This week, I’m attacking Karl Golden’s Top 5 Simple Metal Guitar Riffs For Beginners. 

With the exception of Raining Blood by Slayer, they’re all very familiar riffs which has helped immensely. If you’re familar with the Slayer track then you’ll notice I’ve not attempted the rhythm. I didn’t have the time to set up backing tracks, so a lot of practise has been done raw and some to a click track.

The one I struggled most with was a surprise to me, it was Iron Man, which is a track I already knew. Toward the end, sliding the power chords really made my fingers ache on repetition. So that’s identified another area to work on.  So there’s the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDTWdKej0Uo

Here’s the tabs to the tracks I did.

Riff 1 – Iron Man by Black Sabbath

D -4-7-7/9-9---12\11--12\11--12\7--7/9--9-(9)\
A -2-5-5/7-7---10\9---10\9---10\5--5/7--7-(7)\

Riff 2 – Symphony Of Destruction by Megadeth

A -3-2--2---3-2--2-----------3-2--2--
E -1-0--0---1-0--0---1-3-1---1-0--0--

Riff 3 – Raining Blood by Slayer

D ---------8-9-8----8-7---7-6--
A -------7--------9-----8------ x3
E -0-0-0-----------------------

Riff 4 – Breaking The Law by Judas Priest

A --0-2-3--0-2-3--0-2-3------0-----0---3-2-
E -----------------------1-3---1-3---3-----

Riff 5 – For Whom The Bell Tolls by Metallica

G ----------------------------3-----
D -------5--------7--------5--3--4--
A -------5--------7--------5--1--4--
E -0-0-0-3--0-0-0-5--0-0-0-3-----2--

G ----------------------------3-----
D -------5--------7--------5--3--4-3-2-2\
A -------5--------7--------5--1--4-3-2-2\
E -0-0-0-3--0-0-0-5--0-0-0-3-----2-1-0-0\

I’m not sure if it’s that interesting, but I spent a while researching each guitarist involved and using approximate plugins and VSTs for amps and pedals where I could. Then tweaked things.  So these are the settings used:

So, week two. My first objective from last week was to pick tunes I’m more familiar with. I didn’t do that, not for all of them. But ho-hum. This week was based off the lesson from Andy Guitar called “5 Easy Guitar Riffs on 1 STRING”

I did, however, practise them with both a metronome and using the original tracks. This actually did reap a lot better results, so something I’ll certainly continue with. As will I continue with very simple and repeatable riffs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLiNY7WP6O4

The riffs themselves, were these…

Riff 1 – Misty Mountain Hop by Led Zeppelin

A -------|-/7--
E -5-3-0-|-----

Riff 2 – New York City Cops by The Strokes

E -5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5--3\-0--3\-0--3-

Riff 3 – Satisfaction by The Rolling stones

E -7-7--7-9-10--10-10--9-9-

or

A -2-2--2-4-5--5-5--4-4-

Riff 4 – My Generation by The Who

E -3333-1111-3333-1111-3-

Riff 5 – The Peter Gunn Theme

E -00-20-3/4-5-4

This is my concerted effort to learn how to play the guitar finally. The method of doing this will be to pick a lesson or tutorial online and follow it for a week. For the first week I’ve picked Robert Baker’s “5 Easy Guitar Riffs Every Beginner Should Learn TODAY!!”