Entries Tagged 'Riffs and Licks' ↓

Hello everyone. Wanted to bring your attention an earlier guitar lesson done by Andrew Koblick from Amazing Guitar, dealing with the initial riff from the “Stairway to Heaven” song by Led Zeppelin, released in late 1971 and since then having become one of those songs that every guitar player attempts to play at one time or another. The song, almost eight minutes long, is made up of several sections, which increase in speed and volume. I would want you to take a look at the intro riff, which resembles a lot a slow acoustic-based folk song.

The song is not only pleasing to the year, but also does teach use some theory behind it. It is written in the key of Am, and it starts with an arpeggiated chord progression played with fingers, accompanied by a chromatic descending bass line (A-G#-G-F#-F-E.). Let’s take a look at how it is constructed. The first bar opens up with an arpeggio, based on the A minor. As we already stated an arpeggio is nothing more than a consecutive play of the root, third, and tonic, so in Am you have – A, C, E and back to A an octave apart.

E——-5-7—–7-
B—–5—–5—–
G—5———5—
D-7——-6——-

Take a look at the picture showing the A minor arpeggio fingering:

Followed by the 7th fret on the high E string played together with the 6th Fret on the D string.
This 6th fret on the D string or Ab is a passing tone.
The last 3 notes of the first bar create a C major 7.

Take a look at the proposed C Major 7 fingering:

This all leads intro riff to C major, which is the relative major to A minor.
(This is out of the G Form – See Ultimate Fretboard). In the 2nd bar the first 4 notes are a C major (G Form 2nd Octave)

E-8—–8-2—–2-
B—5——-3—–
G—–5——-2—
D-5——-4——-

This picture bellow shows the C Major fingering:

The following 4 notes in the 2nd bar create a D major Arpeggio, which is a C Form Inversion. Take a look at the D Major fingering:

The third Bar of the into riff is an Open F major7 Chord played as an arpeggio:

E-0———0—–
B—1—1—–1—
G—–2———2-
D-3—————

Look at the shown F Major 7 fingering:

Finally, the last bar of the riff rests on one beat of G major before going into A minor.

—————–|
-0-1-1———–|
-0-2-2———–|
—————–|
-2-0-0—0–/8-7-|
—————–|

It is interesting to note, that the last two notes lead into the second set, and are virtually identical to the first 4 bars.

Here are the 8 Bars together:

Intro:
E——-5-7—–7-|-8—–8-2—–2-|
B—–5—–5—–|—5——-3—–|
G—5———5—|—–5——-2—|
D-7——-6——-|-5——-4——-|
A—————–|—————–|
E—————–|—————–|

E-0———0—–|—————–|
B—1—1—–1—|-0-1-1———–|
G—–2———2-|-0-2-2———–|
D-3—————|—————–|
A—————–|-2-0-0—0–/8-7-|
E—————–|—————–|

The Second 4 bars follow the first 4 bars, except the very first note which is an extension of the previous bar.

E———7—–7-|-8—–8-2—–2-|
B——-5—5—–|—5——-3—–|
G—–5——-5—|—–5——-2—|
D—7—–6——-|-5——-4——-|
A-0—————|—————–|
E—————–|—————–|

E-0———0—–|—————–|
B—1—1—–1—|-0-1-1———–|
G—–2———2-|-0-2-2———–|
D-3—————|—————–|
A—————–|-2-0-0———–|
E—————–|—————–|

Be sure to check the video, showing how the forms are used to create the “Stairway to Heaven” intro riff.

Admittedly this is not a perfect performance by any means. I suggest using the video and pictures to find the forms and then listening to the original to perfect your performance.

http://www.guitar5day.com/video/stair.wmv

Hello everyone.

I wanted to share with you a simple, but yet very useful guitar exercise based on the use of a diminished triad scale. What makes this exercise so useful is that it accomplishes several things. Firstly, it helps you with the stretching of fingers. Secondly, it employs basic alternate picking (up – down), even though the real trick is to play it with apoyando (a method of plucking known in English as “rest stroke”, where after plucking the string, the pick rests on the adjacent string). Due to its rather specific construction this exercise will keep you concentrated the entire time.

