As Heard In: Smoke on the water, All right now ,( I can' t get no) satisfaction, No one knows, Crazy train
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The rhythm of a riff can be just as, if not more important than the chords themselves. Try clapping the rhythm of Smoke On The Water, Back In Black or You Really Got Me and the chances are people will know the song without any melodic information. Combining a strong rhythm, with some rocking chords is a recipe for an effective riff.
This riff starts in A, and uses some variations on the open A shape, before using some Angus Young-inspired changes G to D/F#. In bar 3 we switch to A minor with some Josh Homme-style chords and finally we have some Rolling Stones-style triads, played on the treble strings.
Here we have four chords which act as the basis for our example riff. Blast them out for straight ahead rock or experiment with adapting the shapes moving one or two fingers around. This works particularly well with the open A. We’ve shown some variations in green.