At a time when pop was dominated by dance music and pop-metal, Guns N’ Roses brought raw, ugly rock & roll crashing back into the charts. They were not nice boys; nice boys don’t play rock & roll. They were ugly, misogynist, and violent; they were also funny, vulnerable, and occasionally sensitive, as their breakthrough hit, “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” showed.
Main Riff
The overall concept of this riff isn’t too difficult. What you will be working with are variations of power chords. You will begin by playing the “D” string and the “G” string open at the same time. After that, you will need to barre your 1st finger over the third frets on the “low E” string, the “A” string, and the “D” string. By doing this, you are allowing yourself a much easier approach to the next part of the measure. After you have picked out the “low E” string note, and then played the other
notes on the third frets, all you need to do now is use your 3rd and 4th finger to play the fifth frets on the “A” string and the “D” string together. Notice that at the end of this measure, you will end it with your 1st finger on the third fret on the “low E” string. The third measure is also identical to this measure.
You will need to play standard power chords for the second and fourth measures. Notice that the measure opens with you playing almost what you played in the first measure, on different strings. Place your 1st finger on the third fret on the “A” string, your 3rd and 4th fingers on the “D” string, and the “G” string on the fifth fret. Then, all you have to do is move the first and third frets on the same strings to play the next part of the measure. You will wrap up this measure by playing the “D” string and the “G” string open once, and then using any finger on the third frets of the same strings. End the measure by playing the open strings again.
Riff Resources