I believe that all guitarists should spend a good portion on their practice time playing exercises. Yes, playing in a band is great, and following a creative impulse when writing a song is important, but the exercises are the instruments that help you progress reaching a new level of ability.  Also, don’t skip playing scales and arpeggios under any circumstances.  Scales and arpeggios based on them represent a consecutive play of notes, which make up the chord and are not just for beginners. They are known to be very rich in melodic expression, which makes them perfectly suitable for imaginative player wishing to create remarkable solos and riffs.

Well, speaking of the exercise – I do not know if there is a name to this exercise; it was shown to me by my guitar teacher and I benefited greatly from it. It is based on the diminished third scale.

Plat it against metronome, starting out slowly and making sure that each note sounds out clearly without unwanted sounds from other strings. Listen to the midi file, to make sure you are on the right track. Enjoy!

dim triad

E                             E  E  E  E  E  E  E

E||------------------------------------------------|

B||------------------------------------------------|

G||------------------------------------------------|

D||---------------------------------------------3--|

A||------------------------------2--5-----2--5-----|

E||--1------------------------4--------4-----------|

E  E  E  E  E  E  E  E     E  E  E  E  E  E  E  E

--------------------------|--------------------------|

--------------------------|-----------------------6--|

-----------------------4--|--------4--7-----4--7-----|

--------3--6-----3--6-----|--3--6--------6-----------|

--2--5--------5-----------|--------------------------|

--------------------------|--------------------------|

E  E  E  E  E  E  E  E     E  E  E   E    E  E   E  E

-----------------------7--|--------7--10S--11--8---------|

--------6--9-----6--9-----|--6--9-----------------10--7--|

--4--7--------7-----------|------------------------------|

--------------------------|------------------------------|

--------------------------|------------------------------|

--------------------------|------------------------------|

E   E  E  E   E  E  E  E     E  E  E  E  E  E  E  E

--8-------------------------|--------------------------|

-----10--7-----10--7--------|--7-----------------------|

------------8---------8--5--|-----8--5-----8--5--------|

----------------------------|-----------7--------7--4--|

----------------------------|--------------------------|

----------------------------|--------------------------|

E  E  E  E  E  E  E  E     E  E  E  E  E  E  E        E

--------------------------|--------------------------------|-----||

--------------------------|--------------------------------|-----||

--5-----------------------|--------------------------------|-----||

-----7--4-----7--4--------|--4-----------------------------|-----||

-----------6--------6--3--|-----6--3-----6--3--------------|-----||

--------------------------|-----------5--------5--------2--|-----||

_________

E – 8th

S – shift slide

Did you see the Grammys
Sunday night?

Did you catch the
Les Paul tribute?

Before there were
fast shredding guitar
players Les Paul
was playing with blinding speed.

And he did it
with a sense of humor.

Alot of what Les Paul did
was repetition.

The same riff but
slid down the neck.

Here is a riff you can work on:

p=pull off

h=hammer

E|--11h12p11h12--9h10p9h10--7h8p7h8--5h6p5h6--
B|--------------------------------------------
G|--------------------------------------------
D|--------------------------------------------
A|--------------------------------------------
E|--------------------------------------------

It looks like a lot of notes
but it is just a simple
hammer and pull off twice
then drop down two frets.

Try it slow at first before moving frets.
get the basic hammer pull off hammer
before moving.

After a while you will get it and
see how simple it is.

You can go to the 3rd fret even.

Now try it by changing just one note.

Play the last note on the B string:

E|--11h12p11-----9h10p9-----7h8p7----5h6p5----
B|----------h12--------h10-------h8-------h6--
G|--------------------------------------------
D|--------------------------------------------
A|--------------------------------------------
E|--------------------------------------------

When you get it going fast it
sounds kind of cartoonish.

Have fun with that and make
up a few riffs on your
own by just changing
one note.

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Since I’ve heard “Hear my train a comin’  by Jimi hendrix, I wanted to play guitar and try to reproduce this great song (…).