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Logical Lead Guitar25 Riffs You Must KnowBy Adam St. JamesLogicalLeadGuitar.comCopyright 2007Adam St. JamesLogicalLeadGuitar.comPO Box 5706Woodridge, IL 60517No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, or by anymeans, without the prior written permission of the author.
Logical Lead Guitar – 25 Riffs You Must Know1Logical Lead GuitarBonus Section: 25 Riffs You Must KnowIn this Bonus Section I’ve put together acollection of 25 of perhaps the most common riffsused in basic guitar soloing – whether you playrock, blues, country, jazz, or whatever. These areriffs you absolutely MUST know, and you must beable to play them fluently – in any key. (Don’tpanic: That just means sliding them up and down theneck a fret or more to change keys). If you’regoing to play any kind of lead guitar, sooner orlater you’re going to end up playing these riffs,or some variations on these riffs.Practice each of these riffs over and over untilyou can play them quickly, smoothly andeffortlessly. If you’re a beginner level guitarist,that means you might have to play each of theseriffs several hundred times before it becomeseffortless. Hey, don’t despair, I’ve done it, andso did Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen,and every other famous guitarist you’ve ever heard.Besides, each riff is only a couple of secondslong. You ought to be able to play any of these 25riffs at least 10 times in one minute – though ofcourse you’ll be slower at first. Just get going,and soon enough you’ll be able to play all thesegreat riffs.Once you’ve worked out each of these 25 riffs toperfection (or as close as you can get, for now –you’ll be better at each of these a month from now,and even better than that two months from now)start combining them and you’ll start sounding likea lead guitarist. There are a great number offamous solos which simply include a handful ofthese 25 riffs strung together, one after another.
Logical Lead Guitar – 25 Riffs You Must Know2Bonus Section: 25 Riffs You Must Know (cont'd)A fantastic bonus to learning these 25 riffs andplaying them, literally hundreds of times, is thatyour ear will become able to pick these riffs outin real time when you’re listening to your favoritelead guitarist play a solo. The inevitable eartraining that happens when you practice a riff overand over will enable you to recognize the riff whenyou hear someone else play it. And you’ll be prettyexcited the first time you actually hear somethingon a CD or the radio and say, “Hey, I know exactlywhat he just played – I know how to play that!”So get to work, but remember: Be patient, repeateach phrase over and over until you nail it, andmost of all: HAVE FUN!
Logical Lead Guitar – 25 Riffs You Must Know3Bonus Section: 25 Riffs You Must Know (cont'd)Note: I’ve created all of these riffs in thepopular key of A minor. After you learn them – oreven while you’re learning them – you should movethem up and down the neck and try them out in otherkeys. Hint: If you slide the patterns up one fret,you'll be playing them in B-flat; two frets willput them in B; three frets will put them in C.This kind of simple movement is all you need to doto play these riffs – or similar variations of themwhich you make up yourself (after you becomefamiliar with these basics) – to play similar butdifferent solos in different songs in differentkeys. This is basically what all your guitar heroesdo!1) Use the main pentatonic shape at the 5th fret(key of A minor) for this one. The first noteplayed is A, the root note of the pattern – thekey note and the most important note whenplaying over an A chord. Beginning or ending aphrase on the root note of a chord alwaysworks.
Logical Lead Guitar – 25 Riffs You Must Know4Bonus Section: 25 Riffs You Must Know (cont'd)2) This riff is also played in the main pentatonicshape. This riff ends on the root note.3) Another riff in the main pentatonic shape. Thisis a combination of riffs #1 and #2.
Logical Lead Guitar – 25 Riffs You Must KnowBonus Section: 25 Riffs You Must Know (cont'd)4) This riff is the same melody as riff #1, butinstead of playing this in the main pentatonicshape, we’ll play it in B.B.’s Box. If youaren’t sure what B.B.’s Box is, you need towatch the Logical Lead Guitar DVD section onPentatonics again. B.B.’s Box is explainedthere, in great detail.5) This riff is the same as riff #2, but again,instead of playing it in the main pentatonicshape, we’ll play it in B.B.’s Box. This is anabsolutely essential little riff heard inthousands of famous guitar solos, as shown, orin slight variations.5
Logical Lead Guitar – 25 Riffs You Must KnowBonus Section: 25 Riffs You Must Know (cont'd)6) Now the combination of #1 and #2, as played inB.B.’s Box.7) I refer to this riff as Chuck Berry #1,because, well , because this is soquintessential Chuck Berry. Yet every leadguitarist you’ve ever heard since has probablyused this riff at one time or another – or alot.6
Logical Lead Guitar – 25 Riffs You Must Know7Bonus Section: 25 Riffs You Must Know (cont'd)8) And I call this riff Chuck Berry #2, because itis something he played regularly, and somethingwhich all the great lead players in the nextgeneration (Hendrix, Page, Clapton, Beck,Richards, Harrison, etc.) worked very hard tolearn and perfect as well.9) This riff uses something I call “slidingthirds” at the top of main pentatonic pattern.This is yet another ubiquitous riff whichalmost any lead guitarist since the days ofRobert Johnson (1930's blues legend) has used –often extensively – in their lead guitarplaying.
Logical Lead Guitar – 25 Riffs You Must KnowBonus Section: 25 Riffs You Must Know (cont'd)10)Now we’ll take those sliding thirds andplay a complete riff, resolving to the rootnote.11)Here’s a very common ascending pentatonic riff,heard in thousands of solos.8
Logical Lead Guitar – 25 Riffs You Must Know9Bonus Section: 25 Riffs You Must Know (cont'd)12)And now an extension on riff 11.13)Riff #13 is a common ascending pentatonicriff that puts notes in groups of three – oftenknown as a “triplet” feel.
