Lots of beginners, who are just starting out, get frustrated with the guitar
because they want to play songs and aren’t able to. They don’t want to play
“Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, but instead want to play a cool rock song. While
most rock songs are too difficult for beginners, there are some easy rock riffs.
In this lesson, we will go over 4 great and easy rock riffs. Friends and family
will be impressed when they hear you playing these riffs!
The only pre-requisite to this lesson of 4 easy rock riffs is to be able to read
tablature. If you don’t know how to read tab, check out the lesson on it and
then come back to this lesson. That’s all you need to know to play these songs.
They’re easy for beginners, but sound really cool.
Riff #1: Smoke On The Water
“Smoke on The Water” is probably the most learned riff on the guitar. People
love to learn and play the song because it is so easy and sounds so good. Here’s
a tab of it:
The song, as you can see, is very basic. First, you’ll play the D and G strings
open(without fingers on the frets). Then, you’ll place your index finger on the
3rd fret of the D string, and your middle finger on the 3rd fret of the G
string. You’ll play those two strings together just once before moving on to the
5th fret, then open, then 3rd fret, and so on. Some people try to use a pick to
play these two notes together; however for beginners, I’d recommend
finger-picking the notes (playing with your finger). In this case, I’d use my
right index finger and thumb to play the notes.
If you look through some of the other articles around
here, you'll find I already have a video showing you how to play Smoke On The
Water. But here another one in case one isn't good enough:
Riff #2: Love Me Tender
While this classic isn’t a Rock riff, per say, it’s a great, simple song to
learn.
With this song, you’ll simply use your index, middle and ring fingers to play
all the necessary notes. It does take some getting used to in order to play
these notes in the correct order, so be sure to practice this one!
The video
Riff #3: One
Metallica’s “One” is one of the most played songs and for good reason—it’s
simple, yet good. Here’s the tab:
Like “Love Me Tender”, “One” is pretty straight forward to play. Just use your
index, middle, ring and pinky fingers as needed to play the notes in the right
order.
So simple, a 13 year old could do it – in fact, here’s a 13 year old playing it:
The guitar solo for “One” is very much not easy, but here’s a video of that if
these simple rock riffs are “child’s play” to you. This video covers just the
solo:
Riff #4: Hells Bells
Virtually every rock guitarist wants to learn a little AC/DC. “Hells Bells” is
by far their easiest song.
One thing that typically presents problems for beginners with this song is the
speed it is played at. The speed is 96 beats per minute(or 96 notes per minute),
which is a bit fast for beginners. Thus, you should focus on just playing this
slowly at first and perfecting each part. Then gradually increase your speed
until it sounds like the real thing.
The audio is a little soft on this video, so if you want to hear it, just turn up
the sound.
Keep in mind that these are just 4 of the many easy rock riffs. Be sure to check
the internet for many other rock riffs that beginners can easily play.
