This lesson will teach you how to bend your strings like Roy Buchanan used to. The first thing you have to know is that a true bend is just taking a note from the scale and stretching your string up to the next note in the scale. This is why it is imperative to know your scales, because you can miss the proper pitch very easily if you don’t know what you’re aiming for. So find the pitch you’re looking for, then strike the string and let it down.

You can use more than one finger – if you have to hold the string there for any length of time, it’s much easier if you get your other fingers behind the finger doing the bend. You can do this on any string, by the way.

Learn More Easy Blues Licks Here

So here is how you play that riff. First of all, it’s taken out of the C pentatonic minor scale. Start with your D on the second string, fifteenth fret. Your reference point is the E that is on the twelfth fret, first string. Don’t play this note, just use it to learn the sound you’re looking for in the stretch. So stretch your D up until it is the same pitch as the E string. Start your riff on the stretched E, and as your string comes back, let it ring out to a D. Now drop in your scale to the B note. Take your A note on the third string, fourteenth fret, and stretch it to the B note. Strike it, and let it come down to the A, then play G. The riff ends on an E which is the fourteenth fret, fourth string.

So the trick is that you have to plan a little ahead because you have to stretch that string before you strike the note. It requires you to be a little ahead of the game, and it makes the guitar sound like it’s crying!

Have a look at Roy Buchanan’s “Guitar on Fire” album, and the song Messiah. It’s a great song, and you’ll hear some of those bends.

Watch on Youtube

Source: Roy Buchanan Inspired Guitar Licks #2 Riff Ninja - Riff Ninja Guitar Lessons

This lesson is going to look at and analyze the style of Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath. A great way to learn is to steal ideas, but create your own riffs. In Tony’s autobiography, he calls himself a self-professed heavy metal blues guitarist. He said that Black Sabbath started as more of a heavy blues band. It’s easy to believe that because Tony likes to use pentatonic minor scales – which are called blues scales. He also likes to use chromatic passing notes.

This signature riff for him comes out of the basic pentatonic minor blues scale. You need to learn this scale because it is the most common scale. The scale used in this lesson is in the key of A – the A is the tonic of the scale, the starting note. Start with the A that is on the sixth string, fifth fret. Use one finger per fret for the scale.

These scales can be moved anywhere on the fretboard. This riff starts on the B, and throws a chromatic passing note between the IV – V, and VII – VIII. The note that is used between the IV and V is the flatted fifth or augmented fourth – also known as the Devil’s note. The note used between the VII and VII is the minor 7th, harmonic minor, or raised 7th.

So your first finger is on the sixth string, seventh fret, then your pinky is on the tenth fret, sixth string. Cross over and play your first finger on the fifth string, seventh fret, then your second finger is on the fifth string, eighth fret for the chromatic passing note. Your third finger then goes on the fifth string, ninth fret. The chromatic passing note is not in key, but the two notes on both sides of it are in key, so that’s why it works.

Then cross over to the seventh fret, fourth string, and play the chromatic passing note here between the VII and VIII notes. In a major scale, the distance between the VII to VIII is a semitone (one fret). In a minor scale, it’s a tone (two frets). That’s why the minor scale sounds sadder. When you play the chromatic passing note between the VII and VIII of a minor scale, you use the major and minor 7th of the scale.

There are so many songs that have used this riff – enjoy it!

Watch on Youtube

Source: Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath) Inspired Guitar Licks #1 Riff Ninja - Riff Ninja Guitar Lessons

Tony Iommi from Black Sabbath has influenced a lot of people with his guitar playing. He’s a father of heavy metal who likes to use his blues scales.

How do you make the blues sound heavy? One of the scales that Tony uses quite a bit is a root 6 pentatonic minor climb. This is a solo scale that climbs up. Tony likes to use the chromatic passing notes combined with the scale.

So to play this lick in C#m, start at the eleventh fret with your third finger on the fourth string. You basically walk down the scale. So next is your first finger, ninth fret, fourth string. Cross over and put your third finger on the eleventh fret, fifth string, then your second finger on the tenth fret, and your first finger on the ninth fret, fifth string. Those last three notes have the chromatic passing note between the IV – V. Now move down a whole step for a position change with the first finger, so you’re now on the seventh fret, fifth string, then cross over to the ninth fret, sixth string, third finger, and finally down to the seventh fret sixth string. Play that last note twice, then go back up to the ninth fret, sixth string and play that twice.

