Open String Guitar Riffs: 5 Easy Hooks for Beginners
Free TABs to practice with!
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Open String Guitar Riffs: 5 Easy Hooks for Beginners · Source: Alamy Stock Photo / icamerastock
Open string guitar riffs are perfect for people new to playing! Craft your initial skills with these simple and memorable tracks.
Songs to try:
Key Information about Open String Guitar Riffs:
- Open string guitar riffs use unfretted notes to create a fuller, more powerful sound, making even simple ideas feel bigger and more dynamic. Perfect for beginners learning tone and feel.
- Ideal for new players, open riffs improve picking accuracy, fretboard awareness and overall coordination, which is essential for guitar playing.
- Loads of iconic riffs use open string notes! Helping players develop core skills such as timing, muting and consistency. Most importantly, helping aspiring musicians enjoy their instrument.
Start Your Playing Journey Today
Have you always wanted to learn how to play the guitar? Are you worried about getting hung up on learning the boring stuff? Well, today could be your lucky day! Open string guitar riffs are one of the best ways to learn guitar, and have fun at the same time!
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t one big cheat code. There will be good days and bad days when learning, but it’s crucial to get some memorable songs into your repertoire early on.
These songs are some of the most well-known tracks from rock history. All you need is your guitar, a little bit of TAB reading skills, and the drive to learn the best instrument there is. Let’s get cracking!
Peter Gunn Theme – Henry Mancini
First up, we’re heading straight to the 1970s for a bit of swagger. If you’re not familiar, this track is most notable for being associated with the film The Blues Brothers. For us guitarists, there are a lot of cool skills to learn.
Why should you learn the Peter Gunn Theme on guitar? As well as featuring open strings, this guitar riff is also played across just one string. Making it a perfect starting point for beginners. As a guitar teacher, this is one of the first riffs that I’ll show a student.
Overall, it helps to reinforce basic TAB skills, and it has a nice, steady pace to play along to. Just watch out for the slide between the 3rd and 4th fret!
Smoke On The Water – Deep Purple
Next up, we’ve got a right of passage song. I would like to think that every guitarist knows how to play this song! Once you’ve learnt it, you’re officially part of the club.
Deep Purple’s Smoke On The Water is a powerhouse of a ’70s rock song. Moreover, it can be played in many different ways, just check out School Of Rock to find out how!
Here, we’ll be playing it across the open G string, with just three more frets thrown in. Once you’re comfortable, see if you can play both the G and D strings simultaneously to get you a little bit closer to the sound of the record.
So you think you’ve mastered how to play Smoke On The Water? Why not get hold of a signature *Ritchie Blackmore Stratocaster? Feel that U shape neck and hear those single coil pickups sing!
Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison
Our next open string guitar riff is often forgotten about, but still lusted after. For most players, Brown Eyed Girl is a simple chord progression. But the intro riff is just as important.
Usually played as major 3rds, here’s a simplified version that uses open strings. The best part? You can still play this along with the record! Personally, I’d advise slowing the track down to 70% if you’re new to playing, as the 151bpm tempo catches a lot of people out.
This riff plays through twice at the start of the song, and doesn’t come back again during the track. Although it doesn’t get much airtime in the track, this could still make for a great warm-up or technical exercise.
Come As You Are – Nirvana
Time for some ’90s grunge. Unlike our other open guitar riffs, Come As You Are by Nirvana is in D standard tuning. Don’t worry, though! You can still play this riff in standard tuning, just not with the track.
This is a very repetitive riff that allows players to get lots of practice in. Using just the E and A strings, you could even use this as a generic exercise. However, in the right tuning and along with the track, you can have a lot of fun playing this Nirvana staple.
Furthermore, the moderate tempo of 120bpm is less daunting compared to a lot of tracks.
Looking to play Nirvana properly? Get yourself a guitar tuner for the right tuning, and an offset guitar to complete the look!
Day Tripper – The Beatles
Concluding our look at open string guitar riffs is one of my favourite early Beatles hits. Day Tripper is arguably one of the trickiest songs in this guide. I would label this as an advanced beginner riff. Ideal for someone who has been playing a few months already.
However, why not give it a try anyway! What makes Day Tripper a bit harder? Well, although it still uses open strings, you need to use three fingers to successfully play it.
I’d recommend going for your 1st finger for anything on the 2nd fret, 2nd finger for the 3rd fret and 3rd finger for the 4th fret. Although that sounds confusing, it’ll make more sense once you get it down on the fretboard.
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