Groove Rock Riff - MAY school #1

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Hello,
Welcome for my first Mayones (guitars) Workshop featuring lesson. I perform here on my new Setius GTM with my Stan Hinesley custom pickups...

I demonstrate here a Rock groovy stratocaster style riff.
My guitar is tuned in standart tuning.
So plug the clean channel and select a single coil pickup, ideally the middle pickup in order to get a percussive, smooth and neat tone.

The main technique used is chicken picking. This exercise focuses on the right hand.
It's important to hear all the notes but also very important to give dynamics and shades here and there so that it feels groovy.
You can see on the tablature the marked notes picked (down&upstroke).
The other notes are "pulled" with the RH (right hand) middle and ring finger.
So hold your pick as usual between thumb and index finger... Pulling the strings with fingers give a sweet and natural "pop" sounding which creates relief and dynamic.
When you brush the strings with the pick while muting with the left hand, you obtain a crisp tone that gives energy and rhythm. There are also a lot of open strings that obviously gives volume and fill spaces... So a lot of things together.

The riff fits actually in one bar. In a song situation I develop it over 4 bars
and simply arrange the last notes of the bar so that is not repetitive and boring.

The first bar and the 3rd bar are identical.
Now, let's focus on the first bar. Open string, pull-off, open string. The E low open string is on the 2 first beats. So if your foot beat while playing, then the E open note hit at the same time than your foot. (in general, when you read a tab for the first time, spot the notes that fall on the beat. It may helps to find logic)
All two notes chords are played with RH middle and ring fingers. Pull G and B strings with RH fingers.The last note is a hammer-on on the 1st fret which demands a bit of control so that it sounds balanced...
Start to memorize all the notes. Then play them slowly and make sure you have them all. Then, turn over the same bar a few times and start to feel familiar with the riff.
You almost have it all since the first bar is integrated.
The difficulty of the second bar is to keep the same finger picking groove and add the picking muted notes.
Start to practice on the 3 first beats and leave empty the last beat. So forget the 4 last notes. The main difference with the bar one is that instead of playing A and D open string (8th note) you fill this space with a downstroke picking and upstroke picking while muting the strings with the (LH) left hand. Practice like this, playing groups of 4 notes/beat. Mute with the LH.
As a hint, you can count (1,2,3,4) while playing at the same time.
You can also mute only the E (low) string if you wish to make it easier...

Now check the last 4 notes of the bar. 2 muted chord, one chord on the 12th fret+hammer-on.
Repeat over and over those last notes and maybe practice this with the metronome running...
Now you should be able to join those 2 sections.

The 4th and last bar is a mix of the 2 first bars somehow.
Same method, practice the notes of the 3 first beats.
The 3 last notes are easy to integrate. Make sure not to pull to hard the E high open string with RH middle finger as it easely over ring. What I find challenging in this riff, is to give good energy and relief while keeping fingers and strings under control and not having unwanted resonances here and there...

Ok, that's it for now. Hope this gives a few hints and inspire you.
Practice it and feel free to adapt it to your own play.
See you for the next lesson.
-Roo

Category:

Music

Tags:

• may
• school
• mayones
• mayo
• workshop
• setius
• rock
• guitar
• lesson
• groove
• riff
• funk
• roo
• romain
• chapus
• rooguitar
• stan
• hinesley
• pickups
• lagrange
• brossard

[mligh2]

nicely done roo. what kind of guitar is that (make/model)?

[RomainChapus]

Thanks! It's a Mayones GTM with custom specs.

[retroguy02]

so you're just playing a funk riff with distortion? :S

[HardWayToTop]

@Mattelliott1234 dude i think the same!!!

[Mattelliott1234]

I literally can't listen to music that dosen't have at least a tinge of groove in it anymore haha

Pantera being the kings

[guitar17johnny]

came back to that riff after a year

still cool as hell (which is a bad example to describe the awesomeness)

[guitarshredking]

fuckin sweet im learnin that one, sound kinda like ZZ top

[dannyhood66]

Thanks dude!

[alwizard11]

That's nice.

[MrHeavysteel]

all of that :)

[StarfireEKS]

thanks

from Portugal

[bufy2004]

That`s fuckin` funky!Not groove.:|..it look like a kinda a blues.:-?