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5 Essential Open G Riffs

·3 mins
Riffs Rock Blues Intermediate Open G
Table of Contents

Channel: Blackstar Amplification

What This Video Covers #

A compact, practical rundown of five riffs that showcase what Open G tuning does best. Each riff is drawn from a recording by a major artist who has used Open G, making this both a technique lesson and a stylistic survey. The video moves at a good pace — you’ll learn something from each riff even if you only pick up one or two to take away and practice.

Riff 1 — Rolling Stones Style (Keith Richards) #

The opening riff is straight from the Keith Richards playbook: a partial barre with open strings ringing underneath. This shows the signature Open G rhythm voice — the notes that are fretted and the open strings that ring create a layered, chiming effect you can’t replicate in standard tuning. The picking pattern is shown clearly and isn’t difficult once you get the right-hand motion.

Riff 2 — Status Quo Style (Francis Rossi / Rick Parfitt) #

Status Quo built their entire career on a boogie-shuffle feel in Open G. This riff demonstrates the characteristic low-string/high-string alternating pattern that drives that shuffle rhythm. It’s deceptively simple — the feel and timing are more important than finger dexterity — but it takes a few minutes with a metronome to lock in properly.

Riff 3 — George Thorogood Style #

Thorogood’s heavy blues style in Open G gets a clear treatment here. The riff focuses on the bass strings with a strong downpick attack and uses the drone strings to add weight. This one introduces a bent note technique that’s much easier to execute in Open G than in standard tuning because of how the string intervals sit.

Riff 4 — Slide Riff #

One of the five riffs is played with a bottleneck slide. It’s a straightforward one-bar pattern in the style of classic Delta blues — demonstrating how naturally the open tuning lends itself to slide without requiring a specialised technique. If you’ve been curious about slide but haven’t tried it, this is an accessible first look.

Riff 5 — Combined/Compound Riff #

The final riff combines elements from the earlier patterns into a more complete phrase. It works as a study piece — pulling together the barre-chord rhythm, the open-string droning, and the bent notes into something that sounds like a complete musical statement.

Who This Is For #

Players at an intermediate level who already know the basic Open G chord shapes and want to develop some repertoire. Each riff is presented with tab on screen, so you can pause and work through the notation.

Key Takeaways #

  • The Rolling Stones, Status Quo, and George Thorogood all use a small set of overlapping techniques in Open G
  • Shuffle timing and right-hand consistency matter more than left-hand complexity for most of these riffs
  • Slide and non-slide techniques coexist in Open G — you don’t have to commit to one approach