Learn How to Play Songs from Rock Band

Series Summary

Rock Band lets you take the stage as rock stars, but did you know that Rock began as something very different? The Blues is a form of music that originated in African-American communities of the United States. The music, characterized by flattened third, fifth, and seventh scale degrees, borrows from African spirituals and work songs. The blues has influenced or been reshaped into most of the genres now considered popular music, from jazz and bluegrass, to rock'n'roll and rhythm'n'blues, and hip-hop. This makes the blues the very foundation upon which most Western music is based, from John Lennon's "Yer Blues" to John Earl Walker's "Little Girl” – Chuck Berry and Elvis to modern alternative rock.

In this free video series expert guitarist and teacher Joe Wiles teaches you how to play over two dozen riffs from the video game Rock Band on your real guitar! No more fakin' it! Joe shows you how to play songs by Radiohead, Aerosmith, Faith No More, The Clash, The Ramones, and more. You learn how to strum and pick your way through songs like "In Bloom," "Creep," "Dani California," "Black Hole Sun," and many many more. It is all here!

Video Transcript

"JOE WILES: Hi. My name is Joe. I'm with the Rock and Roll Conservatory on behalf of Expert Village. Today we're going to take a look at a couple of songs from the video game Rock Band. Now it's not an exhaustive list of all the songs you'll find on Rock Band in fact it's not each song in its entirety. It's a signature riff from each one of the songs I'm going to do. And hopefully that will inspire you to go into the internet, find a tablature, maybe purchase a song and learn the rest of the song on your very own. I'd also encourage you to go pick up Rock Band. It's an amazing game and a lot of fun to play with your friends. In this next segment we're going to talk about Jet's "Are You Gonna be My Girl." I'll see you there."