Feb 7, 2014

Greatest Guitar Riffs List

          Many different lists have been compiled of the "best guitar songs" to learn, but I thought I'd put in my 2 cents on this everlasting debate by putting out my personal list of best guitar riffs.

Note - The second edition list is now up!

Awesomeness after the break.





          I chose to focus on not necessarily entire songs, but the riffs from the songs.  This is because generally the riffs are the focus of the song and what you will want to learn anyway.  Also, classifying entire songs by difficulty is inaccurate because easy songs can have hard solos, and vice versa.

          If it's solos you're looking for, most of these songs have awesome ones as well, they just may not necessarily fit the category the riff is under.  It should be no problem - if you know good music, you'll recognize most of these tunes anyway :)

         I opted not to rank songs in any order because no doubt that would only encourage the tiring debate of which song is hardest / better.  It's all in the ear folks - what one person likes may not be to another's preference, so the only categorization is a general division of riffs into 4 difficulty categories to make it easy to find what you're looking for.

          Music genres range from classical to heavy metal, with a personal tendency towards hard rock and classic metal.  If you have any song suggestions, please comment with them.  I will gladly add worthy riffs to this great list ;)

          I did not put up links to the tabs, but most, if not all, are on Ultimate Guitar .com


Notes:   Only song names are listed.  Bands/artists should be easy enough to find, if you don't already know who they are.  
Songs in drop D tuning are marked with an *   
Songs with all strings detuned a 1/2 step are marked with **

          Without any further ado, here are the easiest riffs.  It would be naive to rank skill level by the number of years spent playing, but most of the following should not take long at all to learn, even for a beginner.

Easy

  • Iron Man
  • Smoke on the Water
  • Aqualung
  • I Love Rock n Roll
  • Communication Breakdown
  • We're not Gonna Take it
  • For Whom the Bell Tolls
  • Sunshine of Your Love
  • Everlong *
  • Eye of the Tiger
  • Do you Know the Enemy
  • Talk Dirty to Me
  • 7 Nation Army
  • Hit me With Your Best Shot
  • Rock You Like a Hurricane
  • Oh Pretty Woman
  • Day Tripper
  • Satisfaction
  • Come as you are
  • Moby Dick *
  • Photograph
  • American Woman
  • 2 Minutes to Midnight

          Next are some moderately difficult riffs that should be manageable to even fairly new players.  These are generally faster and longer than easy riffs but are still easy to pick up in under an hour.  Plus there's a lot of awesome songs here.

Medium
  • Runnin' With the Devil **
  • Stranglehold
  • Sweet Emotion
  • Whole Lotta Love
  • Walk this Way
  • Living after Midnight
  • Heartbreaker
  • Enter Sandman
  • Layla
  • Purple Haze
  • Kryptonite
  • Pour Some Sugar on Me
  • Holiday
  • Hell's Bells
  • La Grange
  • Seek and Destroy
  • Last Resort *
  • Jessica
  • What I like About You
  • Move Along
  • Slither *
  • The Joker and the Thief
  • Still of the Night
  • Panama **
  • Smells Like Teen Spirit
  • Black or White
  • Run to the Hills
  • Today
  • Ride the Lightning
  • Back in Black
  • Life in the Fast Lane
  • Money
  • Sweet Home Alabama
  • American Idiot
  • Paranoid
  • You Shook me All Night Long
  • Are you Gonna go my Way
  • Mr. Crowley
  • Highway to Hell
  • Alive
  • Jenny 867-5309
  • Barracuda
  • The Middle
  • Spoonman *
  • Jingle Bell Rock
  • House of the Rising Sun

          Here we have some fairly difficult riffs that will require a bit of experience or some determination to tackle.  These are faster, longer, and/or more technically involved than the previous lists.  And more impressive ;)

Hard
  • Crazy Train
  • Fade to Black
  • Come out and Play
  • Birthday
  • Black Dog
  • Orion
  • While my Guitar Gently Weeps
  • Bohemian Rhapsody
  • Don't Stop Believin'
  • Crossroads
  • Carry on my Wayward Son
  • Frankenstein
  • Sweet Child o Mine **
  • Brown Eyed Girl
  • Welcome to the Jungle **
  • Master of Puppets
  • Thunderstruck
  • Hallowed be Thy Name
  • One
  • Paradise City **
  • We Will Rock You
  • Lagrima
  • Here Comes the Sun
  • Hotel California
  • Trapped Under Ice
  • Disposable Heroes
  • Scream Aim Fire
  • Afterlife *
  • Number of the Beast
  • Tornado of Souls
  • Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love **
  • Symptom of the Universe
  • Johnny B. Goode
  • Stairway to Heaven
  • The End
  • Sharp Dressed Man
  • The Trooper
  • Dream On
  • Spirit of the Radio
  • Evenflow *
  • Battery
  • Cowboys from Hell
  • Unholy Confessions *
  • Feel Your Love Tonight **
  • Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
  • The Thing that Should Not Be *
  • Cemetery Gates
  • Hot for Teacher **


