Newbie Guitar Riffs That Still Sound Awesome

Newbie Guitar Riffs That Still Sound Awesome

If you’re new to strumming a guitar, it can sometimes be a disheartening experience. Not

only is the guitar hard to play, getting good takes a long, long time. Along the way, you’ll

need a bit of satisfaction and encouragement. That’s why it’s important to make sure that

you’re producing beautiful music right from the start.

Impossible? Not really. Here are some newbie guitar riffs that sound awesome that even a

beginner can do.

 

Sons​ ​And​ ​Daughters​ ​-​ ​The​ ​Decemberists

The Decemberists had some success back in the mid-2000s with their album, “The Crane

Wife.” Granted, it was a strange name, but the group did produce some remarkably simple

music, making their stuff perfect for beginners.

 

 

 

One of the best tracks is Sons and Daughters, a song which has since gone on to feature as

soundtracks for major TV series, like The Office, which you can now watch to your heart’s

content on Netflix.

The song itself has just two chords: G and Dsus, both of which have surprisingly simple

finger arrangements. G, for instance, is just a single-finger chord.

Songbird​ ​-​ ​Oasis

 

 

Oasis were perhaps the biggest rock band in the world for a few years in the 1990s, before

the likes of Coldplay came on the scene. Their music can still be heard blasting out of

smartphones at music festivals to this day.

 

 

Wikimedia Commons

The song is from the Heathen Chemistry album, released back in 2005. It’s best strummed

using an acoustic guitar so you may want to buy Fender FA-100 accessories and guitar, or

something similar.

 

How do you play it? Simple. Just like Sons and Daughters, it has just two chords, G6 and

Em7. They’re relatively complicated-sound chords, but Em7 only requires one finger, and G6

two. The main difficulty is timing the chord changes with the voice - something which gets

progressively easier with practice.

 

If you want Songbird to sound a little better, try Em instead of Em7 - a two-finger chord. You

can also help the song sound better by adding a tambourine in the background, just like the

original. Strumming for the song is relatively free, so try experimenting with patterns to see

which sounds best. Get good enough, and you’ll be ready to record it to a mixtape.

 

Born​ ​In​ ​The​ ​USA​ ​-​ ​Bruce​ ​Springsteen

If there was a defining moment in Bruce Springsteen’s careers, Born in the USA was it. The

song dominated the airwaves and is especially popular among the military.

Just like the other two songs in this post, you only need to learn two chords, this time Asus2

and Dsus2. Finger arrangements can be tough without a capo, so put the capo on the

second fret of the guitar. The great thing about this song is that, once the capo is in place,

it’s easy to switch from one chord to another. When going to Dsus2, take your index finger

off and put your ring finger on. When going to Asus2, do the same thing, but the other way

around.

Once you’ve got the knack of that, the song couldn’t be much simpler: it’s four bars on one

chord before switching to the other.

Happy strumming.