Neil’s Top Acoustic Riff & Arpeggio Songs Volume 2

Lessons

• Lesson 1: The Story In Your Eyes Guitar Lesson - Moody Blues

  The Story In Your Eyes includes one of the best opening guitar riffs of all time. It is really just built around a set of A and A minor-shaped chords moving up the neck and not too difficult to play, although the timing is a bit tricky. The rest of the song is simple, but fast-paced strumming. This is from the album Every Good Boy Deserves Favour.

• Lesson 2: Day Tripper - Guitar Lesson

  Day Tripper contains one of the greatest rock riffs ever written and would have to qualify as one of the most instantly recognizable tunes around. You really only need to hear a couple of notes to Name-That-Tune. Like many Beatles songs, Day Tripper is rooted in the blues. John takes a very catchy riff, plays it twice, moves it up a fourth, then back, in the manner of the first 8 bars of a 12-bar-blues progression. At this point it diverts from the formula and continues through a series of seventh chords before finally landing where we would expect, on the dominant chord

• Lesson 3: Your Mama Don’t Dance - Loggins & Messina - Guitar Lesson

  Loggins & Messina created a bunch of fun songs and Your Mama Don’t Dance is probably their best known. It follows a classic 12-bar blues formula with a memorable riff and some great licks and rhythm patterns.
  
  This lesson covers playing it with your fingers or a pick, or even both using the hidden pick trick, as well as rhythm patterns with different feels- rock, shuffle, swing, and even boogie.
  
  There is a section on playing lead with a modified blues scale, and even a part combining it all into a solo version. This lesson may be complete information overload but try to absorb it in small doses over an extended period of time.

• Lesson 4: Money For Nothing - Acoustic Guitar Lesson

  Money For Nothing features one of the most instantly recognizable opening licks of all time. This lesson goes over the way Mark Knopfler plays it, sometimes, as he changes things with every performance. The lesson also includes the rhythm guitar part that accompanies the verses and chorus.

• Lesson 5: Layla - Acoustic Guitar Lesson

  Layla is undoubtedly one of the greatest rock songs of all time. This lesson focuses mostly on the acoustic version from Eric Clapton's Unplugged album, but also includes a look at some of the guitar riffs in the original Derek& The Dominoes studio recording, as well as a bit about playing a lead in the key of D Minor.

• Lesson 6: Silver Wheels (Intro to Crazy On You)

  Silver Wheels is Nancy Wilson’s memorable intro to Heart’s Crazy On You. This lesson covers the way she did it on their first album, Dreamboat Annie in 1976. Over the years the piece has been used and altered in many ways, always including a lot of improvisation. The song is broken down into segments of just a couple measures at a time and includes a Split-Screen Slo-Mo Play Along at the end.

• Lesson 7: Crazy On You - Guitar Lesson

  Crazy On You was the hit that put the Wilson sisters on the rock map when it was released on Heart’s 1976 album Dreamboat Annie. The opening acoustic guitar solo (Silver Wheels), the energetic strumming that sets the background for the killer riff, and Ann’s spine-tingling vocals, were just a few of the elements that combined to make this one of the greatest rock songs of all time. In this lesson we look mostly at the rhythm guitar parts, with the addition of a couple of tricky lead fills, courtesy of Roger Fisher

• Lesson 8: Oh Well Part One

  Oh Well is from the early days when Fleetwood Mac was a British Blues Band led by guitarist Peter Green. Its distinctive opening riff, as well as the rest of what is called Oh Well Part One are covered in this lesson.

• Lesson 9: Heartbreaker Guitar Lesson - Led Zeppelin

  The second Led Zeppelin album (Led Zeppelin II) included some great riff-based songs. Heartbreaker has to be one of their best and proved to be the inspiration and model for hundreds of songs that followed it. The recording also featured a classic improvised, unaccompanied guitar solo by Jimmy Page that was later edited into the released version. This lesson looks mostly at the riff and rhythm guitar parts.

• Lesson 10: Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress

  Long Cool Woman In A Black Dress was written by Hollies singer Allan Clarke and a couple of British songwriters, Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway. It appeared on the Hollies album Distant Light, released in 1971. It features one of the greatest opening riffs in the history of Rock And Roll, followed by a driving, power chord-based progression. Another ‘must learn’ tune for students into the classic rock era.

• Lesson 11: Here Comes The Sun - Guitar Lesson

  Here Comes The Sun is a lesson we have had a partial version of here at TG since the early days. Neil has finally put together the complete version.
  
  The song was written by George Harrison in Eric Clapton’s garden, as the winter of 1969 was turning to spring in England. This lesson goes into detail about the techniques George used to create this acoustic masterpiece.

• Lesson 12: Over The Hills And Far Away Guitar Lesson - Led Zeppelin

  Over The Hills And Far Away is from Led Zeppelin's fifth album Houses Of The Holy, and is a great example of Jimmy Page's effective use of syncopation and complex acoustic picking and strumming, as well as quick hammer-ons and pull-offs. This lesson focuses mostly on the acoustic intro but also addresses the power chord riffs that appear later.

• Lesson 13: From The Beginning - Guitar Lesson

  From The Beginning has all the elements that make Greg Lake’s acoustic songs great- interesting sounds with the use of extended chords, many of which use open strings for a sense of consistency, harmonics, percussive strumming, arpeggio picking in both the alternating and cross-picking styles, and slightly cryptic lyrics that add to the mysterious quality. A must-learn tune for every guitar player.

• Lesson 14: Skating Away (On The Thin Ice Of A New Day)

  By now everybody should be aware of the incredible talents of Ian Anderson, on many levels. *Skating Away (On The Thin Ice Of A New Day) *would have to be considered one of his acoustic guitar classics. The song was released in 1974 on the Jethro Tull album War Child and is one of Ian’s most complex and heavily syncopated masterpieces. This detailed lesson goes over the guitar and vocal parts, as well as how to combine them into a great solo presentation.

• Lesson 15: Dance With Me - Guitar Lesson

  Dance With Me has one of the greatest accompanying guitar parts of all time, in my opinion. It was a hit for Orleans in 1975, written by guitarist John Hall and his wife Johanna. It features a melodic riff, harmonized using thirds, as the backing part to vocals done in three-part harmony. This lesson includes a basic chord version as well as the somewhat difficult guitar part exactly the way John played it. It also includes a great outro vamp and flashy ending.

• Lesson 16: John Barleycorn (Must Die) - Guitar Lesson

  John Barleycorn (Must Die) was the title song from Traffic’s 1970 album featuring Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood. The guitar part has a very “Olde English” folk sound, partly due to the use of a capo far up the neck. This lesson goes over the chord progression and picking, and includes a little ear-training segment as well.