You can play this anywhere on the fretboard.

Watch on Youtube

Source: Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath) Inspired Guitar Licks #2 Riff Ninja - Riff Ninja Guitar Lessons

You wanna learn something about the Reverend Billy from ZZ Top? Well, you’ve come to the right place. What a fabulous guitar player! Billy is a blue’s guitarist. There’s one lick he’s done a lot of different times, so that is a good place to start.

Start with the A pentatonic minor scale. When you play the scale, assign one finger per fret. So if you start at the fifth fret, your first finger will take care of all the notes on the fifth fret, your second finger takes care of the notes on the sixth fret etc.

Learn More Easy Blues Licks Here

So this riff comes out of that scale. It’s a diad, or a double stop, which is a two note riff. It starts with the major 2nd. This example is in the key of A, so start on the eighth fret with your pinky on the second string, and use your first finger on the fifth fret, first string. Play those two notes after each other with a triplet count. Your next triplet grouping is played with your third finger on the seventh fret, second string. Your first finger stays – it’s your root note. So you start with the major second playing the G and the A, then the next interval is a minor third using the F#. The third triplet grouping is the major third played with the second finger on the sixth fret, second string. End with your A chord.

It’s all in your down up picking. You have to learn to clear the first string so that you don’t mute it by accident. The trick is to let your strings ring out over each other. This riff is chromaticized, meaning it moves in semitones.

Watch on Youtube

Source: Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top) Inspired Guitar Licks #1 Riff Ninja - Riff Ninja Guitar Lessons

Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top is a great blues player. Usually he’s not a speed demon, but more of a tasteful player. He’s responsible for a lot of texas blues and classic rock n roll tunes. This lesson will take a closer look at one of his licks that has influenced a lot of players. There’s a song called “La Grange” that is in the key of A minor, and you use the A pentatonic minor scale to solo in it. This riff was inspired by that song. It’s out of the A pentatonic minor scale, using the one position and three position joined together.

Learn More Easy Blues Licks Here

It starts with a slide on the third string. Start at the seventh fret and slide up to the ninth fret using your third finger. You are sliding up one tone. The trick is to pick the string and let it ring. Underneath that, tuck in your second finger on the second string, eighth fret. This is a minor third interval which is very important and used a lot. The only way you can let it ring out is to make sure that your third finger doesn’t touch the string underneath it. It’s a down up pick motion because if you make them both down, you won’t get them smooth and you’ll more than likely mute the third string before you get to the second string, which you don’t want to do.

Now comes a slur, slide, and position change. So when you’re coming back down, put your first finger on the seventh fret, third string and slide it down to the fifth fret. Your minor third there is on the fourth string seventh fret.

Watch on Youtube

Source: Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top) Inspired Guitar Licks #2 Riff Ninja - Riff Ninja Guitar Lessons

Alright guys, we’re getting set to do another round of YouTube videos here at the studio, and we thought why not ask YOU for ideas on what we should cover next?

So here’s the deal – ask us your guitar – related questions in the comments below, and we’ll do our best to address them in a short youtube video. Keeping your question as clear and concise as possible will really help us out.

To clarify, we won’t be answering your questions here, on this page, but rather by Youtube, however as the answers are posted we’ll try to come back and reply with the appropriate link to the question.

So that’s pretty much it – the doors are wide open! What’s on your mind?

Source: Ask Riff Ninja Your Guitar Question! Riff Ninja - Riff Ninja Guitar Lessons

This is a lesson on how to change chord shapes quickly. There’s lot of things you can do to improve your speed – sometimes you just have to change your approach.

This lesson is going to use G, C, and D as an example. It’s not that hard to improve on your chords. One thing you can do is practice your scales – this lesson won’t be getting into that, but that’s a helpful suggestion.

It’s more about making the chord changes efficient. What you can practice is keep the strumming out of it for a bit and just practice going back and forth between chords.

When you start adding the strumming, start with a down strum. In other words, start strumming from the top of the chord down. So when you practice changing chords with your left hand, place your fingers down on the top strings first. This will give  you more time to move the rest of your fingers into position.

Start slowly – always starting from the top of the chord (the lowest sounding strings).

Then you can start to speed it up. Make sure you get it nice and smooth. Then start adding different strums to that to keep it interesting. But always practice your chords first before you strum them.

