How to Play the "Sweet Child of Mine" Riff

"Sweet Child of Mine" is arguably the most famous song by the band Guns 'n' Roses. The combination of Slash's melodic guitarwork with Axl Rose's sawtooth voice and a landmark guitar solo paved the way for one of the best rock songs of all time. The opening riff to this classic will never be mistaken for anything else. This tutorial will instruct you how to play the opening riff on guitar.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Guitar
• Guitar picks
• Copy of the song (preferably legally)

1. Listen to the opening of the song numerous times. The more you listen to it, the more it will become ingrained in your memory. This helps with the timing.

2. Get yourself a guitar pick comfortable for your strength and skill level. A pick around .88 mm, should in theory, work the best. The extra heavy picks will not help achieve that Slash sound, though.

3. Learn the eight notes. The opening riff repeats a pattern of eight notes, with the first note changing each of the four repetitions, and the other seven notes remaining the same. Tablature for the first repetition looks like this:
   
   E----------------15----14---
   B-----15--------------------
   G--------14-12------14----14
   D--12-----------------------
   A---------------------------
   E---------------------------

4. Practice that musical phrase until you can do it without looking or are extremely comfortable with it. Since you will essentially be repeating the same phrase, four times, work your fingers into the easiest configurations.

5. After playing the first repetition, the second repetition begins with the 12th fret on the G-string (the same fret as the first time, but one string higher) and repeats the same seven notes as the first time.
   
   E----------------15----14---
   B-----15--------------------
   G--12----14-12------14----14
   D---------------------------
   A---------------------------
   E---------------------------

6. The third repetition begins on the 14th fret of the D-string and then repeats the same seven notes.
   
   E----------------15----14---
   B-----15--------------------
   G--------14-12------14----14
   D-14------------------------
   A---------------------------
   E---------------------------

7. The final repetition repeats the same entire phrase from Step #3, starting on the 12th fret of the D-string.
   
   This riff follows the pattern of A-B-C-A, where the first phrase is repeated to start and end the riff, with two slight variations in between.

Tips & Warnings

• Do not get frustrated easily. This will take time to learn, but is one of the most fun guitar riffs to play.
• Unless you have the same exact equipment as Slash, you will not duplicate his sound entirely, but the riff will still sound great.

[ajoneser]

on 10/27/2008 Good article, gonna try it out tonight!!

[SuzDoyleMusic]

on 8/13/2008 Excellent article. I'll have my students check it out. :-)