Learn to Play Iconic Electric Guitar Riffs by Black Guitarists

1. Introduction: Hi everyone. My name are Aaron Forbes, and I'm a session guitar player and guitar teacher from the UK. I've worked with artists such as Madison Beer, Liam Pain, Jonas Blue, and I'm also formerly the director of a company called Front Row Music where we took guitar and ukulele lessons to primary schools in Essex. In this course, you will learn six of the most iconic and famous guitar riffs from black guitar players, including Speech Out Of Mind and Johnny B. Goode. I've written this course for a couple of reasons. Firstly is I wanted to celebrate black guitar players and their contribution to music. Secondly, I wish I would have had this content when I was on my guitar journey, content-based around black guitar players that I can see myself in and be inspired by. I hope you find it helpful and insightful. 2. Are you gonna go my way by Lenny Craviz: This lesson is about one of the most famous black musicians to date. This is a lesson about Lenny Kravitz and absolutely style icon and fantastic songwriter and musician. One of the songs than he is best known for or is attached to him is he's song called, Are you gonna go my way? And it's an absolutely belter. One of the best guitar parts I've ever heard is in this song. And it's, his style is one that is influenced by a jazz and by rock and R&B. And he's kind of meshed altogether to get his unique specific sound. I absolutely love his music and I hope you do too. City affects used to get the tone for this song. Is first of all, a guitar that is on a bridge pickup. So I've used my hamburger pickup for this particular song and I rolled the tone order up to ten. Okay, you wouldn't get that as wide and as open as you can search, really cut into the mix. And then I've just turn up the gain on the macho amplifier i'm using today. And, and yeah, that's pretty much a standard kind of heavy tone humbuckers and a nice bit of gain that's gonna carry your notes really, really well. So let's get into how to play this lick. Today, this leak, there are two variations, okay, and I'll go through the first one for you. This is based off of an E minor pentatonic scale by in the open position. Ok, so what we're gonna be doing first of all, is hammering on with our index finger on. Sorry. So this riff, So the first part of this riff is based on the minor pentatonic scale, the open form of the skill. And first of all, you're going to be using your index finger, okay, for the first part of it. And you're going to be bending up. And on the second fret, on the G string. So a bending up first and then down and then released. So that lotion together is okay. So I dye release. And then the next note is the D string on the second verb. So the next note is the a string on the second fret. Ok. So the sequence of today sounds like this. And then you paying an open D string. And your threaten the second fret on the D string. And that is the first sequence of direct, okay, the inshore reef. Now let's put it altogether and play, but slowly it'll sound like this. And now I'm trying to play them all with my index finger. But if you find it more comfortable to do with the middle finger, we can also do the same. I find my middle finger, it usually will bend a bit too much. So my index finger is just right for getting the, uh, the tone bend. Because that's denote you wanna play when you're bending up. So that's the first part of the wave. The second pot is exactly the same, but you end a bit differently. So I'll play free for you. See your ending with something called a double stop. Okay. And the W star is played walkway using my ring finger. And I'm fretting on the third fret of the B and E strings. Okay, so that's how it'll sound at the end of the second half of the phrase. 3. Purple rain by Prince: Guys, in this lesson, we are going to be looking at the multi instrumentalist that IS prints. What a lot of people don't know about this guy is that he was famous for playing guitar, t's drums and bass guitar as well. And he recorded 39 studio albums on a lot of them, he recorded all the instruments himself. And one of my favorite songs by prince has to be Purple Rain, has an absolutely iconic guitar progression he has written. So in this lesson we're going to go through that and just can't do it. First of all, the sound you'll need for this guitar pop is the out-of-phase and middle pickups are Bridge. I've gotta be a net and middle pickup selected. If you're playing a humbuckers guitar, you can just flip into the second position. But if you're going to be that second position, so let, and middle and God said, that's selected. And, and also you have to go with a nice lush chords sound. And that arrow of music was renowned for that course, guitar. So those two are kind of the pillars of the guitar tone for Purple Rain. So this progression is based around four chords, which you'll be happy. And I really, really simple progression. And it starts off