RIFF Come As You Are

[stitch]

The riffs Justin Teaches in grad 1 are simplified to for beginners so may not match the
tabs exactly.

[Tbushell]

I hope this is incorrect. If you are right, it’s only going to cause more confusion for beginners if the tab doesn’t match the video lesson exactly!

As far as I can tell, this tab is correct. But it would be helpful if counts and strumming was added, as was done in the Wish You Were Here tab.

[stitch]

This is right from the website.

In this guitar lesson, we’ll only learn the riff. It sounds like the original recording, and that’s cool stuff! There’s more to this riff, and if you’re feeling adventurous, check out the full song tutorial here.

[HarryToon]

Hi … Lesson 5. I cant make out for the life of me what fret/ string is being played when…v jumbled, too fast for my old ears.
Has anyone got a tab or photo of the correct tab. I can sort the rhythm out. Please help!!!
Pleeeeeeaaaaaassssseeeee. Just an idea but might be wise to have a tab link on riffs going fwd. Kind regards …

[Richard_close2u]

@HarryToon
I have moved your post to the actual lesson topic and in the lesson, in the Learn More written section, there is a TAB.
Cheers
| Richard_close2u |

[HarryToon]

Thanks …sorry for the frustrated post …should have had a further look. Much appreciated.

[Tbushell]

Things I found useful with this riff:

1. Get your picking hand moving first - without touching the strings. (“Air picking”?) All down picks, 8th notes.

2. While keeping your hand moving, count out loud “1 + 2 + 3” Make sure you are doing an air pick in time with your counting (these are shown as red, lower case "d"s in the diagram below.

3. On the “and of three” start picking the strings, fretting as shown in the tab. I found it helpful to speak the “1 + 2 + 3” count-in in a monotone, and sing “+ 4 + 1” when I started playing. The picked notes are shown as upper case "D"s in the diagram.

4. Note that there are two “air picks” ("d"s) shown in the repeated part of the riff. I found it critical to do these as shown. Otherwise, I would lose the feel of the rhythm, and it didn’t sound (or feel!) good.

I used the rudimentary photo editor on my iPad to mark up the tab.

This is a hell of a lot of detail for 3 bars of music, but I’ve often found it’s necessary when struggling with a passage…especially when learning online.

Hope this helps. If so, please let me know with at least a like, so I know I’m not speaking into the void. If not…feel free to ask questions.

-Tom

[Orbry]

Nice work, Tom!

Just a small clarification for fellow learners - “air picks” in Tom’s TAB are those when you do not pick the string, so you “miss” the AND after 1 on first half and you “miss” the 3 on second half. Though I find myself no need to move the hand in the air when there is no picking, since playing riffs feels different from strumming

[Tbushell]

Different things work for different people. I find if I don’t move my hand it messes up my timing.

Suggest people try it both ways, and use what works for them.

[jfiedler]

man, this one is such a “simple” sounding little riff but took me a couple days to get it down correct with the timing and being able to repeat it!

[Tbushell]

Yup…it’s a tricky one…especially the timing!

I wonder if it might have been better for Justin to teach some other - easier - riffs first, and introduce this later in the course.

I feel the same way about the Wish You Were Here riff. Though WYWH is the gift that keeps on giving. It’s still in my regular practice, and I keep learning new things from it.

[dantejms]

What exactly is going on here?

I just play the 6th string open thrice since its 0 0 0, is that the right way to do it? It sounds like the song when I play the riff but I’m now sure if I’m skipping some sort of a technique.

What does the curved line mean here and why is the third 0 in parenthesis?

[jjw]

@dantejms

What does the curved line mean here and why is the third 0 in parenthesis?

The curved line is called a “tie”. You don’t play the third note, the tie indicates that the 2nd note is held for the length of a quarter note.

I’m not 100% sure, but I think the parentheses indicate the same thing: that the note is sounding (from the previous pluck), but you don’t actually play it.

FWIW, I’ve seen inconsistent use of parentheses: I’ve also seen it used to indicate a “ghost” note (a note played very softly) or even to indicate that playing the note is optional.

[ehsanmsd]

I guess one note is missing in the tab in the description. Second fret of string 6 should be played on the 4th bar

[tom_van_kan]

I think I finally got it. When repeating the riff, the last three notes of the third bar are followed by the second bar, then the third bar, repeat. Took me a while to figure that out, found it by studying the fine print of tablature on another website:

The riff to this song begins with a 3 note anacrusis; thereafter the two complete bars are repeated, being played 4 times in total, before the verse is reached. Note that the 3 notes played at the end of the riff when it repeats are not exactly the same as the 3 notes that begin the riff

[Erbrowntx]

I’m finding myself completely unable to follow this in the app. Is there a simple view of at least the tabs for the note order? The previous riffs have been fairly easy to follow, but for me this video is hard to decipher both in the app and on the website.

I’m sure I’m just to dense but have been through the video multiple times in both formats and can’t seem to make sense of it

[NicoleKKB]

Hello Erin, and welcome to the community .

You’ll find the tab on the website. When you See the site with the video, just scroll down .

RIFF Come As You Are

I hope, this helps .

[scuba561]

I started working on the Nirvana Riff (Come as You are) today. When I get to the end of the riff, how do I connect back to the start of the riff? The chart Justin has STARTS with the + after count 3 (3 AND 4) and the chart ends with the + after count 4.

So how do I bridge for 4+ to +4 ?

[stitch]

You only repeat what is in between the Repeat symbols. If you look at the last 2 notes in bar 2 they are the same as the lead ins last 2 notes.
So without the Repeat Symbols it would look like this

[TGFNM14]

Sorry for this rather basic question, but for the tie, does it mean we’re striking the 6th string on beats 2 and the “and” of beat 2 (the plus) and letting it ring for the third beat before striking the 5th string on the “and” of the 3rd beat?