VIDEO LESSON

Best Of Foo... Three of Grohl & co’s greatest riffs broken down

1 EVERLONG

(INTRO)

Possibly the Foo Fighters’ biggest and bestknown song, Everlong’s intro is a game of two halves. First up are the powerchords rooted alternately on the fifth and sixth strings. The trickiest aspect is the two-bar rhythm applied to the first, second and fourth chords of the sequence – and it means the part is seven bars long, rather than the more standard eight. Needless to say, it’s best to learn each bar separately and gradually piece it all together.

Ignoring the ringing overdubbed chords, the second section features short, snappy stabs. It’s an easy technique – just relax your fretting fingers halfway through the beat. It should sound like each chord is ‘on’ for the first half of the beat and then turned ‘off’ during the second half.

The first, second and fourth chords include a simple melodic variation. Use your fourth finger to fret the ‘extra’ note and target your upstroke on the third string. This avoids unwanted notes from the treble strings.

CHEAT SHEET…

Appears at: 0:00-0:32

Tempo: 158 bpm

Key/scale: D major

Main Techniques: Powerchords over bass notes, fret-hand muting

2 THE PRETENDER

(VERSE)

The Pretender’s verse riff is built around a looping two-bar phrase. The melody notes are played on the first string while the 5th fret of the second string is played throughout. This small fact is the key to mastering Shiflett’s riff. Simply keep the crucial 5th fret note pressed down with your third finger and the notes on the first string should fall into place – albeit with a bit of a stretch to the 2nd fret. Check out our video playthrough to see the fingering you’ll need to use. There aren’t really any alternatives, but if that stretch really is too much to manage, you could get away with ditching the held 5th-fret note momentarily.

Use alternate down-up picking throughout, with the exception of the two open E notes played at the mid-point of the riff. Here, you’ll play two upstrokes before returning to alternate picking.

CHEAT SHEET…

Appears at: 0:32-0:58

Tempo: 173 bpm

Key/scale: A minor

Main Techniques: Strumming across two strings, fret-hand stretches, diads

3 MONKEY WRENCH

(INTRO RIFF)

This intro riff features a repeated, descending melody line on the second and third strings. Each accompanied by the adjacent higher open string – so, where the melody is on the third string, you’ll also pick the open B note; where the melody is on the second string, you’ll add the open top E. Simple!

Watch out for the semitone bend at the 2nd fret at the end of the main lick. Bending at the lower frets can be trickier to control, due to the added string tension. So, use your second finger to bend the string and make sure to add support with your first finger, too. The rhythm is based on a driving eighth -note feel.

Use alternate down-up picking to keep momentum and fluidity. This will also help to maintain consistent tone, timing and pick attack while repeating the riff for each cycle.

CHEAT SHEET…

Appears at: 0:00-0:12

Tempo: 176 bpm

Key/scale: B Mixolydian

Main Techniques: Position shifts, strumming across two strings, diads