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.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

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.