from AC/DC; their sound is just so unique, that
there’s no way someone wouldn’t recognize their music. Their riffs are usually a mixture of open
chords and single notes. I wanted to imitate this and so I came up with a very easy riff that
actually sounds pretty cool. I could totally see myself playing it with my band; why not?
Let’s check it out:
The first measure includes all the open chords, while the second measure has the single notes. It’s just a basic A G D/ F# going to an E7 which is actually implied with the single notes. This is something you can totally do; instead of playing a chord, replace it with notes that outline its structure. It’s a great way to come up with rock riffs that are not actually that hard to play and sounds very legit.Now let’s take a look at another example:
All I’ve done this time is adding a single note in between each chord; also, notice how in the
second measure I kept the same single notes from the previous example, but this time I added
a chord at the beginning. Combining single notes in between 2 chords is also a great way to
come up with riffs and, you can simply outline the structure of the chord.
Here’s another example:
This one is a little bit different because it is a pedal based riff. This type of riff was very popular in the 80s; the way it works is by keeping a pedal note all the way through (usually played with palm mute technique) and strumming chords or two random notes in between. In the example, I just simply play a fourth interval in between the pedal tones which works and gives that 80’s rock sound.
Well, that’s all for this article. I really hope you’ve enjoyed this lesson and please remember to check out our entire collection of lessons at:
The first measure includes all the open chords, while the second measure has the single notes. It’s just a basic A G D/ F# going to an E7 which is actually implied with the single notes. This is something you can totally do; instead of playing a chord, replace it with notes that outline its structure. It’s a great way to come up with rock riffs that are not actually that hard to play and sounds very legit.Now let’s take a look at another example:
All I’ve done this time is adding a single note in between each chord; also, notice how in the
second measure I kept the same single notes from the previous example, but this time I added
a chord at the beginning. Combining single notes in between 2 chords is also a great way to
come up with riffs and, you can simply outline the structure of the chord.
Here’s another example:
This one is a little bit different because it is a pedal based riff. This type of riff was very popular in the 80s; the way it works is by keeping a pedal note all the way through (usually played with palm mute technique) and strumming chords or two random notes in between. In the example, I just simply play a fourth interval in between the pedal tones which works and gives that 80’s rock sound.
Well, that’s all for this article. I really hope you’ve enjoyed this lesson and please remember to check out our entire collection of lessons at:
