Famous Riffs

"About A Girl" is a prime example of how some of the greatest riffs can be made up of the simplest components! Let me show you how to strum the intro and verse progression for this song. We are in the key of E minor for this song, and we'll be alternating between our open E minor chord and our G major chord, 2 beats on each. I hope you've had fun learning part of this classic song. The harmony and the guitar parts in the rest of the song is super cool as well, so I really hope you'll click on the link below and keep going with the full tutorial. Have fun with it! About A Girl 2011

"Back In Black" is another example of a brilliant rock'n roll riff that uses a creative combination rhythmic chords and bluesy single note lines to make you instantly wanna headbang. So before you do anything else, let me show you how to play just that riff. We'll be using three chords for this riff, which is E5 (just the three lowest strings) D5 (Just the middle 4 strings) and A major chord (also middle 4 strings). If this is your first time using open power chords like this, you may need to take a second to practice muting all the strings you don't want to hear. If you find that need more general practice with this, you can check out our rock course here on Guitar Tricks. Now let's start piecing it together. First we'll hit our E5 chord on beat 1 and make it short. I'm muting it with a combination of releasing LH pressure and doing a kind of karate chop in my RH (right hand). Next up we'll do a down/up/down on the D5 chord. The rhythm is “and-a 2”. Mute it right after just like we did before. Now we'll do the same, but with the A-chord. Mute the A-chord as well, like we did with the other chords. Now we'll do the bluesy single note riff, or single note lick! After this the chord hits repeat the same way. But now the second time the response lick is different. Now it happens on the bass strings. Now let's practice this whole riff a few times nice and slowly. Then let's try this out with our backing track, so you can hear and feel it in the context of the song. I hope you've had fun with learning this awesome rock'n roll riff and I also you'll hope you'll click on the link below to dig into the full tutorial, cause there's so much great stuff to learn from this song. Back In Black

"Bad Moon Rising" is an absolute classic and the guitar parts in it are a ton of fun to play. Let me show you how to play the instantly recognizable intro and verse part. The album version of this song is in the key of D, and the whole guitar is tuned down a whole step. That means we're playing an E major shape, but since every string is tuned down a whole step it rings in the key of D. It's a very cool way to make your guitar parts sound a little bit different. But for convenience we'll keep it in the key of E for this little warm-up lesson so you don't have to retune your whole guitar. This song uses 4 different voicings. The first one is your E major barre-chord a 5th string root). We just need the middle 4 strings to ring, so make sure your high E-string is muted and the low E-string as well. The next one is the B major barre-chord with a 6th string root. Then move that down a whole step for A major. Finally we have our good old E major chord down here in the open position. I hope you have fun learning this classic riff and rhythm part. There's a lot more to be learned from this song, so I highly encourage you to click on the link below and go to the full tutorial to learn all the rest. Have fun with it! Bad Moon Rising (2016) Bad Moon Rising (Made Easy)

"Folsom Prison Blues" features one of the most iconic intro riffs of all time and a classic strumming part that's a ton of fun to play. Let me show you how to play the intro riff leading into the acoustic verse part. We're in the key of E and we'll be playing in the open position. The intro lick is played by the electric lead guitar, but it works on acoustic as well. It happens over our V chord B7. For faster country songs like this, some people prefer verbalizing the rhythm as “1 and 2 and 1 and 2 and” instead of “1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4”. This is called cut-time and it really amounts to the same thing in the end. Just a matter of how you verbalize it! Now the reason I prefer to count it in half-time like that is that then majority of the verse follows a 12 bar form. You can learn more about the 12 bar form in the blues and the rock course. If you want to learn more about this kind of strumming check out our country course! I hope you& have fun learning a part of this classic song. If you felt like I did, you don't want to stop, then I hope that will encourage you to continue on with the full tutorial at the link below. Have fun with it! Folsom Prison Blues

"Hey Joe" is one of the most classic guitar songs of all time, jam packed with super cool guitar parts! Let me show you how to play the basic verse progression and all the signature rhythm embellishments used to create this iconic rhythm part. We're in the key of E and our basic progression for the verse goes C to G, half a bar on each! Then D to A, with the same rhythm. Finally E for 2 bars. I hope you've enjoyed learning this iconic part of a classic song. As I mentioned earlier the progression keeps going and the cool embellishments and fills just keep coming. So please click below to get start with the full tutorial. Have fun with it! Hey Joe 2017

