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Riffin’ is a free weekly video guitar lesson series by Nashville guitar guru Dave Isaacs focusing on the construction and development of killer guitar riffs. There’s a lot to learn in this series, so be sure to subscribe!

Video Guitar Lesson

If you’ve been playing guitar for any length of time you’ve probably come across the minor pentatonic scale. It’s one of the foundation sounds of blues and rock and the source of many great riffs. It’s also very easy to learn, most of all in the open position and in our trusty guitar-friendly keys of E, A, D, and G.

If you’ve learned the pentatonic scale in its familiar movable form, dropping down to the open position is a great way to incorporate it into some of the easy intervallic 4th and 5th forms. Since most of the power chords only require one or two fingers, scalar patterns and runs are easily accessible to the rest of your hand, and a scale run provides a great contrast in a primarily chordal riff. Think of a simple, one-finger E5 on the 2nd fret of the A and D strings. The middle finger easily reaches the G on the E string 3rd fret ( the flat 3 of the scale) and the rest of the pentatonic scale falls directly under the chord shape. The exact same pattern works when we move over to A5, with the additional option of dropping to the low G and open E for a cool flat 7 – 5 move. AC/DC are the kings of this sort of thing, with many of their most memorable riffs consisting simply of a series of power chords connected by the flat 3 and flat 7 notes of the pentatonic scale.

Moving to D5 in the open position requires only 2 fingers, and the flatted 3rd and 7th are easily reachable with the middle finger. Dropping the chord form completely lets you follow the scale all the way down to a low F, which is a great place to start a rising scale riff – or a nice unexpected twist on the more familiar b7 – 1 or high b3 – 1 figures. The D5 also leads easily to a high G5 simply by lifting the index finger off the 3rd string and holding the D note on the 3rd fret of the B string. Lots of great riffs have been created by just lifting and replacing that index finger, working back and forth between the D5 and a satisfying, crunchy G5 formed by the open D and G strings plus that fretted high D.

Finishing out our quartet of open guitar-friendly keys, the G pentatonic scale requires a little more finger work but offers cool sonic variations. Hold the high D with your pinky and play with slight bends on the 3rd fret Bb note on the G string to create bluesy country riffs, especially if you “snap” the strings with your right hand fingers. The b7 – 5, b7 – 1, and b3 – 1 figures are easily accessible, and since we can reach full two cycles of the pentatonic scale we can move patterns back and forth between the higher and lower octaves.

The addition of the sharp 4 “blue note” to your pentatonics adds even more color and completes the blues scale. This note can be used as a connector between 4 and 5 of the scale or to add a cool dissonant and unpredictable twist. Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Aerosmith all used figures like this to great effect.

The coolest thing of all is that even though so many great songs and killer riffs have come out of these simple ingredients, there’s always more possible combinations of notes and chords. A little exploration will easily yield new riffs and patterns that might echo familiar songs but add a new twist or flavor. The possibilities are never exhausted, so keep your ears open and your tone fat!

Riffin’ is a free weekly video guitar lesson series by Nashville guitar guru Dave Isaacs focusing on the construction and development of killer guitar riffs. There’s a lot to learn in this series, so be sure to subscribe!