Rock 'n' Roll Songbook's video: Tutorial 2 - Chuck Berry Rock n Roll Riff - Jez Quayle

In this video I teach how to play and use one of the most popular riffs in rock 'n' roll. If you want to play rock 'n' roll in a band, or one-man-one-guitar rock 'n' roll as I often do on this channel, it's one of the 'go to' guitar riffs. You can hear versions of this boogie, rhythm riff on recordings from the 1950s through to the present day. It's really a movable version of the 'first position' riffs I introduced in Tutorial , and what I teach here builds on some of the ideas presented in that earlier video. Guitarists will often refer to this as the 'Chuck Berry riff', since it was used by Chuck on so many of his classic records, including: 'Johnny B Goode'; 'Carol'; 'Sweet Little Sixteen'; 'Let It Rock'; 'Little Queenie'; and 'School Days'. Eddie Cochran, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Status Quo, and many others, have used this riff, not only to play Chuck Berry songs, but on any songs needing a hard-driving, rockin' guitar sound. You'll hear it on The Beatles' recordings of 'Long Tall Sally' and 'Roll Over Beethoven', as well as their own compositions, 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' and 'Come Together'. You'll hear it on Status Quo's recordings of 'Caroline' and 'Paper Plane'. Eddie Cochran used it on 'Somethin' Else', and you'll hear on his live recordings of 'Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On' and 'Sweet Little Sixteen'. The Rolling Stones' used it on their covers of 'Route 66' and 'Carol', as well as their own numbers, 'Brown Sugar' and 'It's Only Rock 'n' Roll'. I use the riff to play the songs of Little Richard, Eddie Cochran, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc., and of course, Chuck Berry numbers. Here's a contents list (with times) so you can jump to topics if you wish to: - Demonstration: Using the riff to play Chuck Berry's 'Roll Over Beethoven' in the key of C - 0:03 - Using the riff to play 12-bar blues in A - 01:37 - Playing the riff on the 5th fret in place of an A chord - 01:44 - Playing the riff on the 10th fret in place of a D chord - 04:42 - A variation to the riff (as used by George Harrison) - 05:07 - Playing the riff on the 5th fret in place of a D chord - 06:08 - Playing the riff on the 7th fret in place of an E chord - 07:26 - Using the riff to play 12-bar blues in E - 07:52 - Learning the notes on the 5th and 6th strings - 08:43 - Demonstration: Using the riff to play Little Richard's 'Long Tall Sally' in the key of A - 09:54