with an, a major chord in the open position. So for that we only need to use three fingers. And so I'm using my second finger, my third finger and my pinky. And they're gonna go into the second frets on a guitar, on the D string, g string, and B string. Okay? And you're gonna do is strum with the righthand from a string. And you're gonna strum all five strings, try to keep that Eastern muted earn. So it sounds something like this. Now if you wanted to spice up a little bit, you can remove your pinky and then you're playing like an a SaaS chord which is closer to the recording. The second chord in the progression is an F sharp minor, MCA minor 11 chord. But simply put, all I do is add my thumb. Into the equation so that my thumb is going to go on to the E string on the second fret. And I'm still playing the D and the G string. So loved on there. Just make sure I'm not hitting the open a string by am he and the rest of the strings that, so that is the second quote. And then the third code is one that you may all know. It's an E major chord. Okay? So in order to get that quote, all we're gonna do is for our second finger and the first step on the G string, then I'll ring finger. Third finger is going in the second four on the a string. And a pinky is second fret as well on the D string. And for this one we're strong in all six strings. And the last code in the progression is going to be the code. But these shapes a bit different is that American Open Day, which he can pay a fretted D. All right, so our first finger is going into the fifth fret on the a string. Our middle finger is going in the seventh fret on the D string. And then our pinky is going in the ninth on the G string. And then I find the strum, the Viennese raises or just let them bring out. So that's one voicing EPDs. All you kids plan normal or regular D chord, but take out the middle finger. So that's simply put, is first thing got in second fret on the G string, ring fingers into third fret on the B string. Your middle fingers just kinda fluid. And you plan that from the D-string. Today you have this for quotes for this amazing. So I had a couple of variations to choose from. Dependant on what takes your fancy. 4. Sweet child o' mine played by Slash: So this lesson is about one of the most famous and probably woulda known guitar players to date of this generation is slash from the iconic band Guns and Roses. And now in his own band, which is the Velvet Revolver. And most people will probably know him from Guns and Roses, slashes, guitar play in has been absolutely iconic and influential to so many guitar players of this generation. One of the most well-known songs that he's played on with his band, Guns and Roses is sweet child of mine. And the guitar part in the interior is absolutely luscious, is beautiful. It's everything that you want to hear from a lead guitar. Tone wires, and note wires is absolutely perfect spawn. So in today's lesson, we're going to explore that intro riff and hopefully you can add it to your arsenal of a guitarists. So let's get into it. So the effects I'm using for this particular song is pretty much just a slightly driven martial style AMP. Or, um, or if you don't have a guitar and I can get that dirty, just put an overdrive pedal in front of it, cranked the gain up to maybe about one o'clock. And I'm also using the neck pickup on my strap. I know slash usually plays a Les Paul and he plays this particular part on his neck pickup as well. So it's quite warm and 2V sound in, and really, really nice to play. So this is based around the major scope. And I made skill is the D flat major scale. So I'm planning an octave up, okay, so I'm starting on the 11th fret on the D string. So it's based around that kind of area of the neck. That's going to be best for you can hear the replayed and this good tone lies. So the first note is on the 11th fret on the D string. Second note is a faulting fret on the B string. That night is the 13th fret on the G string. And that note is on the G string as well. But this Tom Nee 11th fret. So that sequence so far will sound like this. Next half, the second half is going to be played on the E string festival. So you'll going full-time. Fret, amuse, my pinky too about low. And then 13th fret on the G string. And then we'll go in 13 for x on the E string. And then again go into that 13 for on the G string. So it will sound like this in sequence. So the lit in full slowdown sounds something like this. Now, that is the first section of the lake. The second section is starting on the D string again. But we're going to be a beginning that lick on the 13th fret on the D string. So what we're doing is changing the first note that we saw on the remainder of the Lick stays the same. So a sound like this. The next part of the lake starts on the G string on the 11th fret. And again, by just changing the starting nights to the first knot will be different. Remainder that link will be exactly the same. And then we go back to the