"Let it Be" is arguably one of the greatest songs every written, and the piano part that drives the arrangement works really well on guitar as well, electric or acoustic! This song is in the key of C major and our basic progression of the intro and verse goes C G Am Fmaj7. For the second half it goes C G and then Fmaj7 to C. I hope you enjoy learning this classic part from an even more classic song. And there's a lot more to be learned from this whether you're into more piano-style acoustic guitars or ripping guitar solos. So please click below to get start with the full tutorials. Let It Be Let It Be (Made Easy) 2016

"My Sharona" features a ton of cool guitar playing which every rock guitar player should spend some quality time with. So let me show you how to play the intro riff. We're in the key of G minor and we're working out of our old familiar pattern of the G minor pentatonic scale starting here in the 3rd fret. For the riff we'll start out by sliding up to the root note from a half step below. Pick it and slide without picking it again. Next we're going to be using this octave interval here, alternating between this root note and the same note up an octave in the 5th fret of the D-string (played with your pinkie) and the rhythmic interplay between these two notes is what makes this riff so catchy. Once you're ready, let's add the next chunk which is a double downstroke of the low note and a single high note. Take your time and play that again and again until you start to feel the music of it. Now to finish off the riff we'll grab our C major barre chord here (with the root on the A-string) and strum 3 downstrokes. After that we move it down a whole step to Bb. Let's play the whole thing 8 times as our example in this lesson. Try it out slowly a few times together at a really slow tempo. We you are ready try it out at full speed with the backing track. I hop you enjoy learning this iconic riff. There's so much more to be learned from this song, so I really hope you'll click on the link below to get start with the full tutorial. My Sharona (Made Easy) My Sharona

When you hear the song title "Runaway Train" you can almost hear the song in your head right away. Let me show you how to play the basic progression and acoustic strumming part for the verses of this great song. We're in the key of C and our basic harmony will be C for 2 bars. then we do a somewhat strange C major 7 chord, where our 2nd finger jumps up to the 2nd fret of the A-string instead. So it's a C major 7 with the major 7 note (B) in the bass. Your 2nd finger is also muting the D-string, so we only want to hear the A-string, the G-string and the high E-string. It sounds weird on it's own, but in the context with the other chords it's really cool. Next up we have our good old A minor chord for 2 bars. And finally G major for 2 bars. I hope you have fun learning a part of this classic song. If you felt like I did, you didn't want to stop playing at the end of our example, and I hope that will encourage you to continue on with the full tutorial at the link below. Have fun with it! Runaway Train Runaway Train (Made Easy) 2013

"You Shook Me All Night Long" features one of the most recognizable rock'n roll riffs of all time. It's built up from some very simple chords, but with a catchy rhythm and quick changing between the chords it becomes absolutely stadium worthy, when you put it all together. So I have my regular electric guitar with a basic distorted tone dialed up, and we'll be working with just 3 basic cowboy chords- G, C and D. Now in order to accommodate all the distortion or overdrive we're using we'll strip them down to be more like open position power chords. In order to do this, we'll first make sure our A-string is muted on the G-chord. I sorta lay down my 2nd finger to touch and mute the A-string. I also make sure the high E-string is muted with a combination of my pinkie and my 3rd finger also laying down a little bit. So here it is: the rock'n roll G-chord. If you wanna learn more about rock chords and general rhythm vocabulary, check out our rock course here on GuitarTricks. Next up we'll grab our C-chord and release pressure on the D-string, so that becomes muted. The high E-string is muted as well. Finally we have our D-chord, and all we do here is to mute the high E-string. So we have G, C and D. Take a moment to practice switching between them because it happens quite quickly in this riff. Then we'll ad the rhythm. Even though it can be tricky to do the quick chord changes, it really is quite simple and yet extremely powerful! Just make sure you don't hit the strings too hard and that your rhythm and your muting is super tight. Now let's practice this whole riff a few times nice and slowly. Next let's try this out with our backing track, so you can hear and feel it in the context of the song. I hope you've had fun with learning this classic rock'n roll riff. Whether you're in your bedroom or a small rehearsal space, this riff instantly makes you feel like you're in a stadium. And the rest of the song is just as fun, so I highly recommend that you click on the link below to dig into the full tutorial. You Shook Me All Night Long

