Often when you first begin playing an instrument such as the guitar you will become frustrated at how little you can actually play. Okay you want to be able to play the kinds of songs that your favorite guitarists do, but don’t expect to be able to do so overnight. What you will find instead that it is going to take many hours of practice to be able to play even half as good as some of the professional guitarists. It would be far better when you are just starting to play the guitar that you spend time learning a few easy lead guitar riffs instead of the whole song.

For you to be able to be able to actually play easy lead guitar riffs you need to be able to read guitar tabs as well. If you cannot read guitar tabs then learning to play any type of music on this instrument will prove hard. After you have mastered reading guitar tabs then you will find it becomes much easier for you to learn how to play lead guitar riffs such as those we mention below.

1. Smoke On The Water is not only one of the most popular guitar riffs for people who are just learning how to play the guitar, but is also one of the simplest.

To play this particular lead guitar riff you start off with playing the D and G strings open, so none of your fingers will be in contact with the guitar strings and the frets underneath. Once you have played these two strings together you now take your index finger and place it over the third fret on the D string and your middle finger over the third fret on the G string. Again play these two notes together making sure your fingers are positioned correctly before moving on to the next note to play. The next note to play requires you to put your index finger over the fifth fret on the D string and your middle finger over the fifth fret of the G String. Once played you return to the open position before repeating the same notes again. When learning to play any lead guitar riffs including this one it is better not to use a guitar pick but rather just your index finger and thumb.

2. Hells Bells which was written by AC/DC as well as being one of the greatest rock anthems of all time is also one of the easiest songs that you as a guitarist can learn to play. Although be aware that you may find this song a little difficult to play initially because of the speed at which it should be played. Normally this easy lead guitar riff should be played at a speed (tempo) of 96 beats per minute and which is why you may find it so hard to play initially.

The best way of actually learning to play this particular lead guitar riff is through playing it at a much slower tempo (speed) than it would normally be played. To do this you need to get yourself a metronome and then use this to count out the beats at a much slower pace when you are practicing how to play this particular riff. As you gain confidence in your playing ability then you should start to increase the number of beats per minute at which you then play this particular riff.

3. Another lead guitar riff that you could learn to play is Love Me Tender which really isn’t classed as a rock riff. But when you are first learning how to play the guitar this is a simple one for you to attempt. For you to be able to play this song you will only need to use your middle, index and ring fingers. However, don’t expect to actually be able to get your fingering position correct straight away it will take lots of practice before you find yourself playing the notes in this song the right way.

Above we have shown you three easy lead guitar riffs that you may want to think about learning when you first start to play the guitar. However, in order that you improve the way you play this instrument you will need to dedicate as much time as you can to practicing on it.