So as promised I will continue my list of 10 great rock songs to learn on guitar. As stated before, these don't have to be the "greatest riffs of all time" or anything like that as every opinion will be different, but these are all fun and well worth learning.
6) Lithium - Nirvana
Most people would probably default to Smells Like Teen Spirit or Come As You Are. Both from the same album as this one, but I think either of those are just too predictable and I didn't want to make this another boring generic list that you've read before. Lithium is a tiny bit more intricate with a lot more notes to learn but I think it pays off more when you have it down. Get the right guitar sound and plectrum type for the clean intro and it can sound absolutely beautiful. You can't attack the strings too hard, but rather stroke the notes gently and it shall sing. However when it comes to the loud distorted parts of the song like the chorus and middle 8, you wack on that gain and hit them as hard as you like! 7) Sunshine of Your Love - Cream
Very old school but still very cool. A catchy hook that is played in a few variations throughout the song. Sometimes the first part will be played as chords instead of a single line, some times the tail end of the lick is played in a higher octave. The whole thing even has a variation played a 4th up. This is a great one for beginners to jam to.
8) Seek and Destroy - Metallica
There are a hell of a lot of great Metallica riffs to choose from. Too many. This one from their debut album however is probably the must fun and accessible for beginners. It has a couple of difficult parts later in the song, but the intro and verse riffs are catchy and simple enough. This is also one of the few songs on our list where palm muting is used a lot, and it is very important to note which notes are accented WITHOUT being palm muted to get the right sound.
9) Plug In Baby - Muse
This one can be quite difficult, but very satisfying once you have it down. It has this winding riff that goes back and forth across a variation of the B minor scale, hitting multiple accidentals and chromatic notes reminiscent of the melodic minor and dorian scales among others. Most of the battle is remembering the sequence of notes and not making a single mistake throughout this 8 bar riff.
10) Back In Black - AC/DC
Ok, it might be a little cliched to include this one, but I couldn't not. The opening riff is extremely well know but not actually as easy as it may sound. It has a lot of intricacies and has to be be played accurately and with attention to detail to make it sound good. Also the more distortion you use on this track, the messier it is going to sound. Only a slightly gritty tone is required as with so much gain you are going to find it hard to control the string noise as it uses all 6 strings in the intro alone.
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