Learn Guitar Riff Ethereal Rock 1b
In this video, we're learning the second riff in the Ethereal Rock 1 series of guitar riffs! The goal here is to improve not only our guitar soloing, but also our improvisation as we add new guitar licks into our arsenal using mainly the pentatonic scale! Be sure to download the guitar TAB and the Ethereal Rock backing track above to help push your guitar playing further!
Have a more detailed question? Send it directly to me here and get a video response back by email!
Some links on this page are affiliate links that I earn a small commission on when you make a purchase at no additional cost to you.
Transcription
Hey guys! So welcome to another rock riff! I'm gonna show you how to play that one I was just doing. I call it "Ethereal Rock 1b”. And the first thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna play it without the backing track so you can hear it without that background music. So the first thing I'm gonna cover are the effects that I'm using. So when it comes to the Telecaster, I'm just using my tone at full blast and I'm using the bridge pickup. And then I'm plugged into an interface using Logic Pro and I'll show you some of the settings I'm using. Whether you're in GarageBand or Logic Pro, you can get the same settings. So on my guitar I'm using the British Combo amp. With Gain I have it just under 4, Tone just above 6, Drive on Distortion is at 3, Echo is off, and Reverb is just below 8. Now if we look at the Pedalboard, I got the High Drive Treble Boost, and Level at about 12 or 13. Oh, at 11. With Treble set on there. And the TieDye Delay, I believe I just have that at the default settings. Alright, so now let's get to the riff itself. The first measure is that... It's really not too hard, but let's take a look at the Guitar Pro file to get a closer look. I'm going to start the first beat with a grace note slide, 3 to 5, and I 'll use my ring finger for that. Then for the second beat, I'm going to use my index finger for that 3. On the third beat, my ring finger for that 5. And then the fourth beat, my index finger for the 3. So you could think 5, 3, 5, 3, ring, index, ring, index. So that's slide, 3, 5, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4. Pretty simple. So for the entire second measure, we're doing... And we're just repeating the same three notes over and over, but we still have to count it correctly to make sure we're not going too long or too short. So like I was saying, we're hitting the same three notes over and over, this 15 hammer on the 17, then down to 15 on the E string. And we're just repeating it. Now what makes it a little tricky is the timing, because it feels like a triplet, 1 + a 2 + a 3. But if you count it that way, you're kind of changing the time signature. But if we can get comfortable with 1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + and then like a silent a for that last empty space, we'll be more accurate. We'll be able to kind of keep it in the same 4/4 time signature. So if we think 1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + So we're doing that 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 times in total to complete the measure, and then a last 16th note that this 15 is carrying into. Looking at the guitar itself, what I'm going to do is I'm going to actually bar my index finger and hold down 15 on both the B and the E string. And just hold it there. And I'll do my hammer on with my ring finger to the 17. And if I just do that 1 e + Now with my pick, I like to go down on the B string and then up on the E string. So you first just get comfortable with that action itself without the count. Or if you feel like you want to count it, it's kind of like triplets, 1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a and so on. You can do that to practice a little bit. But for this riff, I would probably then, once that's a little more comfortable, practice getting that 1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a is that last 16th note. So again, first just get comfortable with playing those three notes. Holding down the B and the E string with your index finger, hammering on and going down up. Then doing it again and again in a row. Then work on the counting part. 1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + But you know, don't mess up like I just did. Let's now take a look at measures three and four, which go like… So for beat 1 of the third measure, we're going to use our ring finger to bend the 17 up and then bring it back down. So I'm going to have my fingers on the 15, 16, 17, with my index, middle, ring, so that I can bend that 17. I'm going to go up and bring it back down. 1 Following that for beat 2 is pretty easy. We're just going to use our index finger on the 15 of the E string. So that's 1, 2. One more time. 1, 2. Then for beat 3, I'm going to do a slide from the 15 to 17. I'm going to jump my ring finger back to that 15 and it's a grace note, so it's just going to be a quick little slide. So I left off here on the 15. I'm going to jump back with my ring finger and slide up for 3. So that'll be 1, 2, 3. For beat 4, I'm going to use my index finger to hit 15 of the B string and then I'm going to slide and I'm just going to slide down with no exact end point. So here I am on the 15 of the B string and I'll just slide down when I hit it for 4. So that whole third measure is going to be 1, 2, 3, 4 One more time. 1, 2, 3, 4. And then last for the first beat, I'm just going to do it for the whole measure, 2, 3, 4, of the fourth measure, we're going to do a slide up from no specific place to 12 of the G string and we're going to do a vibrato to finish it off. And I'll use my index finger for that because I'm a little more comfortable doing it that way. So that's going to be 1, 2, 3, 4. And again, it can be from anywhere. Could be from here. 1, 2, 3, 4. So if I put those third and fourth measures together, it's 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4. So now I'll play the whole thing slowly while counting the rhythm as I go. 1, 2, 3, 4 1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4 I hope you enjoyed the video. Please give it a like, subscribe if you want to learn more guitar, and just happy practicing!