first variation of the link that we started with. So in full, the lit will sound like this. 5. Purple haze by Jimmi Hendrix: Hey guys, this lesson is about the infamous gargantuan guitarist that is Jimi Hendrix. I don't think words can explain how influential this man's playing and style is to guitar players of this generation. Born in 1942, you'd think that his sound would be outdated or become a bit stale, but it seems to reinvent itself every time someone picks up their guitar to try and play one of his riffs. In this lesson, we're going to be looking at one of his most famous songs, which is Purple Haze, one of my favorite songs as well. For this song, some of the sounds you'll need to really recreate or capture the essence of this guitar part is the guitar first all needs to be on the bridge pickups. I've got a humbucker on my bridge, which can be split to a single coil. I've split it to a single coiled bridge. I've also got a Uni-Vibe sound going as well as a fuzz pedal. Jimi loved to use that famous Fuzz Face guitar pedal. I think he actually is one of the founding fathers in terms of making that sound really cool and accessible. So going it yourself, if you can, a Fuzz Face or a fuzz type pedal, and Uni-Vibe thing to pair with it. Make sure you put the fuzz in front of the Uni-Vibe. Once you've got those pedals and you've got them in a nice chain, you're ready to go with the traditional Jimi Hendrix sound. The song starts off with a very dissonant harmony. Even though we're in the key of E minor, he starts off with this harmony that is based on the sixth fret. You're pretty much just playing an octave. You're going first finger, well, I'm playing with first finger on the sixth fret on the E string. Then with my ring finger, I'm playing the octave, so that's going to be two frets up and two strings below. That's going to be on the D string. Once you play that through a couple of times, it goes into the main riff, which you'll be familiar with. The beginning of the riff is built off of a few notes within a G major chord. But I'm taking my pinky off, which is the root. It's these three notes that the riff is built-off of. The first note is going to be a B note, and that's in the ninth fret on the D string. The second note is a D note, and that is played in the seventh fret on the G string, and then the third note is in the eighth fret on the B string. So together it sounds like this. You may also be familiar with those notes in the cluster of a minor pentatonic scale for E. We've got those first three notes to start the riff off with. Then we go to M and A note. That's in the seventh fret on the D string. Then we're going to the fifth fret on the D string. Then fifth fret again, but this time on the A string. Then we play in an open string. We're going from the D string, to the A string, and then we play in an open string. I'll play that for you a bit clean up. Once you've hit that open E string, we're going to go and hammer on to the E note. That's going to be on the A string. I'm just hammering on from the D note, to the E note. The next note is fifth fret on the D string, seventh fret on the D string, ninth fret on the D string, and then back to the fifth fret on the D string. I'm going to use the phrase, just learn, so five, five, open. Then back to that route, which is the E string. Put together without the fuzz on, it would sound something like this. Then we go around again. Then we'll go in fifth fret, seventh, ninth, back to fifth. That is the riff put together, so you play that a couple times round before the song comes in in full. 6. Johnny be good by Chuck berry: This lesson is based on the legendary guitar playing and artistry of Chuck Berry. Chuck has been called the godfather of rock and roll, and he is absolutely essential when it comes to learning guitar, blues guitar or early rock and roll guitar. One of the songs he is most famously known for was featured in the film Back to the Future, and it's Johnny B. Goode. Without further ado, we're going to get stuck into that intro lick of Johnny B. Goode. The essential guitar tones that we're using for this particular lick is pretty much just a clean guitar tone. We're going straight into the amp and it's just a little bit cranked, so we hearing a bit over driven if you dig in with your right hand. But there's no other effects really than just a crank and a little bit of reverb. I'm also playing on the bridge pickup of my guitar. This particular guitar riff is in the key of B-flat. We're starting off sliding from the fifth fret to the seventh fret. I'm using my ring finger for that. That's on the G string. Then we're going first finger into the sixth fret, ring finger into the eighth fret. That sequence will sound like this. Then we're going with something called a double stop. Now, to play a double stop is essentially playing two strings at same time with one finger. We are on the sixth fret and I'm using my first finger to blow the B and E string. The rhythm for