Watch on Youtube

Source: How to Change Chord Shapes Quickly Riff Ninja - Riff Ninja Guitar Lessons

A lot of people have questions about modes on the guitar… well, in this lesson we’re going to take a look at exactly what a mode is.

For starters, the issue is often confused because rather than truly explain what modes are, the teacher will begin by teaching a whole bunch of different scale patterns, and tell you those are the modes. In fact, each mode is simply another place to start the same scale you’re working with.

Check it out:

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Source: Guitar Modes De-Mystified Riff Ninja - Riff Ninja Guitar Lessons

We’ve had a few requests for Riff Ninja “swag” like t-shirts and other cool things that members can wear. Well, we’re just about ready to take our first plunge into that, and we thought the coolest way to do that would be to get YOU involved in choosing the design!

So, we’ve come up with a list of possible slogans to put on our t-shirt, and we’d love it if you’d take a second to vote for your favorite. Alternatively, perhaps you have your own slogan that you think would be cool on the shirt – if so, tell us in the comment section. If your slogan gets chosen as the winner, we’ll hook you up with a free t-shirt!

Source: Vote For Our T-Shirt Slogan Riff Ninja - Riff Ninja Guitar Lessons

Click here to learn more about the Ultimate Blues Course

It’s Time To Learn The Blues!

Colin and I (Jonathan) started working on a blues course way back in 2011… and only now is it finally coming to fruition. Along the way we learned a ton about lots of stuff related to creating courses, and especially about how to write a course book. Too many learning curves to mention, really, but suffice to say that in the end, everything was completely re-done and re-worked, and today it is ready for daylight.

Overall, the Ultimate Blues Course is going to be broken into four distinct “stages” that will build one upon the other. The first stage covers chords, chord theory, chord substitution, how to play chords… everything you need for a solid foundation on chords is in Stage 1!

Stage 2 digs deep into the scales end of things – both diatonic and pentatonic – with a focus on the things you’ll really use in the blues. That said, these are the same scales (and chords) that you need to play ANY music, so even if you want to be a rocker or a country player, these courses are relevant.

Stage 3 is a biggie, and covers rhythms and progressions. Colin personally created six jam tracks specially for this course, with multiple tracks of rhythm guitar and all that fun stuff. In Stage 3, we’ll dissect exactly what he played on each of those tracks, giving you a truly solid understanding of how to play rhythm guitar across a range of blues styles. Now you’ll be really applying all those chords and rhythms to real music – this is where the rubber meets the road!

Stage 4 is the capstone of the whole course, and of course it is what most people really want – it’s the cherry on top: soloing. The solo is the blues player’s ultimate voice for expression. To solo with the best, you’ll need to really understand everything that comes before, the chords and their construction, the scales, the rhythms and underlying progressions… plus you’ll need some sweet blues licks, which we’ll provide in abundance! In Stage 4, you’ll learn a ton of licks, but even more importantly, you’ll learn how to string them together into solos. In fact, you’ll even learn a bunch of specific bar-for-bar solos that you can play over top of the jam tracks, to get you started.

Click here to learn more about the Ultimate Blues Course

Source: Interview: The Ultimate Blues Course
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There are a few things on your guitar that you want to adjust differently when you’re playing slide, so in this lesson we’re going to look at how to setup a slide guitar.

When you’re playing slide guitar, you definitely want to have the strings a little higher than you would on a normal guitar. Too high, and it becomes too difficult to fret and you’ll likely be out of tune when fretting. Too low, and you don’t get a nice smooth slide sound and you’ll also get string buzz when fretting. Somewhere in the middle there’s a happy spot that will give you great tone as well as good playability.

The height from the frets to the string is called the action, and you’ll need to adjust your saddle in order to increase it. Hopefully the bridge and saddle have enough adjustment available, and you don’t need to do any serious modifications (like filing or building it up with other material). The other spot to look at is the nut, near the headstock. If the strings need to be really high, you may need to increase the thickness / height of the nut to compensate. On the guitar used in this video (a Danelectro), the nut height was fine as is.

Heavier strings is another way to get a better tone with your slide, this particular guitar is setup with .11 gauge strings. Some players really like using flat-wound strings; however this really does come down to personal preference.

How to Setup A Slide Guitar

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Another tip is to use your first finger to mute behind the slide, which goes on your second finger. Again, this is dependent on your personal preference and style, but try the second finger to start with, and if you want to go in other directions, that’s cool.

