Thursday, August 8, 2013

Classic Rock Riff

Here's a classic rock guitar riff using the E Minor Pentatonic Scale. It is played over a chord progression of E Minor / G / D / A.  The riff starts with a funky double stop sequence played at the 12th fret position that repeats twice. Then the riff shifts to the open position of the first shape of the E Minor Pentatonic Scale. Nothing too fancy here. Try to let the bend from A to B ring into the open B string and shoot for a classic rock guitar tone. The most difficult thing to nail is the timing of the riff. You want to really lay back and sink into the groove of the track. Staying loose and listening closely are important. I find I tense up as soon as that red button comes on but with enough practice you can learn to gradually relax the guitar will sound much better as a result. If you listen to the video and follow along with the guitar tab you can hear that I really don't start to sound correct until the third take.