this part goes something like this. It's played quite quickly, so it's a good idea to start off playing slow as I should have told myself. That sequence up into the double stop point sounds something like this. Then the next notes we're going with are played using pinky finger first of all. My pinky is on the B string in the ninth fret. I'm going to semitone down using my ring finger, eighth fret on the B string, and then first finger in the sixth fret on the B string. That sequence with the double stop will sound like this. After that, we're going with our ring finger in the eighth fret on the G string, first finger in the sixth fret on the G string, and then we're hammering on to that seventh fret. Then we're forming a B-flat major triad. When we get to the triad, we're going to be just strumming the strings really quickly, but also muting with our right hand. That sequence will sound like this. That is the first half of that lick played in full sequence. Slowed down will sound something like this. Once you've got that together, the next part, we are using our first and second finger. We're going to play the G string first, and then the B string. Then I'm hammering on with my ring finger to the eighth fret on the B string. Then I'm sliding down to the fifth fret, and then going third fret, fifth fret again, third fret again. As a sequence, it will sound like this. 7. Born under a bad sign by Albert King: One of the most famous influential guitar players of all time, in my opinion, has to be Albert King. Now, you've probably heard his name, or you may be familiar with some of the songs that he's played. One of his most famous and probably influential songs would be Born Under a Bad Sign. Albert was born way back in the '20s, so he can somewhat fill a bit of a legacy guitar player. But his style, and his licks, and his energy, and fill still lives on today in so many guitar players. The intro lick in Bone Under a Bad Sign is probably one you've heard by many famous blues or rock guitar players of the modern era. But it's one made famous by Albert, which probably speaks to his legacy and to the iconic nature of his guitar playing. Without further ado, let's get into this lick. The sounds I'm using for this lick is simply the bridge pickup on my guitar. I've got the amp I'm using just slightly driven, so it's got a little bit of byte. Then, a touch of reverb as well. To play this guitar lick, we're looking at using a pentatonic scale. I'm doing it in the key of C-sharp, so the C-sharp minor pentatonic scale. What we're going to be doing is using a few bends and pull-offs, hammer-ons. Those are all parts of what's playing. At the beginning of the lick is a really, really strong bend. I'm using my ring finger to bend up from the 12th fret up to the 14th fret. The note I'm trying to reach is this one, but I'm bending from the top fret. That's going to be done on the B string. B string, 12th fret. To bend, I'm using my ring finger on that B string and the top fret. But I've also got my first and second fingers supporting, so lifting as a trio to help. You're bend should sound like this. You want to try and get to a place where that bend reaches that note as clearly as possible. It might take a few tries, but be patient. Once you've got that bend, the next note you're looking for is on the ninth fret on the E string. I'm playing that with my index finger. Then, I'm going 12th fret on the B string, but the ninth fret on the B string. That sequence should sound like this. The next part of the lick is a upward bend on the G string, and that's going to be taken place on the 11th fret. Again, I'm using my ring finger, supported by my first and second fingers to help me bend up, so it should sound like this. The note you're trying to reach is the one on the 13th fret on the G string. The sequence will sound like this so far. After you've hit that bend, you bend down. You're now playing the F sharp note, which is 11th fret on the G string. Then, you're going down to the ninth fret. That's the first part of the phrase. The next part of the phrase is built on the lower end of the pentatonic scale, so you're using the A and D strings for this. It's going to be ring finger on the 11th fret on the D string, and then we're going down to the ninth fret. Then, we're going down again to the A string on the 11th fret. A sequence in full will sound like this so far. Then, to finish off, we've got a couple of more notes which are a bit higher up, so we're playing in the next octave of the pentatonic scale. Again, first finger, 12th fret, B string, then we're going ring finger in the 14th fret. We're going first finger and the 12th fret on the B string, then ring finger in the 14th fret on the B string. First finger again on the E string on the 12th fret, and then back to the 14th fret. That small sequence will sound like this. I'm just bending the guitar or bending the note slightly for a bit of vibrato. The lick in full slower tempo will sound like this.