Source: How to Setup A Slide Guitar
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Songwriting is something many guitar players aspire to, but few ever take the leap. In this series, we’re going to pull back the veil on a few different strategies you can use to create great-sounding chord progressions. That gets you partway at least… we’ll leave the lyrics and melody up to you!

In the first lesson, we’ll look at the six primary chords that are found in every key. You can arrange these in any order whatsoever, and they will work well together. From there, you can play with timing and rhythm and how long you stay on each chord, but it’s a great start to have ones that you know for sure fit together.

In the next lesson, we’ll learn an interesting trick to use chords outside of the key as well.

If you’re interested in further developing your songwriting skills, and learning to craft interesting and melodic chord progressions, we have many great lessons inside the Riff Ninja Guitar School that can help.

Source: Boost Your Songwriting (Part 1 of 4)
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Eric Clapton’s band Cream played some really cool songs in their day, and Sunshine of Your Love is one of them. In this video we’ll look at the D pentatonic minor scale needed to play the riff in Sunshine of Your Love, as well as the chromatic passing note that is important to it, and also the three chords (A, C, G) needed. We’ll build on this in the next two lessons.

If you like this style of playing, please checkout Rhythms & Riffs of Classic Electric Blues for more!

Click here for Sunshine Of Your Love part 2.

Source: Sunshine Of Your Love (Part 1)
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In the first lesson we learned the basic guitar riff and chords for Sunshine Of Your Love, and in this lesson we’re going to beef up that riff, give it some different color, and give you some different options on how you can play it. We’re adding major and minor thirds, and they sound COOL! Clapton did a good job on this song.

If you like this style of playing, please checkout Rhythms & Riffs of Classic Electric Blues for more!

Source: Sunshine Of Your Love (Part 2)
Riff Ninja - Riff Ninja Guitar Lessons

This is the last guitar lesson in our series on Cream’s Sunshine Of Your Love. Eric Clapton did some really cool guitar work on that song, but if you do your research, you’ll find that he plays the song a little differently every time he plays it. That especially is true of the solos.

In this lesson we’re going to learn three blues guitar riffs you can use to really beef up the chorus when you play it, and make it kind of a hybrid solo. In other words, it’s not a full on solo, but it sure gives you some room to stretch those fingers out and get some creative riffs in! If you haven’t already, make sure you checkout lessons one and two to learn the rest.

If you like this style of playing, please checkout Rhythms & Riffs of Classic Electric Blues for more!

Source: Sunshine Of Your Love (Part 3)
Riff Ninja - Riff Ninja Guitar Lessons

Here are some great, iconic riffs that are based on power chords.

1. Iron Man – Black Sabbath

We’re in the key of B-Minor, and we’re using power chords. If you choose to play using the fifth string and the fourth string, then start on the second fret on the B. From there you jump three frets, that would be the D or fifth fret. So it goes one stroke, one stroke, then we hit the stroke one more time on D, double on E, now we go up to the G which is tenth fret, and you go: G, F#, G, F#, G, then you gotta drop down to the D, fifth fret. Practice that again while watching our video.

2. Rock you like a Hurricane – Scorpions

Starts on E seventh fret, three strokes, its a bit of a pause between them, then you go down to the G on the sixth and fifth string, and A, C, D.

3. Smoke on the Water – Deep Purple

We’re playing 2 strings. Starting at an open G, so its G, B-flat, C, C-string, 3rd fret fifth string, first fret fifth string, third fret and the flatted fifth is on the forth fret fifth string. First group, second group, we’re going back to first group and the close. Open, third fret, fifth fret, open, third fret, sixth fret, fifth fret, open, third fret, fifth fret, then close and fifth fret then open. So I’m using the interval in the fifth and the forth string.

4. Sunshine of Your Love – Eric Clapton

Starting at the 12th fret with your 3rd finger on the forth string, so twelfth fret, then 10th fret, then crosses over to the fifth string and you have the choice of either going to the next position, but you can also do it with one scale.
The root note is the lead note, emphasizes the harmony. You can have the double stop on the 2nd and 3rd string also.

5. Rocky Mountain Way – Joe Walsh

The intro is an E power chord. The rest is pretty simple: D, open, D, open, and you go up to the E like that which sounds pretty cool. Another way to do it is: Lift your first finger and leave your third finger down.

Source: 5 Cool Power Chord Intro Riffs
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Today we have these two cool double note intro riffs.