          And just to cap off the list I have some riffs that are just beyond the range of a three tier system.  Now, most are beyond a simple riff, verging on solo territory, but I just couldn't let them go unmentioned.  Good luck is all I have to say.

Pro
  • Satch Boogie
  • Devil Went Down to Georgia
  • Eruption
  • Through the Fire and Flames
  • Painkiller
  • Comfortably Numb
  • Cliffs of Dover
  • Far Beyond the Sun
  • Speed Kills (No Boundaries)



          I hope you enjoyed the list and more importantly, the music :)

          If you have any comments, corrections, or suggestions, please leave them below.

          And if that wasn't enough, here's all of them together in one list.  Use it as a checklist if you want.  Props if you can learn them all.


  • Iron Man
  • Smoke on the Water
  • Aqualung
  • I Love Rock n Roll
  • Communication Breakdown
  • We're not Gonna Take it
  • For Whom the Bell Tolls
  • Sunshine of Your Love
  • Everlong *
  • Eye of the Tiger
  • Do you Know the Enemy
  • Talk Dirty to Me
  • 7 Nation Army
  • Hit me With Your Best Shot
  • Rock You Like a Hurricane
  • Oh Pretty Woman
  • Day Tripper
  • Satisfaction
  • Come as you are
  • Moby Dick *
  • Photograph
  • American Woman
  • 2 Minutes to Midnight
  • Runnin' With the Devil **
  • Stranglehold
  • Sweet Emotion
  • Whole Lotta Love
  • Walk this Way
  • Living after Midnight
  • Heartbreaker
  • Enter Sandman
  • Layla
  • Purple Haze
  • Kryptonite
  • Pour Some Sugar on Me
  • Holiday
  • Hell's Bells
  • La Grange
  • Seek and Destroy
  • Last Resort *
  • Jessica
  • What I like About You
  • Move Along
  • Slither *
  • The Joker and the Thief
  • Still of the Night
  • Panama **
  • Smells Like Teen Spirit
  • Black or White
  • Run to the Hills
  • Today
  • Ride the Lightning
  • Back in Black
  • Life in the Fast Lane
  • Money
  • Sweet Home Alabama
  • American Idiot
  • Paranoid
  • You Shook me All Night Long
  • Are you Gonna go my Way
  • Mr. Crowley
  • Highway to Hell
  • Alive
  • Jenny 867-5309
  • Barracuda
  • The Middle
  • Spoonman *
  • Jingle Bell Rock
  • House of the Rising Sun

  • Crazy Train
  • Fade to Black
  • Come out and Play
  • Birthday
  • Black Dog
  • Orion
  • While my Guitar Gently Weeps
  • Bohemian Rhapsody
  • Don't Stop Believin'
  • Crossroads
  • Carry on my Wayward Son
  • Frankenstein
  • Sweet Child o Mine **
  • Brown Eyed Girl
  • Welcome to the Jungle **
  • Master of Puppets
  • Thunderstruck
  • Hallowed be Thy Name
  • One
  • Paradise City **
  • We Will Rock You
  • Lagrima
  • Here Comes the Sun
  • Hotel California
  • Trapped Under Ice
  • Disposable Heroes
  • Scream Aim Fire
  • Afterlife *
  • Number of the Beast
  • Tornado of Souls
  • Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love **
  • Symptom of the Universe
  • Johnny B. Goode
  • Stairway to Heaven
  • The End
  • Sharp Dressed Man
  • The Trooper
  • Dream On
  • Spirit of the Radio
  • Evenflow *
  • Battery
  • Cowboys from Hell
  • Unholy Confessions *
  • Feel Your Love Tonight **
  • Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
  • The Thing that Should Not Be *
  • Cemetery Gates
  • Hot for Teacher **
  • Satch Boogie
  • Devil Went Down to Georgia
  • Eruption
  • Through the Fire and Flames
  • Painkiller
  • Comfortably Numb
  • Cliffs of Dover
  • Far Beyond the Sun
  • Speed Kills (No Boundaries)


     Rock on, and peace out.


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