How to Play the "Crossroads" Riff

"Crossroads," voted the 10th best guitar solo of all time by "Guitar World," is one of the most popular blues songs of all time. Inspired by an old Robert Johnson song, Eric Clapton's band, Cream, spruced it up and turned it into a classic. This tutorial will teach you how to play the verses and opening to the song.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Guitar (Strat)
• Guitar picks
• Some sort of overdrive pedal

How to Play the

1. The first step to learning these riffs involves learning the structure of the song. The song starts with a phrase repeated four times, transitions to an alternate introduction, and then goes into the verses.

2. The opening riff begins by playing an A-power chord and a seven-note phrase.
   
   G:-2-2-0-2--0-2-0--
   D:-2---------------
   A:-0--------------3
   E:-----------------
   
   Repeat that phrase four times for the opening.

3. Next comes the variation of the introduction, but we want to progress right to the verse. The variation involves the D7 chord, the opening riff, and a combination of notes from the blues scale in my article on creating a simple blues song (see Resources below).

4. The verses start with the phrase:
   
   D:-2-2-4-2-
   A:-0-0-0-0-
   E:---------
   
   Repeat that twice and then play this next phrase twice:
   
   G:-2-2-4-2-
   D:-0-0-0-0-
   A:---------

5. Play the opening phrase from Step #2, twice, after the phrases in Step #4.

6. Next, play the second riff of Step #4 a total of four times, followed by the opening riff from Step #2, twice.

7. To end the verses, play the same sequences with the second and fourth fret, but on the E and A strings, followed by an E-power chord.

Tips & Warnings

• Listen to the song numerous times to get the timing of everything.
• Have fun and improvise solos with this.

Resources

• How to Create a Simple Blues Song

[Colonna]

on 8/17/2008 Not a bad transcription. I've been playing this riff ( and the solo, which happens to be my favorite live guitar solo)for years now. if you don't mind, I'd like to add a few suggestions on getting the most out of what you've suggested. Use an "open" A chord, starting off the riff/chord with the root note being the open A. Pull off of the C lightly when finiidhing the first pass of the riff and keep in mind the tone.You don't necessarily have to use "solely" a stratocaster, as you suggested,especially since Clapton used a Gibson ES-335. The guitar one chooses to use is neither here nor there, as long as you can effectively replicate the tone.Aside from that,you can't go wrong with Cream or Clapton. Nice job!

[Colonna]

on 8/17/2008 Not a bad transcription. I've been playing this riff ( and the solo, which happens to be my favorite live guitar solo)for years now. if you don't mind, I'd like to add a few suggestions on getting the most out of what you've suggested. Use an "open" A chord, starting off the riff/chord with the root note being the open A. Pull off of the C lightly when finiidhing the first pass of the riff and keep in mind the tone.You don't necessarily have to use "solely" a stratocaster, as you suggested,especially since Clapton used a Gibson ES-335. The guitar one chooses to use is neither here nor there, as long as you can effectively replicate the tone.Aside from that,you can't go wrong with Cream or Clapton. Nice job!