Electric Guitar Lessons: How To Sound Like A Rockstar

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Looking for electric guitar lessons? You’re in the right place. This article will show you everything you need to know about electric guitar.

In this free electric guitar lesson you will learn:

• 3 epic (& iconic) guitar riffs which will make you sound like a rockstar.
• 4 power chords which will make you sound amazing.
• 3 awesome licks and tricks instantly improve musicality.
• 4 must-know guitar scales.

The electric guitar has formed some of the most iconic sounds in popular music over the last 50 years. Nothing beats playing huge riffs or rippin’ up a killer guitar solo!

In today’s lesson we’re going show you 4 electric guitar lessons which will make you sound like a rock star. Hold tight, you’re in for an awesome ride.

Lesson 1) Learn Power Chords

The main electric guitar chords you should learn are, ‘power chords’. Power chords are perfect for creating a tighty chuggy sound on an electric.

Aren’t all guitar chords the same?

It’s true, you can play electric chords on an acoustic, and acoustic chords on electric.

However, one of the most important electric lessons you can learn is that:

Some chords sound better on acoustic than electric and vice verca.

When you play open chords on a distorted sound, they can sound messy. If you play power chords on acoustic, they sound dull.

As a general rule:

• Play power chords on an electric.
• Open chords on an acoustic.

What are power chords?

Power chords are smaller voicings of standard chords. They use less notes than standard open chords.

Here’s a standard G major chord.

To learn this chord, go here: 4 Easy Ways To Play The G Chord On Guitar

Here’s what it sounds like:

Here’s a G power chord:

Here’s what it sounds like:

Can you see the difference between the two?

The G power chord has LESS notes than the G chord.

Can you hear the difference between the two?

The G power chord has more of a powerful, dark sound and is more suited to styles like rock, punk, grunge and metal.

Where as the standard G chord, is a little brighter and is more suited to acoustic genres like folk and country.

How do I learn power chords?

To play a power chord you only need to use two fingers. Your 1st finger and your 3rd finger.

• Place your 1st finger on the 3rd fret of the low E string. (6th string.)
• Place your 3rd finger on the 5th fret of the A string. (5th string.)
• Strum the E (6th string) and A (5th string) together.

It should sound like this:

If you’re struggling to reach over with your third finger you can use the fourth finger instead.

The hardest part about playing chords is muting the strings. To learn how to do this, watch this video:

 

Moveable Power Chord Shapes

Power chords are moveable shapes, this means that you can use the EXACT same shape all over the fret board.

To do this, you just have to change the starting note of a chord. This is also known as a ‘root note’.

To learn more about root notes, go here:What Is The Root Note Of A Chord?

As the root note for this chord, is on the low E string. (6th string.) We must learn what the root notes are on this string. Here they are:

This means if you want to play a ‘A power chord’ you must move this shape up to the 5th fret.

Try this as a cool bonus challenge:

Move your power chord to the following frets.

• 3rd fret. (G note.)
• 5th fret. (A note.)
• 7th fret. (B note.)

If you find it hard to remember the note name for each fret, just remember ‘GAB’.

Learn more about guitar notes here: Guitar Notes Explained: A Guide For Beginners

How do I practice power chords?

The easiest way to practice power chords is to use them in a musical situation.

Let’s say the chord progression is:

G Major | C Major | D Major |

Here are the chords that you would normally play:

G Major

To learn this chord, go here: 4 Easy Ways To Play The G Chord On Guitar

C Major

Learn this chord here: Easy Ways To Play The C Guitar Chord

D Major

Learn this chord here: 3 Easy Ways to Play the D Chord on Guitar

When playing the electric guitar, it’s far more appropriate to use power chords.

So instead of playing:

• G major, C major and D major.

Now we play:

• G5, C5 and D5.

Let’s learn this chord.

G5

To play a G5:

• Place your power chord shape on the 3rd fret of the low E string (6th string.)
  

C5

To play a C5:

• Place your power chord shape on the 8th fret.

D5

To play a D5:

• Place your power chord on the 10th fret.

Now we’ve learned how to play chords, let’s learn to play some epic riffs.

Lesson 2) Learn To Play Epic Guitar Riffs

One of the best things about having electric guitar lessons, is learning huge sounding guitar riffs.

We’re going to show you 3 of our favourites.

Epic Riff #1 ‘Sunshine of your love’ by Cream

This riff is fantastic to learn. Make sure you crank up the gain on your amp when you learn this one.

Here’s the tab:

Watch this video to learn how to play this riff:

 

Pro Tip!

An acoustic is being used in this video, but you can play this on your electric guitar.Just make sure you get an awesome crunch sound on your amp.

Here are some suggested settings:

Rock music is full of awesome rock intros, find out what 20 of the best ones are in this article by Guitar World: The 20 Best Rock Guitar Intros Of All Time

Epic riff #2 ‘Beat It’ by Michael Jackson

Even though Michael Jackson was famous for writing pop tunes, he was secretly a massive rock fan.

This is shown in his song ‘Beat It’. The riff in this song is killer.

Here’s the tab:

Watch this video to learn this riff:

 

Epic riff #3 ‘Seven Nation Army’ by The White Stripes

This electric guitar riff put The White Stripes on the map. It sounds huge!

There’s no greater feeling than putting your amp on full blast, and rippin’ out this riff to the high heavens.

Here’s the tab:

Watch this video to learn this guitar riff:

 

If you want to learn more epic guitar riffs, go here: Guitar Tabs For Beginners: 20 Easy Songs That Sound Great