Logical Lead Guitar – 25 Riffs You Must Know10Bonus Section: 25 Riffs You Must Know (cont'd)14)This riff is essential to many great solosby Jimmy Page, Hendrix, Clapton, and untoldnumbers of famous guitarists. You’ll use pulloffs to really play this one quickly. It'ssimilar to Riff 13, but played backwards.15)This “double stop” bend riff soundsslightly country-ish, but everyone from Slashto the heaviest metal players use this one. Letboth notes ring while you bend the thirdstring.
Logical Lead Guitar – 25 Riffs You Must Know11Bonus Section: 25 Riffs You Must Know (cont'd)16)Now we’ll take riff #15 a little further,bending, then releasing the 7th fret on thethird string, then pulling off to the 5th fret,then resolve the riff to A on the fourthstring. Let the second string ring the wholetime, until you play A at the end of the riff.17)Pick the 5th fret on the third string, thenhammer-on your second finger at the 6th fret ofthe third string, before playing notes on thesecond and first strings. I refer to thistechnique as a “Mixo-Blues” riff, and it ispart of countless great solos.
Logical Lead Guitar – 25 Riffs You Must KnowBonus Section: 25 Riffs You Must Know (cont'd)18)Riff 18 takes the Mixo-blues hammer-onriff in a swing direction.19)Now we’ll take that Mixo-Blues riff a bitfurther, combining them a bit with our ChuckBerry #2 riff.12
Logical Lead Guitar – 25 Riffs You Must Know13Bonus Section: 25 Riffs You Must Know (cont'd)20)This simple and very common riff is called“The Rake” by some folks I’ve discussed itwith, including the likes of B.B. King and PeteAnderson (Dwight Yoakam’s long-time guitaristand producer). Play the 7th fret on the secondstring with your third finger and the 8th freton the first string with your fourth finger,and bend them very slightly, before resolvingto the 5th fret.
Logical Lead Guitar – 25 Riffs You Must Know14Bonus Section: 25 Riffs You Must Know (cont'd)21)For lack of a better name, I call thisriff “Whole Lotta Bend” because one of the mostfamous uses of it – though it’s used inthousands of solos – is Jimmy Page’s solo inLed Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love.” On this one,you’ve got to bend that first note a step and ahalf – making that 12th fret E sound like G atthe 15th fret.22)Here’s a common main pentatonic shape riffJimmy Page, and many others, do quite often.
Logical Lead Guitar – 25 Riffs You Must KnowBonus Section: 25 Riffs You Must Know (cont'd)23)Riff #23 is a slight take on Chuck Berry#2, and something Jimmy Page played in“Stairway To Heaven.”24)Eric Clapton – among others – uses thisregularly. Hold the second string and firststring together and let them ring together.15
Logical Lead Guitar – 25 Riffs You Must Know16Bonus Section: 25 Riffs You Must Know (cont'd)25)This is a common boogie-rock riff youshould learn, and which I’m sure you’llrecognize as being part of a great many famoussolos – not to mention rhythm parts as well.
Logical Lead Guitar – 25 Riffs You Must Know17Logical Lead GuitarLogicalLeadGuitar.comBy Adam St. JamesFor the complete course, and my free lead guitartips newsletter, visit us atwww.LogicalLeadGuitar.com.The entire Logical Lead Guitar course is a DVDbased guitar lesson course featuring nearly fourhours of professionally produced video footage,with detailed close-ups of the instructor's handsso you can easily duplicate the riffs, licks, tips,and tricks taught in the videos. If you play theDVDs in your computer, you can easily loop sectionsfor repeated viewing, allowing you to view anexample over and over until you can understand andplay along with it properly yourself.The Logical Lead Guitar course comes with two DVDs,one audio CD and 11 separate course books – ofwhich "25 Riffs You Must Know" is just one. Nearlyevery example played in the videos is written outin Tab (tablature) and sheet music in the coursebooks, which total 550 pages of professionalinstruction. There are more than 450 examplesdemonstrated on video and 100 additional examplesdemonstrated on the audio CD – including full solosat beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels ofplaying.
Logical Lead Guitar – 25 Riffs You Must Know18The course provides a lifetime worth of musicalknowledge, and essential information you'll use forthe rest of your guitar playing life! When youfinish studying the Logical Lead Guitar course,your playing will have forever changed and you willbe on your way to playing at the pro level of allyour favorite guitar heroes!Thank you again for checking out Logical LeadGuitar!
Logical Lead Guitar – 25 Riffs You Must KnowFor additional music and guitar instructionalresources, including songbooks with exacttranscriptions of your favorite artists' music,plus other DVD- or CD-based method books coveringvirtually every style of music, please also checkout our other ifeMag.comwww.ShutUpNPlayYerGuitar.comFor more information on the author, please visit:www.AdamStJames.comor email adam@LogicalLeadGuitar.com19
Logical Lead Guitar – 25 Riffs You Must Know 1 Logical Lead Guitar Bonus Section: 25 Riffs You Must Know In this Bonus Section I’ve put together a collection of 25 of perhaps the most common riffs used in basic guitar soloing – whether you play rock, blues, country, jazz, or whatever. These are riffs you absolutely MUST know, and you must be able to play them fluently – in any key .