Brown Eyed Girl Intro
– Starting at 12th fret 2nd and 3rd string. For the next interval, 2nd finger is on 2nd string 13th fret,  3rd finger is on the 3rd string 14th fret. It goes major third, minor third, minor third, back down and there you go. This intro follows the chord of G, C and E. The difference is between the G and the B string, and the B and E string. To get the minor third move your 3rd finger to 15th fret, and the 1st finger to 1st string, 15th fret. So it goes: Major third, minor third. minor third and come back down again. The last change you need to learn is the D change, which is 7th fret 2nd and 3rd string, and you strike the 3rd string in 7th fret, you upstroke the 2nd string in 7th fret. All together: G, then the C, back to the G, now the D.

Lost Lonely Boys – Heaven
– The intro works like the previous intro riff we had. So it goes, major, minor, minor, and one more major third up at the 17th fret. Go up to the 15th to 16th fret, now go up to the 17th fret. From the major 3rd to the 12th fret, skip to 15th and 16th fret for the minor 3rd, come back down to the minor third, the lower one, and go up to 17th fret, back down, back up, all the way back down. Isn’t that beautiful? Keep practicing while watching our video.

Source: 2 Cool Double Note Intro Riffs
Riff Ninja - Riff Ninja Guitar Lessons

Welcome the first of our series of four lessons to help you learn how to play guitar!

We’ll play 3 really important chords in D-major. You have to know there are 3 primary chords that sound good together. Now we’ll start with the key of D. The 3 chords for the key of D are D, G, and A. You’re going to start with the 1st finger on the 3rd string, 2nd fret. The frets are the metal pieces that are across. Place your second finger on the 1st string 2nd fret, third finger 2nd string 3rd fret. We’re only using 4 strings for this chord, not all six.

Start dragging your pick across just like you’re breaking it and hit every string evenly so you get clear sound. Move your thumb or fingers if you have difficulties. You have to get each string in the chord clear, so work on adjusting your fingers until you can get that clear sound.

The next chord you need is the G-chord. The most common is this one here: First finger on the 5th string 2nd fret, second finger 6th string 3rd fret.

Note: Don’t hold the strings too stiffly, you just need to brush across.

We have one more chord, which is the A-chord.

First finger 4th string 2nd fret, second finger 3rd string 2nd fret, third finger 2nd string 2nd fret. We use five strings, open fifth and open first. This chord can be hard if you have bit wider fingers, so you have to avoid muting that bottom string. That’s important on where your wrist is. Don’t press super hard to get the chord clear. Its more about where are the fingers position flat wise.

Source: Learn To Play Guitar FREE COURSE (1/4)
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In today’s video we will teach you how to play guitar, second part.

We’ll start with Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down.

The first song uses 3 out of the 4 chords that we learned in the first video. It’s about getting the chord changes on time. It starts in the B-minor. You can play simple B-minor or the 4 finger B-minor. So it goes, B-minor, then you change to G, then B-minor, then you go to G-major, and finally the A-major. Once you get used to that, you can add the suspended ninth.

We suggest using a metronome or a drum machine so you get started easier.

You can also count by beats. The B-minor is full count which is 4 beats, then the G-major for half a bar, then to the A-suspended 9th. If you’re familiar with the song, you should be fine.

The next song, With or Without You by U2.
Start with the D-major, then the A-major, then a B-minor, then G-major. The chord order is 4 beats and then you change the chord.

The last song for today is by U2 again, and the song name is Sunday Bloody Sunday. It uses 3 chords. B-minor, D-major, and G-major. You need to practice until you get them with very clear sound.

Source: Learn To Play Guitar FREE COURSE (2/4)
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We’re planning out our roadmap for the next little while, and we want to create guitar lessons that help you get where you want to be.

Would you help us out? Simply vote in the poll, AND either comment or email us your ideas. We really appreciate your help!

We’re considering doing a course that would spotlight a particular artist, and dig into how to play like that artist, with an emphasis on soloing. With that in mind, which of the following would you like to see featured?

PS. In case you’re wondering, YES, Ultimate Blues Stage 4 will be released soon – we don’t have a date yet but it is in editing.

Have Another Idea?

If you’ve got a different idea for a course you’d like to see from Riff Ninja, please let us know in the comments below. We’ll read and consider every comment – if you see your idea mentioned already, please just ditto it so it gives us an idea that more people are interested in that same topic. Thanks!

Source: What do you want to learn next?
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