The song "Cocaine" features one of the simplest and yet most recognizable riffs in rock 'n' roll. So let me show you how to play that riff which is also used for the verses. We're in the key of E and we'll be using our barre-chord with the root in the 7th fret of the A-string. Strum that with two downstrokes, “1 and...” Then lift off our 3 rd finger, so all the strings are ringing from the barre. Hit that once and reapply your 3rd finger, “1 and 2 and" On beat 3 we mute all the strings with a combination of releasing left hand pressure and also muting with our right hand. On beat 4 we do a subtle ghost strum and then we move the whole chord shape down a whole step to D and do a full strum, “4 and” Then for the verse we'll use this same part 4 times, and after that there's a simple but all important variation which goes: E D C B. it's the same voicing moving down! Next let's practice it a few times slowly then give it a try with the backing track. I hope you enjoy learning the most integral part of this classic song. And while this part is the backbone of it, there are so many cool things happening on top that I encourage you to click on the link below to dig into the rest of it in the full tutorial. Cocaine 2016

"Highway To Hell" is one of those songs that you recognize from within the first 3 notes of the guitar riff. This riff is made up of some fairly simple chords with a catchy rhythm and yet somehow it feels larger than life. Before we do anything else, let me show you how to play just the intro riff. We'll be using just three basic chords for this intro. The first one is A major and we'll be doing the rock 'n' roll version here where we barre across the 2nd fret of the D, G & B strings with our 1st finger. Next, we'll use the open D5 chord adding the 3rd in the bass, which is up here in the 2nd fret of the low E-string, the F# note. Now, holding the D-chord, we'll switch the the third chord which is G, and all we do for that is to move our 2nd finger up to the 3rd fret of the low E-string. The A-string is still muted and so is the high E-string. Now we have all 3 chords, let's add the rhythm. I hope you have fun with learning this classic and truly epic guitar riff. I highly encourage you to click on the link below and go to the full tutorial to learn all the other great parts in this song. There's so much fun stuff to dig into in "Highway To Hell". Have fun with it! Highway To Hell

"Kiss From A Rose" has one of the most recognizable chord progressions, constantly alternating between chords from the minor and major tonality, which is a really powerful songwriting tool that you can use too. Let me show you how to play the verse progression and strumming This song is in the key of G and we'll go through the basic harmony, but first let's talk about how to count this song. We're in 6/8, so we count to six for each bar, but there are a bunch of half bars scattered throughout it, so you can either count those as a simple “1 2 3” or as a “7 8 9”. Or you can count it all in 3 and not have to worry about it. But as always the most important thing is to play it right. How we verbalize it is secondary. And the best way to learn it is to learn the melody and the lyrics; even if you don't plan to sing it. The basic harmony is going to be a full bar of G major then half a bar on Eb and F. Then we have an extended bar on G going and then again Eb to F (half a bar on each). Now let's add the capo in the 3 rd fret, and adapt the chords. Now our G major looks like an E major. Our Eb looks like a C major and our F chord looks like a D chord. In order to avoid confusion, let's refer to the chords by the names of their shapes. So we'll call out the chords as if we're in the key of E, even though it's really ringing in the key of G. Let's talk briefly about what's so special about the harmony these chords form. Without getting too deep into theory right now, you have a bunch of chords that are made out of the notes from the G major scale that all have a major sound. In the key of G, this would be G, C, D, Em for example. But this song is combining these major scale chords with the chords that are derived from the G minor scale, like Eb, F and of course G minor. This is a great songwriting tool to use that can add a lot of nuance to a chord progression. If you want to learn more about music theory and how it pertains to guitar playing, check out our acoustic course here on Guitar Tricks. Finally try it with the backing track, so you can hear and feel it in the context of the song. I hope you have fun with learning part of this classic song! The rest of the song is really cool too, so I really hope you'll click on the link below and go to the full tutorial to learn all the rest. Kiss From A Rose (Made Easy) (2014) Kiss From A Rose

"Smoke On The Water" features one of the greatest rock 'n' roll riffs of all time! It's not complicated, but it is extremely powerful. So let me show you how to play it. We're in the key of G, and we'll be using these really cool double stops that almost end up sounding like an organ. The first one is on the A and D string in the 5th fret. I'm barring with my 3rd finger. With my right hand I'm doing a sort of pinching motion, where I pick the A string with my pick and pluck the D string with my right hand 2nd finger. After that they're all on the D and G string. B-flat in the 3rd fret (barring with my 1st finger), C in the 5th fret and D-flat in the 6th fret. Now let's piece it together. Next practice this riff a few times together really slowly. When you are ready give it a try at full speed with the backing track. I hope you have fun learning this iconic riff. There's so much more to be learned from this song, so I really hope you click on the link below and keep going with the full tutorial. Smoke On The Water (Made Easy) Smoke On The Water